Julianne Hough with brother Derek Hough (image via Depositphotos)
In a new interview for Women’s Health Magazine, DWTS alum/America’s Got Talent judge Julianne Hough shares that she once told her husband, “You know I’m not straight, right?”
The revelation came amid a “massive transformation” period for the 31-year-old actress and dancer just four months after marrying hockey player Brooks Laich in July 2017.
In working to develop her own dance-based workout called Kinrgy (kin as in family and kinesthetic, plus energy), she felt more and more empowered and confident.
Hough says that confidence became transformative and cathartic in her life.
“I’ve been de-layering all the survival tactics I’ve built up my whole life,” she explains. “Now, I feel limitless.”
As her new-found confidence began to permeate other aspects of her life, she wondered if that might be a turn-off for her husband.
“I was connecting to the woman inside that doesn’t need anything, versus the little girl that looked to him to protect me,” Hough tells Women’s Health. “I was like, ‘Is he going to love this version of me?’ But the more I dropped into my most authentic self, the more attracted he was to me. Now we have a more intimate relationship.”
With that deeper intimacy came the courage to share some truths with Brooks.
“I [told him], ‘You know I’m not straight, right?’” says Hough.
“And he was like, ‘I’m sorry, what?’ I was like, ‘I’m not. But I choose to be with you.’”
It’s understandable that Hough would have some trepidation about opening up about her sexuality. She and her famous DWTS brother, Derek, were raised in the very anti-LGBTQ Mormon Church in Utah.
But today she finds ’safety’ in living authentically.
“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 that I’ve been afraid to admit or that I’ve had shame or guilt about because of what I’ve been told or how I was raised.”
Hough also shares how she got over her fear of being naked as she posed for an extensive nude photoshoot for the ‘Naked Strength’ issue of Women’s Health.
She recently joined her hubby Brooks and his co-host Gavin DeGraw on their podcast, How Men Think, to discuss intimacy, sex and more.
“We have never been so specific, detailed and open about exactly what goes on in our relationship and our respective thoughts and approaches to intimacy and sex,” the former Los Angeles King forward told Closer Weekly about the podcast chat. “We give people our exact specifics, how we create intimacy, why it’s important to us and open up about our sex life.”
