Julianne Hough is opening up about struggling in past relationships.
During a recent interview with host Dax Shepard on the podcast “Armchair Expert,” Hough explained how she and Ryan Seacrest ended their relationship after three years together.
When the pair began dating, Hough was just beginning her career and Seacrest was already well-established in the industry, and Hough explained that she felt like “the rug was pulled out from under my feet” and suddenly stumbled upon something she “didn’t even know existed.”
“I was insecure and I was like, ‘I don’t want anyone to think I’m with him for this reason,’ so I started acting small. I knew he’d been through it in the past, so again I overcompensated. [I] It was flexible enough to be exactly what I needed to be to make someone happy.”
Hough said that overcompensating for her own insecurities led to her split from Seacrest. (MEGA/GC Images | Gilbert Carrasquillo/GC Images)
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Shepherd sympathized with the “Dancing with the Stars” judge’s plight, acknowledging that it must have been tough for people to think she was dating him just to get more attention.
Seacrest and Hough first met when she was a guest on his radio show while she was dating musician Chuck Wicks at the time. After her split from Wicks, she and Seacrest began dating in the summer of 2010 and were together for three years before breaking up in 2013.
“Then I started playing small, I knew that was what he had done in the past, so I overcompensated again. [I] It was flexible enough to be exactly what I needed to be to make someone happy.”
“When I decided to get out, I remember a bunch of Brentwood moms and producers asking me, ‘What are you doing?’ and I said, ‘What do you mean?’ They’re like, ‘Your life is completely set in stone,’ and I said, ‘But I didn’t build it,'” she said. “I was like, ‘I have to create this. Competitively speaking, this isn’t mine. I have to feel the pride of doing it.'”
Looking back, Hough realized her behavior during her relationship with the “American Idol” host was a “repeated pattern” that left her unsure “if I ever really loved anyone.” She explained that she “loves feeling loved” and is willing to do whatever it takes to receive that love.
Seacrest and Hough dated for three years from 2010 to 2013. (Barry King/FilmMagic)
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“And being filled with love from someone, of course I love you. I love everybody,” she said. “I’ve been in love with everyone I’ve ever been with, but is that really true? I don’t want to overanalyze it, because everyone I’ve ever been with has been really good.”
Shortly after her relationship with Seacrest ended, Hough began dating former professional ice hockey player Brooks Reich. The two quickly hit it off and married four years later in July 2017.
Despite their great love for each other, the marriage did not work out and in May 2020 the couple announced their separation, although she revealed that she had filed for separation in September 2019.
Their divorce was finalized in June 2022. During her conversation with Shepard, Hough explained that Laich’s career was slowing down and hers was speeding up, saying, “He was scaling back and I was expanding. We just didn’t find each other in that respect.”
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Hough and Laich separated in September 2019 and their divorce was finalized in 2022. (Jennifer Greylock/Getty Images via dOMAIN Integrated)
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“I feel like our relationship and our marriage was just right and the way it ended was just right,” she said. “We both regret that it didn’t work out. I don’t think we had the maturity to be together.”
