Julianne Hough Reveals She Was Mentally, Physically Abused As A Child

Julianne Hough is the superstar known around the world as a professional dancer, a fairly good actress, and the girlfriend of Ryan Seacrest, but the 24-year-old has a darker past; one that she’s finally ready to talk about.

Hough, who portrays a domestic abuse survivor in her upcoming film Safe Haven, spoke to Cosmopolitan about her life as a child dancer growing up in London. Sadly, those years were filled with abuse, both mental and physical, according to the star herself.

The Dancing With The Stars master moved to England from Utah when she was 10-years-old to pursue her dream of becoming a professional dancer. It was then that she admits some of the abuse began.

Says Hough: “I was 10-years-old looking like I was 28, being a very sensual dancer. I was a tormented little kid who had to put on this sexy façade because that was my job and my life. But my heart was the same, and I was this innocent little girl. I wanted so much love.”

“While I was in London, I was abused, mentally, physically, everything. I’m a very forgiving person, and I don’t want to hurt anybody. What’s past is past,” she goes on to say.

Although Hough declined to go into detail about the horrid abuse, she did say that it became worse once she “started hitting puberty”, when she started “becoming a woman and stopped being a little girl.”

Hough also had to deal with her abuser threatening her and mentally putting her down. She says, “I was told if I ever went back to the United States, three things were going to happen. One: I was going to amount to nothing. Two: I was going to work at Whataburger. And three: I was going to end up a slut. So it was like, I can’t go back, I have to be this person.”

On why she never spoke about the abuse before now, Hough says, “I’d rather take the pressure on myself. To this day, I don’t want to be a burden. I didn’t talk unless I was spoken to. I would look over to see if it was okay if I answered. I was perfect – perfect to a fault.”

After seeing a concert that inspired her to stand up for herself and move on from the abuse, Hough says she left at the age of 15.

“I was like, f**k that. I know who I am, and I don’t want to be this person who I am becoming. I left two days later and never went back,” she says.

It’s good to hear Julianne as moved on, but I feel for her about feeling she should’ve had to keep it in all of these years. That’s too heavy to keep to yourself.

You can read the full interview in Cosmo’s February issue.