Julianne Hough is opening up about her journey of coming out.
“Coming out is one of the most vulnerable and empowering things that you can do,” the Dancing with the Stars co-host said during an interview on the Aug. 27 episode of The Jamie Kern Lima Show podcast, providing fans with an update on her sexuality nearly five years after she first shared that she was “not straight.”
“I think, for me, it was very much like, it’s not about being straight or gay or bi or queer. It’s more about learning what love is. I love people, and I don’t know what I’m attracted to, but I choose you.”
“I was starting to see people, their hearts, their beauty, and their essence in a way that made me realize, wow, I love people. I don’t know if it’s a sexual attraction or some other kind of attraction, but I’m just seeing people. That was such a beautiful revelation.”
Back in 2019, in a Women’s Health interview, the 36-year-old mentioned a conversation with her then-husband, Canadian ice hockey player Brooks Laich, where she asked, “You know I’m not straight, right?”
“And he was like, ‘I’m sorry, what?’ I replied, ‘I’m not. But I choose to be with you,’” Hough recalled.
“I think there’s a safety with my husband now that I’m unpacking all of this, and there’s no fear of voicing things I’ve been afraid to admit or felt shame or guilt about because of what I’ve been told or how I was raised,” she added.
Hough—who married Laich in 2017 and finalized their divorce in 2022—said in the same Aug. 27 interview that their marriage was “the greatest thing that could have happened to me at that time.”
“What I needed then was to reconnect with my 10-year-old self. At 10, I needed safety and almost a father figure to provide a grounding force of stability. Much of our dynamic was this little girl needing a stable man. He provided a beautiful foundation for me to be that little girl.”
But it was that dynamic, as Hough began healing and “becoming more of a woman,” that led her to realize they needed different things.
“I really started shifting, changing, and questioning what I believed in.”
