Julianne Hough has allegedly had marital issues with husband Brooks Laich in recent weeks, but her brother Derek Hough assures Us Weekly that the former America’s Got Talent judge is in high spirits.
“Julianne? Have you seen her lately? She’s having a blast,” the Dancing With the Stars pro, 34, exclusively told Us at the Spotify Best New Artist 2020 party at West Hollywood’s The Lot on Thursday, January 23. “She’s on the Oprah tour right now. … She’s crushing it, man. She’s destroying it.”
Derek also hyped up Laich, 36, saying, “I love Brooks, he’s my boy. My boy. He kicks my butt at ping pong all the damn time.”
A source exclusively told Us earlier this month that Julianne, 31, and Brooks were “having problems” in December 2019, and an insider close to the hockey player added, “Everyone knows something is up.”
Another source explained: “They definitely have been going through a rough patch. … They have both been in different places for work so they haven’t been able to spend as much time together [these] past few months.”
For his part, Laich seems to be feeling cheerful too. The former Los Angeles Kings player rated his happiness level as “8.5” out of 10 on an episode of his and Gavin DeGraw’s “How Men Think” podcast released earlier this week.
One of Laich’s goals for 2020 is to learn “more about intimacy and my sexuality,” and in the same podcast episode, he explained that he has not fully expressed in his “true sexuality” with Julianne, whom he married in July 2017 after three years of dating. “I’m super excited about that journey to really learn about sexuality and also to get better at the performance of it … but also just the understanding of who I am, who my wife is, that sort of dance,” he added.
Julianne has also offered revelations about her sexuality recently, coming out as “not straight” in August 2019. The following month, Laich praised her sense of exploration. “My wife, to her credit, is constantly evolving, challenging, growing,” he exclusively told Us. “[It’s] not out of desperation, but out of curiosity, out of exploring who she is, exploring what’s meaningful to her. She’s grown and shifted in so many ways since we’ve met, which is absolutely beautiful.”
With reporting by Carita Rizzo
