Getty Hayley Erbert and Derek Hough
“Dancing With the Stars” champion and judge Derek Hough and his fiancé, Hayley Erbert, have moved up their timeline for starting a family after meeting Jenna Johnson and Val Chmerkovskiy’s baby son, Rome, the couple revealed in an interview with ET Online.
“There wasn’t a rush on [having kids] until we just met Val and Jenna Chmerkovskiy’s baby, and that was when it was kinda like, ‘Should we get on this now?'” Hough told the outlet.
Hough added, “It was pretty special and actually it was cool because Val, he was like, ‘Bro, for somebody who was created to create, this will be your ultimate creation.”
Hough Said ‘Why Wait?’ About Having Kids
In the interview with ET Online, Erbert said Hough was in “tears” after meeting Rome.
“Actually, it did kind of make us think like yeah are we, why wait?,” Hough told the outlet.
Johnson and Chmerkovskiy welcomed their son on January 10, 2023.
“Our world is forever changed,” the couple wrote alongside an image of their hands intertwined with their baby’s fingers.
Johnson revealed Rome’s name and his face in a February 7, 2023, Instagram post.
“Cannot believe it’s been 4 weeks of being completely infatuated with you,” Johnson wrote in the post. “Thank you for bursting my heart wide open and showing me what unconditional love is. Mommy and Daddy love you so much!!!! **the left dimple melts me every time.”
In the photo, Rome is lying on a fuzzy blanket next to a sign that reads, “Hello world, my name is Rome Valentin.”
Hough and Erbert uploaded photos from meeting Rome on their now-expired Instagram Stories.
Hough & Erbert Are Headed Out on Tour
Hough and Erbert are headed on tour in 2023, Hough revealed during a February 17, 2023, appearance on “The Kelly Clarkson Show.”
The tour, named “A Symphony of Dance”, is set for fall of 2023. Erbert, will join him in the show.
“What’s really special is I’ve never toured with Hayley since we’ve been together,” he said. “We met on tour.”
He also shared the story of the couple’s first kiss, which took place on stage while performing a Rumba together.
Hough and Erbert announced their engagement on June 2, 2023, after seven years together. The couple shared a YouTube video of their engagement story.
Hough said he was originally going to propose during the couple’s April 2022 trip to Tulum, Mexico, but ended up changing his mind before taking off on the trip. Erbert later shared that she suspected he was going to propose at that time.
“I actually had a feeling he was gonna do it in Tulum. … I said it to a few of my friends, and so it’s kind of a good thing he didn’t do it in Tulum otherwise I would’ve been kind of expecting it,” Erbert said during the video.
Instead, Hough proposed to Erbert at their home.
“Our home is where we’ve built our life together,” Erbert said in the video. “It’s where we were quarantined together for almost two years. It’s where we started everything, so it’s a special place to us.”
“Dancing With the Stars” is set to return in the fall of 2023 on Disney+.