Heavy "Dancing With the Stars" personality Julianne Hough said she is ready to enjoy her summer.
“Dancing With the Stars” personality Julianne Hough said she is ready to enjoy her summer.
The professional dancer — who will be co-hosting season 32 of “DWTS” — told Page Six on June 22, “I’m ready for friends and travel, and I guess that is a ‘hot girl summer.’ I don’t know.”
The outlet asked if Hough was planning on connecting with someone special, but she said, “No.”
Hough, 34, split from her husband, former professional ice hockey player Brooks Laich, in 2020, after three years of marriage, as noted by People.
Their divorce was finalized in June 2022, per Page Six.
“We have lovingly and carefully taken the time we have needed to arrive at our decision to separate,” they said in a joint statement at the time, per Us Weekly. “We share an abundance of love and respect for one another and will continue to lead with our hearts from that place. We kindly request your compassion and respect for our privacy moving forward.”
Hough joined “DWTS” for the first time in 2007 as a professional dancer. She won back-t0-back Mirror Ball trophies, with Olympian Apolo Anton Ohno and racecar driver Helio Castroneves as her partners, respectively.
She went on to become a judge for seasons 19 to 21, and seasons 23 and 24. For season 32, Hough is slated to return as a host, along with co-host Alfonso Ribeiro.
Hough has been tied to high-profile celebrities, like comedian Dane Cook, Ryan Seacrest and. Academy Award-winning director Ari Sandel, as noted by People.
Hough Said She Isn’t Straight
Hough said she told her then-husband, Laich, that she wasn’t straight.
“I [told him], ‘You know I’m not straight, right?’ And he was like, ‘I’m sorry what?’” she told Women’s Health in 2019. “I was like, ‘I’m not. But I choose to be with you.’ ”
“I think there’s a safety with my husband now that I’m unpacking all of this,” Hough told the publication, “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 was raised Mormon and told Kelly Clarkson that it was Seacrest who introduced her to wine.
“I didn’t drink growing up LDS [the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints or the Mormon Church], it was usually associated with partying and getting drunk,” she told Clarkson in April 2023. “But this was like an education, and I’m such a geek. I love to learn.”
Tyra Banks Praises Hough
Hough and Riberio will be replacing Tyra Banks as the host of “DWTS.” Banks — who told TMZ she was stepping down from the position to focus on her businesses — said she was confident Hough would do the job well.
“The businesswoman in me sees how Julianne is great on multiple levels. She’s a professional dancer. She is the sister of [Derek Hough], ‘DWTS’ multi-champion, who is now a stellar judge,” Banks, 49, told Us Weekly.
“It’s going to be a family affair in that ballroom which people will love to watch. And she has so much personality and strong opinions backed by expertise,” Banks continued to the publication. “She’s a perfect choice! She’s gonna crush it!”