Taking a big step! Brooks Laich candidly discussed his desire to start having a family with his wife, Julianne Hough, at the age of 36. In Us Weekly’s exclusive sneak peek of his “How Men Think With Brooks Laich & Gavin DeGraw” podcast, the former hockey player explained why he had delayed entering fatherhood.
“My whole life … I was a professional hockey player. So I wanted to be able to commit fully to that,” Laich admitted in the episode of his podcast airing Monday, October 7. “In doing that, through a large part, basically through my 20s — my entire 20s — I didn’t have any sort of personal life. … I had no personal life, really. … I hoped that that would come later down the line.”
The Canada native said he “figured I’d be 35 before I had kids,” nothing further how professional hockey players at this age typically are “on the tail-end of your career, most likely.” He then shared what he wanted in place before beginning the process of welcoming children. “I wanted to have enough space in my life to devote that space to being that type of father that I wanted to be,” he revealed on the podcast.
“I didn’t think I could do that in my 20s while I was devoting all this time to hockey, which is what … full transparency, selfishly I fully wanted to do,” he continued. “I needed to do that for myself. So now that I’m 36, I feel I do have the space in my life. But now, it’s also a new time for me. I’m now not an athlete, I’m not playing hockey. So what does life look like now? There’s still a figuring out process of a new identity for myself. Also with my wife, our relationship — it’s a new identity for our relationship as well.”
Laich admitted that his “biggest fear” about starting a family is “just bringing a life into this world.” He also noted that he’s aware there will “be an immense amount of blessings,” but he is worried about him and Hough being “ready to bring a life into this world” since there’s “no going backwards from this.”
Despite his concern, Laich disclosed that he now feels “drawn towards fatherhood” and is “looking at that real seriously.”
“I believe my greatest destiny and desire in this world is to be a loving husband and a father. And I want to be a good father — a great father,” he said. “I want to be an amazing father to my kids and I want to be an amazing husband to my wife. That’s not saying I’m perfect. That’s just saying those are my desirables in life. That’s the thing that I value the most.”
Laich continued, “I’ve always known I’ve wanted kids, but I’ve always been like, ‘I’m not ready for it. It’s not here yet. It’s not the time in my life yet.’ But now it’s starting to come to me a little bit more where I’m looking at fatherhood in a different way that I’d never looked at it before.”
Laich wed Hough, 31, near Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, in July 2015. Their romantic nuptials, which were attended by almost 200 guests, came after they confirmed their relationship in 2014 and got engaged in August 2015.
Laich previously opened up to Us about the steps he and the America’s Got Talent judge have taken to begin the process of having children. At the time, he revealed that the couple will use in vitro fertilization to help conceive their first child.
“My wife and I want to have children in our future, and going through IVF was a decision we made to increase the [odds] of that happening,” he told Us in July. “I wish people would perceive it [that way instead of with] shame or guilt.”
Laich’s “How Men Think With Brooks Laich & Gavin DeGraw” podcast is available wherever podcasts are streaming.
