Julianne Hough is now reflecting on the time she opened up about her sexuality more than five years ago. In 2019, the Dancing With the Stars host publicly announced for the first time that she was not straight.
On Tuesday, August 27, the 36-year-old dancer, actress, and host appeared on The Jamie Kern Lima Show podcast, where she opened up about how her life has changed since her 2019 Women’s Health magazine interview in which she came out as a member of the LGBTQ+ community.
Hough admitted that the process of coming out was very revealing and empowering. She stressed that her experience was not about fitting into a category — straight, gay, bisexual, queer, etc. — but rather about love in a broader sense, where she didn’t want to subscribe to labels.
She explained that she has come to understand that she has feelings for people regardless of their gender and that she is more interested in their inner beauty rather than their sexuality. She said, “It’s more about, ‘I think I’m just learning what love is, and I love people. I don’t know what I’m attracted to, but I chose you.'”
In August 2019, Hough gave an interview with Women’s Health about her relationship with her ex-husband, NHL player Brooks Laich. At the time, she said that she was discovering herself and the fact that she was able to open up to her husband actually strengthened their relationship. She told Laich that she wasn’t straight but wanted to be with him – and it seems like that brought them closer.
Hough also explained how her husband made it easy for her to reveal her feelings to him without worrying about being judged for the guilt or boundaries she had repressed due to the way she was raised, even though she did have feelings of shame.
Following her divorce from Laich in 2020, Hough has spoken openly about her relationship issues. Previously, she appeared on Dax Shepard’s podcast, Armchair Expert, and talked about the progress she has made in her sensitivity to the fact that they are no longer together.
She added, “We’re sad the relationship didn’t work out, because I’ve only dated great people.” Though she is sad the marriage failed, Hough believes the relationship was perfect at the time, but both lacked the maturity needed to make it work.
Shortly after the article was published in Women’s Health, Julianne Hough spoke in an interview with Extra about how lucky she is that her friends, family, and the general public have been so supportive of her. “I feel really lucky, and a lot of people who don’t have the platform or the support that I have aren’t that lucky. So I just want to say that I’m so grateful for all the support I’ve gotten from my family, my friends, and all of my fans,” she said.
While grateful, she said she wants the same support for her LGBTQ+ peers who don’t have any.
Also read: Julianne Hough recalls first date with her ex-boyfriend Ryan Seacrest: ‘We enjoyed the Ferris wheel’
