Julianne Hough surprised everyone — including brother Derek Hough — when she started to flirt with Dancing With the Stars contestant Danny Amendola on live TV.
During the season 33 finale on Tuesday, November 26, Julianne, 36, asked Amendola, 39, about his Freestyle performance with Witney Carson while they lounged around on a prop bed from his dance to a Barbie medley of Lizzo’s “Pink” and Ryan Gosling’s “I’m Just Ken.”
“The real question is, Julianne, why are you in my bed?” Amendola asked Julianne, who cheekily replied, “Is that an invitation?”
The crowd went wild at the interaction as Julianne burst into laughter and Witney, 31, looked shocked, but it was Julianne’s brother that had the most accurate reaction. “What is happening?!” Derek, 39, asked when the camera panned to the judges table after that sultry interaction between Julianne and Amendola.
Julianne has enjoyed using her platform as a DWTS cohost to make it clear that she’s single — and looking to mingle. After her surprise performance to the viral TikTok song “Man in Finance” during the November 19, episode of Dancing With the Stars, Julianne’s cohost, Alfonso Ribeiro, said it was great to see her out on the floor with fellow pros Sasha Farber, Val Chmerkovskiy and Pasha Pashkov.
“Yeah, the guys. Well, you know, I am single and I’m looking for a guy anywhere I can find one,” she quipped. Ribeiro decided to have fun with that response by adding, “If you’d like a date, text Julianne’s first name. Message and data rates may apply.”
While Julianne has addressed her single status, she hasn’t opened up about anyone special since her split from ex-husband Brooks Laich. The former couple tied the knot in 2017 after four years of dating. They sparked split speculation in early 2020 when they spent time apart during the COVID pandemic and subsequently announced their separation later that year.
“We have lovingly and carefully taken the time we have needed to arrive at our decision to separate,” the pair said in a joint statement in May 2020. “We share an abundance of love and respect for one another and will continue to lead with our hearts from that place. We kindly request your compassion and respect for our privacy moving forward.”
A source exclusively told Us Weekly at the time that the pair “argued a lot” before calling it quits, adding, “[They] just had different viewpoints on important issues. [They were] trying to find themselves separate from one another and deal with any issues they’ve faced that were exacerbated while married.”
Us confirmed that Julianne and Laich’s divorce was finalized in June 2022. Julianne has since discussed how difficult the experience was for her.
“It wasn’t right. That can be a hard thing to fully accept,” she said on an episode of the “Armchair Expert” podcast in August. “I feel like our relationship and our marriage was exactly right, and the end of it is right too. We both have regrets that it didn’t work out, because I don’t think we had the maturity to come together. He was contracting while I was expanding. We just couldn’t find each other in that.”
Dancing With the Stars is streaming on Disney+.