JULIANNE Hough revealed in a recent interview that she was sexually abused when she was four.
The dancer appeared on IT Cosmetics founder Jamie Kern Lima’s podcast on Thursday.
Julianne, 36, is currently promoting her new book, Everything We Never Knew, and taking back her own power.
She talked about how she started to change her life and her healing journey at 25.
After talking about her childhood and her journey on Dancing with the Stars, she revealed the hard times she went through as a child.
Julianne revealed that the assault began at four years old by a neighbor.
“I’ve actually never said that out loud to anybody in an interview before,” she said on The Jamie Kern Lima Show.
“It was a very confusing time because growing up in the Mormon culture, everyone needs to be perfect, everyone needs to put on the shiny ‘we’ve got our stuff together.'”
Julianne said there weren’t repercussions for the person who did it to her because she never said anything until later.
She also wasn’t the only one in her family that had gone through similar things.
‘I FORGOT ABOUT IT’
Jamie asked Julianne if she told her parents about the abuse.
The DWTS host said she did “later on because I forgot about it.”
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“I forgot about it and other things happened later in my childhood,” she said.
“At 15, I came home and started sharing about other things, but had forgotten about the neighbor thing.”
Julianne said her parents felt guilty and didn’t know what to do.
“They felt helpless,” she revealed.
It was a very confusing time because growing up in the Mormon culture, everyone needs to be perfect, everyone needs to put on the shiny ‘we’ve got our stuff together.’
Julianne Hough
“‘I’m not blaming you now, but I needed more at the time’,” Julianne told her mom and dad at the time.
‘MY CLOTHES WERE INSIDE OUT’
Julianne said that no one talks to the neighbor in Utah anymore.
At four, she went to her mom and told her that her clothes were inside out.
“She asked me why and I said, ‘I don’t want to talk about it’,” Julianne revealed.
Her mom told her to tell her what happened.
She said she “felt like she had a Sprite bottle behind my legs.”
Growing up, Julianne wasn’t allowed to have carbonated drinks, but when she did try it, it burned.
“She freaked out and panicked. Her reaction was ‘let’s get out of this neighborhood,” Julianne said.
She started to get emotional and said, “My mom did what she could and wanted to get us out.”
Julianne said that two of her sisters were also violated, and her brother, Derek, was hung upside down and had a gun put to his head.
With tears in her eyes, she said that she is scared of the repercussions now that she had said it.
“I feel like I’ve done something wrong,” Julianne told Jamie.
If you or someone you know is affected by any of the issues raised in this story, call the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-4673.
