Julianne Hough opens up about sexual abuse at age 4

Julianne Hough. Pic/AFP

Dancer and actress Julianne Hough recently opened up about her experience of childhood sexual abuse, revealing that the traumatic event occurred when she was just four years old.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, in a recent interview, Hough disclosed that her abuser was a neighbour living in the same Utah cul-de-sac as her family.

"I've actually never said that out loud to anybody in an interview before," Hough confessed, reflecting on the confusing nature of her upbringing in the Mormon culture, where the expectation of perfection often overshadowed personal struggles.

"Everything needs to be perfect, everybody needs to put on the shiny, we've got our stuff together. And there was not a lot of repercussions for what had happened," she said as per The Hollywood Reporter.

Hough expressed that the silence surrounding such experiences was not unique to her, revealing that other family members had also endured similar forms of abuse.

"Nobody did anything," she stated, emphasizing the collective challenge of confronting these painful truths.

During the interview, Hough explained that she did not disclose the specifics of her abuse to her parents until later in her life, having "forgotten" about the incident.

Memories of the trauma only resurfaced in recent years as she engaged in personal work aimed at healing. "I had forgotten about the neighbour thing at 4 years old until I started really doing this work in the last few years," she said.

As per The Hollywood Reporter, she added, "That's why I think I blocked out from birth to 10, basically, because I had completely disassociated from that ever happening."

Later in the discussion, Hough noted that her parents are no longer in contact with her abuser and that her mother acted swiftly to move the family out of the neighbourhood after learning of the incident.

Recalling a critical moment, Hough described how she communicated her distress to her mother after returning home with her clothes inside out.

"She said, 'Tell me what happened,'" Hough recalled, explaining the metaphor she used to convey her feelings at the time, adding, "I felt like I had a Sprite bottle between my legs."

The emotional fallout from this revelation led her family to relocate, a decision Hough now understands as her mother's attempt to protect her children.

"I guess my mom did do what she could," she admitted, fighting back tears.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Hough added, "She just wanted to move and leave. She didn't want to deal with it. She didn't want to talk about it, but she did want to get us out."

Hough's experiences did not end there; she previously disclosed in a 2013 interview that she faced further abuse during her time at a dance academy in London, as per The Hollywood Reporter,

"The people that also violated my sisters or my brother or myself, they never got reprimanded for it because we didn't say something," she explained.

This cycle of silence and displacement has marked Hough's journey, prompting her to reflect on how to navigate such trauma.

Despite the pain, Hough has worked to reconcile her past with her family. She acknowledged that her parents felt guilt upon learning of the abuse as she entered her teenage years.

"At the time, when I was younger, I think they also didn't know what to do," she said, adding, "And so, I think now that we've had these conversations, they've also said those things."

Through her healing journey, Hough has found ways to reconnect with her parents, especially after her divorce from Brooks Laich in 2020.

"I reclaimed my parental relationship with them, and I got to be the kid and they got to take care of me," she shared, adding, "And that was the most healing time for us."

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