Julianne Hough had a “good revelation” that made him realize that he was “not straight”.
“We were married (at the time),” Hough, 36, said during a recent appearance on the “Jamie Kern Five” podcast, referring to her husband. Brooks Laich. “Coming out is one of the most vulnerable and empowering things you can do. I think, for me, it’s not about being straight or gay or queer, it’s more about me learning about love and how I love others.
At Dance With The Stars The pro-turned-host further revealed that at first he “didn’t know what (she) was attracted to” but chose to stay with Laich, now 41.
“It’s the freedom of love that I’m starting to see in people because I’m able to remove that level of protection instead of being internalized,” he said. “So I started looking at people and looking at their hearts and seeing their beauty and essence. I was like, ‘Wow, I love people and I don’t know if it’s sexual attraction or this attraction, but I just see people.’ This is, like, a wonderful revelation.
Hough publicly came out on September 2019 profile for Women’s Healthnoted that he told Laich that he was “not straight”. In January 2020, Laich exclusively told Us Weekly Hough’s “beautiful” explanation inspires her to be a better person and she always accepts her “heart”.
“I’ve always loved people, but I don’t just, like, still and let them show up and just see their essence and their beauty,” Hough told Five host Jamie Kern earlier this month. “Not only, it’s like a pleasant exchange of energy. … When I started to connect to the age of 28- (or) 29 years old, I could also see other people like that.
Seeing the individual ‘soul’ helps unravel new feelings in Hough. “I had all this activation since it happened,” he recalls. “I started having this wonderful experience of unity with people who would sit there and talk and I would think about black and white dogs and the number 12 would come up. I would be like, ‘Do you have a black-and-white dog in 12 ?’ And he’ll be like, ‘Wait, what? How do you know that?'”
Hough was then inspired to explore the “wild ride” of her curiosity.
“I wanted to understand all the different ways to connect with myself and be able to trust myself more,” Hough said. “While I’m going through this and getting rid of all that stuff, my ex is under contract because he’s been playing hockey lately and he’s going through an identity change.”
According to Hough, he and Laich stopped seeing eye to eye and “did something”. (Hough and Laich separated in May 2020, finalizing their divorce two years later.)
“We had this conversation now that we wish we had the maturity to come together,” Hough said. “And there would have been a different result. However, I think everything has happened as it should have.