Julianne Hough On Her Journey To Realize She Is ‘Not Straight’

Julianne Hough had a “beautiful revelation” that led her to understand she was “not straight.”

In a September 2019 feature for Women’s Health, the “Dancing With The Stars” co-host came out publicly, revealing that she had shared with her then-husband, Brooks Laich, that she was “not straight.”

This latest interview comes weeks after Julianne Hough opened up about her 2020 divorce from Brooks Laich and how it has changed her outlook on life.

Hough addressed her sexuality in a 2019 interview with Women’s Health, where she talked about a discussion she had with her then-husband.

“I (told him), ‘You know I’m not straight, right?’ And he was like, ‘I’m sorry, what?’ I was like, ‘I’m not. But I choose to be with you,’” she said at the time. “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 and Laich were married in 2017 and finalized their divorce in 2022.

During a recent appearance on the “Jamie Kern Lima” podcast, Hough talked about her journey of discovering she is “not straight.”

“Coming out is one of the most vulnerable and empowering things you can do. For me, it’s not about being straight, gay, or queer; it’s more about learning what love is, and I love people,” she said, per Us Weekly.

The former “Dancing With the Stars” professional-turned-host also revealed that she initially didn’t “know what [she’s] attracted to” but decided to remain with her then-husband.

“That is the freedom of the love that I was starting to experience in seeing people because I was able to take off a level of protection instead of being so internalized,” she said on the podcast. “So, I was starting to see people and seeing their hearts and seeing their beauty and their essence. I was like, ‘Wow, I love people and I don’t know if it’s a sexual attraction or this attraction, but I’m just seeing people.’ That was, like, such a beautiful revelation.”

In January 2020, Laich exclusively told Us Weekly that Hough’s “beautiful” explanation motivated him to become a better person and that he had always embraced her “heart.”

“I’ve always loved people, but I haven’t just been, like, still and allowed them to just be seen and just see their essence and their beauty,” the “Footloose” actress told host Jamie Kern Lima on the podcast. “It wasn’t just, like an exchange of fun energy. … The more I was starting to connect to the 28- [or] 29-year-old in me, I was able to start seeing other people that way too.”

Hough also explained how her relationship with Laich gave her the opportunity to explore patterns from her past and facilitated a connection with the healing of a younger part of herself.

“It was the greatest thing that could have happened to me at that time in my life, because what I needed at that time was to reconnect to my 10-year-old self,” she said, per the “TODAY” show. “And what did I need at 10? I really needed safety and almost like a father figure to come in and be that grounding force of stability.

“I think a lot of our dynamic was this little-girl feeling, and this stability and stable man to be there,” she continued. “And so he provided such a beautiful foundation for me to be a little girl, and as that was the dynamic of our relationship, I was able to start that healing.”

Hough explained that as she embarked on that healing journey, she “started becoming more of a woman.”

“When that was happening, I was starting to listen to my voice more, not the 10-year-old voice that was making decisions subconsciously,” she recalled. “And as that was happening, things started changing and my mindset … I really started shifting and changing and questioning what I believed in.