DWTS Host Shares Details of Tragic Loss After Holding Heartbreaking Secret For 5 Years

Heavy/ABC "Dancing With the Stars" news update.

Julianne Hough opened up about a devastating loss she endured five years ago.

In August 2024, the “Dancing With the Stars”  dancer turned co-host shared the tragic  story of how her dogs, Lexi and Harley, died in 2019.

Hough has never before talked publicly about the cause of the sudden deaths of her beloved Cavalier King Charles Spaniels. But in an August 27 interview on The Jamie Kern Lima Show, she revealed the dogs’ deaths took place just after she separated from her then-husband Brooks Laich. “Ten days later, my dogs were killed by coyotes,” she told Lima.

Lexi was 11 and Harley was 8 on the date of the deaths.

Julianne Hough Knew What the Bad News Was Before She Answered Her Phone

Hough told Lima that on the day her dogs died, she had a bad feeling that something was wrong. “I woke up before my phone even rang and I knew. And I picked up the phone, and my assistant at the time was just like screaming,” she said on the podcast. “I’ve never had coyotes in my yard, I have gates and everything.”

Hough said she was grateful that her dogs were together when they died so tragically. “They went together, I’m so grateful they went together,” she added. “I’m grateful that usually how it happens is very quick and that we got their bodies. But at that time, I was like, ‘Oh that was the unraveling of the absolute safety of like unconditional love.’”

“I had two dogs that were my kids. I had them for 11 years and for eight years. And they were everything to me,” she said. “My dogs that represented unconditional love and safety — gone.”

In 2020, Hough was a guest on Danika Patrick’s “Pretty Intense” podcast where she briefly spoke about the intense emotional pain she felt when she lost her two pups. “It was a heartbreaking one,” she shared. “I would have nightmares about how they died, and they died that same way.”

Julianne Hough Paid Tribute to Her Late Dogs With an Emotional Instagram Post

In September 2019, Hough posted an emotional Instagram tribute to her late dogs. In the first of a slideshow of photos, the two-time mirrorball champion held her sweet pets as one nuzzled her chin.  She captioned the tribute post to say that she felt “pure love” from her late dogs and listed a long list of thankful memories for her “babies” and “daughters.”

“Thank you for being the most consistent and constant being in my life. M” she wrote. “I miss you, I love you forever. Now You Are Free Lexi July 21 2008 – September 28 2019, Harley March 28 2011 – September 28 2019.”

Hough never shared the cause of her dogs’ deaths. But during an August 2024 appearance on her ex-boyfriend  Seacrest’s podcast  “On Air With Ryan Seacrest,”  she promoted her upcoming novel, “Everything We Never Knew”  and the subject of her dogs came up. “I haven’t talked about that,” she told Seacrest of the tragedy with her dogs. “But it is in the book—the loss and the grief of Lexi and Harley.”

“Her dogs, yes, a very sad incident,” Seacrest said as Hough revealed that she named the main character in her book Lexi in honor of her late pet. “There are all these little Easter eggs,” she noted of her book. “If you know and have followed my journey personally, you will find little things here and there.”

Hough waited several years to open her heart to a new dog. In early 2024, she welcomed a new puppy, Sunny, into her home,  according to People magazine.