Brooks Laich healed my childhood trauma and let me “be a little girl”
Julianne Hough thanks her ex-husband Brooks Laich for helping her process her childhood trauma during their time together.
When the former couple married in 2017, the dancer felt the need to “reconnect” with her 10-year-old self, she said Tuesday on the “Jamie Kern Lima Show.”
“What did I need at 10? I really needed security and almost like a father figure to give me support,” explained the 36-year-old co-host of “Dancing With the Stars.”
Their dynamic gave Hough a “little girl feeling” with “stability and (a) stable man” at home.
“He gave me such a wonderful foundation as a little girl,” the actress continued, recalling how she was able to “start that healing.”
Over time, Hough became “more of a woman” and “listened more to (her) voice” as she began to “change and question herself.”
When the first part of the podcast episode appeared, Hough gave some insight into the trauma she experienced in her young life.
The “Safe Haven” star admitted that she was sexually abused by a neighbor at the age of four.
“There was no major repercussions for what happened,” she told her audience on August 14. “Nobody did anything.”
Hough has been lifting the curtain on her childhood and love life all month while promoting her book, Everything We Never Knew.
In a recent episode of “Armchair Expert,” the Emmy winner admitted that her relationship with 41-year-old Laich fell apart shortly after their wedding in Idaho.
“I was married to this man who was more of a father figure to me, and as he changed, I changed too,” Hough said, clarifying that the former NHL player “shrinked” while she “evolved.”
The end of their romance felt like it would “uproot” everything she had “established for her control and … protection.”
Hough, on the other hand, called her ex a “great person” and described both their marriage and their separation as “just right.”
News of the former couple’s split broke in May 2020 and the duo issued a joint statement about the “great love and respect” they still have for each other.
Five months later, the “America’s Got Talent” judge filed for divorce, which was finalized in February 2022.
Laich has since moved on with CrossFit athlete Katrín Tanja Davíðsdóttir.
Hough, for her part, has not made her new romance public, aside from a kiss with model Charlie Wilson in November 2021 in Los Angeles – and her plans for a “Hot Girl Summer” in 2023.
