Julianne Hough Recalls 'Beautiful' Run-In With Ex-Husband Brooks Laich

Julianne Hough said it was “so beautiful” crossing paths with ex-husband Brooks Laich and his girlfriend, Katrín Tanja Davíðsdóttir, at a recent wedding.

“I’m in this place where I now feel like I’m just beginning with so much wisdom, with so much insight, with so much compassion and so much empathy and understanding of like, what’s possible,” Hough, 36, said during an episode of “The Jamie Kern Lima Show” podcast released on Monday, September 23. “Having the extreme of like, ‘Will this ever end?’ to ‘Oh my gosh, like, I get to, like, literally, design and create the life of my dreams’, and know that every decision I’m going to make is going to be from here.”

Hough made it clear that she might have “this perfect life” nor does she want that, but is looking for a “full, beautiful, connected life.”

While Hough didn’t name the nuptials she saw Laich at, the former NHL player was a groomsman at her brother Derek Hough’s wedding in August 2023.

Julianne Hough's Complete Dating History

Us Weekly confirmed in February 2014 that Hough and Laich started dating. They were engaged by August 2015 and tied the knot in July 2017. Hough and Laich split in July 2020 after three years of marriage. Their divorce was finalized in June 2022. The former hockey player went public with Davíðsdóttir, 31 in July 2021.

“You feel joy because you feel sorrow, you feel all these things because you have the spectrum to feel it,” Hough continued on Monday. “You have the space to feel it, and that, I think, is what we’re here to experience, is the fullness of life.”

That being said, the Dancing With the Stars host joked she doesn’t plan to “go through hard things” but she has experienced them in the past.

Monday’s episode of Jamie Kern Lima’s podcast was the third installment with Hough. Previously, the professional dancer called her marriage to Laich the “greatest thing that could have happened to me at that time of my life.”

Julianne Hough and Brooks Laich: The Way They Were

“What I needed at that time was to reconnect with my 10-year-old self,” Hough said in August. “What did I need at 10? I really needed safety and almost, like, a father figure to come in and be that grounding force of stability.”

She went on to say that the former athlete “provided such a beautiful foundation for me to be a little girl” which was how their relationship played out because of the “stability”that Laich provided.

“That was the dynamic of our relationship, I was able to start that healing,” Hough explained. “When I started going through all that journey, I started being more of a woman.”