Julianne Hough Says Ex-Husband Brooks Laich Made Her Feel Like a ‘Little Girl’ During Marriage

Julianne Hough opened up about her relationship with ex-husband Brooks Laich. Julianne revealed that Brooks helped her overcome some hardships and seemed almost like a “father figure” at times.

“What I needed at that time was to reconnect to my 10-year-old self,” Julianne, 36, said during an interview with Jamie Kern Lima on Tuesday, August 27. “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. And so I think a lot of our dynamic was this little girl feeling and this stability and stable man to be there. He provided such a beautiful foundation for me to be a little girl.”

The Dancing With the Stars cohost seemed to look back on her time with Brooks, 41, fondly and even described him as “the greatest thing that could have happened to me at that time.”

However, once Julianne began “expanding,” she needed something different from their relationship.

“I started becoming more of a woman,” the Footloose star continued. “And when that was happening, I was starting to listen to my voice more, not the 10-year-old voice that was making decisions subconsciously. And as that was happening, things started changing. I really started shifting and changing and questioning what I believed in.”

However, as Julianne began her healing journey, Brooks was on a different path. The former hockey star had been let go from playing hockey and “was going through an identity shift,” according to Julianne.

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“It was an expansion for me and a contraction for him, and we weren’t understanding each other, and I don’t think we had the maturity to come together,” Julianne explained.

However, Julianne admitted that there were times she and her ex wondered what might have happened if their paths had crossed at a different time.

“We’ve had this conversation now that we wish we would have had the maturity to come together,” the Burlesque actress said. “That there would have been potentially a different outcome, but I think everything has happened the way that it should have happened. We are very important, special people in each other’s lives, and we shared a really powerful season together.”

Julianne and Brooks married in 2017, but three years later there were hints at trouble in paradise. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit in 2020, Julianne and the professional athlete raised eyebrows when they chose to quarantine separately. She set up camp at their marital home in Los Angeles, while Brooks headed to their country house in Idaho.

“It was Julianne’s decision to not self-isolate together,” a source exclusively told In Touch in April 2020. “She feels it’s good for both of them to get some breathing space.”

Brooks and Julianne officially called it quits in May 2020 and the couple announced their separation in a statement to People.

“We have lovingly and carefully taken the time we have needed to arrive at our decision to separate,” the statement read. “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.”

Their divorce was finalized two years later in 2022.