Julianne Hough can tell you from experience that belonging to a mixed-fame family isn’t always easy.
The former professional dancer, actress, and current Dancing With the Stars cohost has shared the ABC stage with her older brother Derek Hough since 2007, making them two of TV’s most recognizable siblings. But even the Houghs’ most ardent fans may not know that the pair share three other siblings who’ve dabbled in stage and screen performance.
‘We were in, like, a band. We were just always in it. And my grandparents met dancing, my parents met dancing,” she explained on Tuesday’s episode of the Not Skinny But Not Fat podcast. But Katherine, 43, Marabeth, 44, and Sharee, 47, “had different paths. My oldest sister, she started in the Mormon way, so she got married at 19 and had six kids, then my second sister moved to Nashville to be a country star, and my third sister wanted to be an actress.”
Though Julianne said “there’s no jealousy” over her and Derek’s meteoric ascents to success, she did acknowledge “a sadness that maybe there wasn’t an opportunity for them to experience it.”
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“We’ve had this conversation,” Julianne explained. “They’re so happy. So, so, so happy. And look, they have great lives and they love their [lives]. But, you know, when you’re a performer, and we had an opportunity that they didn’t have, it’s hard.”
Hough admitted she even used to get self-conscious about sharing career accomplishments with her family, saying that she and Derek “never wanted to share because we were afraid to hurt someone’s feelings. But that just grew us further and further apart. Because we weren’t sharing, they didn’t feel included. So over the last few years, it’s been very much like, all right, if it hurts, it hurts, but at least we’re close.”
Each one of Julianne and Derek’s siblings enjoyed some degree of success in the performing arts, with all four Hough sisters appearing in the 2011 remake of Footloose. They’ve each moved on, however, with Katherine working as an esthetician, Marabeth becoming a realtor, and Sharee channeling her years of dance experience into fitness instruction.
Julianne cited her sisters’ accomplishments in their own fields, as well as their flourishing personal lives, as a reason why the sadness never flowered into full-on resentment.
“It’s all relative. They were super close as sisters growing up, so I didn’t get to have the closeness of sisters and that bond, or they have marriages and kids, and I don’t have that experience.”
She explained, “When I look at my third sister, for instance, she has three beautiful daughters, and she has all these activities and she plans all these things. I’m in awe of her, I’m just like, ‘You are such a good, present mom… And I have, not a lack, but I’m like, ‘I want that.’ And she’s like, ‘And I want that.’ And it’s not [that] one is better than the other, but we all have things that we desire.”
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Julianne has indeed been open about a series of losses incurred in recent years that have left her reeling. The TV star finalized her divorce from hockey star Brooks Laich in 2022 after a two-year split. “We both have regrets,” she admitted last year. That same month, she detailed the tragic way her two dogs died in 2019, calling the experience “the unraveling of absolute safety.”
But she’ll soon be back with Derek for season 34 of Dancing With the Stars. Julianne returns to cohost the show with Alfonso Ribeiro, while Derek will resume his place on the judging panel. Dancing With the Stars season 34 premieres on ABC on Sept. 16.
You can watch the rest of Hough’s appearance on the Not Skinny But Not Fat podcast above.
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