Julianne Hough Tears Up As She Talks About Being Sexually Assaulted At 4 Years Old

Julianne Hough broke her silence about being sexually abused at the age of 4 by a neighbor.

Hough, 36, spoke about childhood trauma during the Thursday, August 15, episode of “The Jamie Kern Lima Show,” saying, “My first experience was when I was about 4 years old. [It was] a neighbor in our area. I’ve actually never said that out loud to someone in an interview before. That was a very confusing time, because growing up in Mormon culture, everything needs to be perfect.”

According to Hough, “there wasn’t much consequence” to what happened.

“And I’m not the only one in my family who has experienced similar things. And that has been a big challenge to accept that no one is doing anything,” he said. “Since you are so young, and that your first experience – be it physical, mental, sexual – that abuse of power to someone who is vulnerable to you – immediately sets the example that: other people have power.”

Hough initially forgot about the experience because he “blocked out” his childhood memories. She credited her recent healing journey with helping access parts of her life that she wasn’t ready to face before.

“I forgot. Then other things happened later when I was a child around the age of 15, I started sharing those things but I forgot about the story of the neighbor,” he explained. “I even started doing work recently. That’s why I locked up 10 to 15, because I was completely separated from what was happening.”

Julianne revealed that she experienced the same painful experience when she and my brother Derek Hough their parents are sent overseas to live and study with their dance instructors, Corky again Shirley Ballas.

It took time for Julianne to reconcile with her parents, who “felt guilty” about the way the story was initially handled.

“We both face different things even though they are similar situations. Personally, everything has been my experience with what happened to me, and with their knowledge, they have their guilt and shame for other things they were trying to do at the moment,” he commented on Thursday. “So they didn’t hear what happened because they had their own information.”

Julianne confirmed that her family is no longer in contact with the neighbor who abused her. As she dissected the difficult parts of her childhood, Julianne began to grieve as she recalled the memory of her mother trying to support her.

“When I came back and told my mother at 4, my clothes were outside. He asked why they were outside. I said, ‘I don’t want to talk about it.’ He said, ‘Tell me what happened,'” he explained. “My only way to describe it – because we weren’t allowed carbonation as kids – was, ‘I felt like I had a bottle of Sprite between my legs.’ So he got scared and scared and his answer was, ‘Get up and move.’ The thing in the headlines was that we should leave this place.”

At the time, Julianne didn’t realize that the move was for her parents to get their family out of a bad situation.

“My brother was hung upside down and a gun was put to his head. There were all kinds of things these people did,” said the actor before choking up. “I think my mother did what she could and wanted to move and leave.” He didn’t want to talk about it, but he wanted to get us out.”

Julianne, who has three sisters in addition to her brother Derek, 39, remembers that her siblings went through their own tragedies.

“People who abuse my sisters or my brother or myself, have never been reprimanded for it. Because we didn’t say anything,” he added. “Instead, we just turned around and moved.” Which is good because we’re out of this situation, but for me, that’s another thing where I just turn around, hit a pivot.”

Julianne called the emotional conversation a “deep revelation” that her mother was “doing everything she could.” He also shared his way of breaking up in 2020 Brooks Laich allowed him to reconnect with his parents.

“When I got divorced, that’s when I met my parents again and they showed me – like my parents,” he concluded. “And I needed that. I restored my parental relationship with them and got to be a child and they have to take care of me. And that was very healing [thing].”

If you or someone you know has been sexually abused, contact National Sexual Assault Number at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).