Julianne Hough Revealed Why People in Hollywood Didn't Support Her Ryan Seacrest Breakup

Julianne Hough’s relationship with Ryan Seacrest might be a celebrity coupling that fans have forgotten about , but it was high on the Hollywood radar in 2010 when they first got together. The Dancing With the Stars host dated the American Idol personality for three years, but it was their breakup that sent her reeling.

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Hough, now 36 years old, reflected on the split during an interview on Dax Shepard’s Armchair Expert podcast. She described the “dynamic” of dating a man who was 13 years older than her and at the height of his fame. “The rug was swept up from underneath me, and I was just flying, and I was experiencing things that I didn’t even know existed,” she explained. “I would imagine it would be so exciting and so privileged and so romantic and then also I would feel like I was losing myself to all of that.”

She realized that she started “playing smaller” because she didn’t want to look like a fame or money chaser. When she decided to split from Seacrest in 2013 to spread her wings, the reaction wasn’t what she expected. “I remember when I decided to break things off,” she recalled. “I had a lot of these Brentwood moms and producers in that world that were like, ‘What are you doing … Your life is completely set up!'” Hough couldn’t win in either scenario, and she needed to set out on a path of her own.

The dancer had previously shared some insight on her relationship with Seacrest in a 2020 Instagram Live with Valeria Lipovetsky. “It was 2013 and I had just gotten out of a relationship that was very high profile,” Hough said. “I was on private planes and yachts and living in a very, very well-off house and my life was pretty different from where I grew up.”

Even though her romance with Seacrest was not meant to be, the former couple are still friends. He had her on his radio show on Aug. 12, On Air With Ryan Seacrest , to promote her new book, Everything We Never Knew . So, their friendship endured even if their relationship did not.

Before you go, click here to see famous men who routinely date women half their age.