Julianne Hough Opens Up About Telling Husband She’s ‘Not Straight’

Published on August 2, 2019.

Jason LaVeris/FilmMagic

In the two year since Julianne Hough married hockey player Brooks Laich, the dancer and actress has been very open about their journey of infertility and Hough’s personal journey of self-discovery.

Now, Hough is baring it all for the cover of Women’s Health September issue which is the annual “Naked Strength” issue, and in the magazine, Hough reveals that she told her husband that she “isn’t straight.”

“I was connecting to the woman inside that doesn’t need anything, versus the little girl that looked to him to protect me,” she says. “I was like, ‘Is he going to love this version of me?’ But the more I dropped into my most authentic self, the more attracted he was to me.”

She explained that as they became more connected emotionally and intimately, she decided it was time to really open up to her husband about her sexuality. “I [told him], ‘You know I’m not straight, right?’ And he was like, ‘I’m sorry what?’” explains the former Dancing With the Stars pro. “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,” she continued Hough, “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.”

“I’m going to shift for the rest of my life. I’m not like, ‘Oh, I got it.’ But I’m trusting myself now, and when I’m totally connected to me, I feel full,” Hough told Women’s Health. “I want others to see that in themselves too.”