Julianne Hough Details ‘Beautiful’ Run-in With Ex-Husband Brooks Laich And His New Girlfriend

The Dancing with the Stars co-host and Laich were married from July 2017 until their split in July 2020. They had dated for three years prior and it would be two more before their divorce was finalized in June 2022. Meanwhile, the retired NHL star had gone public in his relationship with CrossFit athlete Davíðsdóttir in July 2021.

Appearing on Monday’s installment of The Jamie Kern Lima Show podcast, Hough said that she’s just feeling more at peace within herself, which helps her be that way looking out, as well.

“My ex-husband was there with his girlfriend,” she said. “It was so beautiful. I’m in this place where I now feel like I’m just beginning with so much wisdom, with so much insight, with so much empathy and understanding of what’s possible.”

“I’ve never felt more stable,” she said of her self-healing journey. “I;ve never felt more secure, I’ve never felt more consistent, I’ve never felt more loved by the people around me than I do right now. I’m like, ‘Wow, I really have such a clean slate.'”

At the same time, she fully acknowledges that she’s not living “this perfect life,” and she doesn’t even have that as a goal. Instead, she’s targeting a “full, beautiful, connected life.”

Hough did not specify whose wedding she was at when she ran into her ex-husband, but Us Weekly notes that Laich was a groomsman at Derek Hough’s August 2023 wedding to Hayley Erbert. Julianne was also a part of the bridal party.

As for her approach to life now, Hough explained on Monday’s podcast that it’s about experiencing all facets. “You feel joy because you feel sorrow, you feel all these things because you have the spectrum to feel it,” she said. “You have the space to feel it, and that, I think, is what we’re here to experience, is the fullness of life.”

That doesn’t necessarily mean planning to “go through hard things,” but Hough explained that’s already happened for her in the past.

In a previous installment of Lima’s three-part interview with Hough, the professional dancer said that despite how things ended between them, her ex-husband was the “greatest thing that could have happened to me at that time of my life.”

She said that it was about reconnecting with a younger version of herself who “needed safety and almost, like, a father figure to come in and be that grounding force of stability.”

“That was the dynamic of our relationship, I was able to start that healing,” Hough explained, saying that the “stability” Laich offered her helped her go through the journey of becoming “more of a woman.”

Her whole journey leaves her a lot more aware of herself and what it is she’s looking for to go through life’s journey with. For Hough, that means someone who’s willing to find her where she’s at.

In the meantime, the dancer explained she’s just going to keep “living and vibrating in the place of my most authentic self for that to be what attracts whoever it is, versus I’m gonna put what I think I want and need out there and then literally force create it.”

You can check out Julianne Hough’s all three of Julianne Hough’s appearances on The Jamie Kern Lima Show below.

And you can catch Julianne Hough co-hosting Dancing with the Stars every Tuesday at 8 p.m. ET on ABC and Disney+.