Ben Barnes helped keep Julianne Hough company while her husband, Brooks Laich, quarantined in a different state amid the coronavirus pandemic.
The Dancing With the Stars alum, 31, was spotted going for a walk with the Chronicles of Narnia star, 38, in Los Angeles on Thursday, April 16, in photos published by the Daily Mail. She kept it casual in an all-black ensemble while carrying a pair of boots, and he wore a black T-shirt and gray sweat shorts.
Laich, for his part, has been spending time in Idaho with his husky, Koda. The former NHL player, 36, has shared several snowy photos in the woods with the dog since April 5, including one on Easter.
A source tells Us Weekly that “Julianne and Brooks are not doing well” at the moment.
Hough admitted via Instagram on April 9 that she had been dealing with “deep and raw emotions” with “some super intense highs and … intense lows” during the COVID-19 crisis. However, she assured her followers that she was giving herself “permission to take the space and time to find [her] way back to the middle.”
The professional dancer and the athlete’s marriage has been rocky since December 2019, when a source told Us exclusively that they were “having problems.” The news came days after Hough was spotted not wearing her wedding ring.
“They definitely have been going through a rough patch,” a second insider told Us in January. “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.”
Through it all, Laich shared several cryptic quotes on his Instagram page and spoke candidly about wanting to better acquaint himself with his sexual side in 2020. He confessed on the January 19 episode of his podcast, “How Men Think,” that he and Hough were not “100 percent fully expressed in [their] true sexuality.” Two weeks later, the hockey player invited famed divorce attorney Laura Wasser on as a guest.
The former America’s Got Talent judge and Laich continued to spend time together despite their marital woes. They were spotted hugging at an airport in January and having breakfast in L.A. in February.
Prior to the quarantine, the pair’s union even appeared to be on the upswing. A source told Us in March that they were “totally fine and working through any issues they previously faced.”
Hough and Laich tied the knot in Idaho in July 2017.
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