It’s hard for exes not to cross paths in Hollywood — just ask Julianne Hough and Ryan Seacrest.
The Dancing With the Stars star, who is 13 years younger than the American Idol host, started dating Seacrest in 2010.
“He is such an influential guy … and what if it didn’t work out? Our first date, I was so nervous that I just sat there and interviewed him with questions like, ‘Are you loyal?’ and ‘Are you close to your family?’” Hough recalled to InStyle in 2012. “I’m very in love, and it feels great. I feel like I’m more comfortable in my own skin. You see me instead of all the makeup and hair.”
One year later, however, the pair called it quits. A source told Us Weekly in 2013 that Hough “couldn’t handle” Seacrest’s work schedule anymore. “Work always, always came first [for Ryan],” the insider said at the time.
While Hough later told Self magazine that her goal was “to be single for an entire year” following her split from Seacrest, she met Brooks Laich before the year was up. “I’m a relationship girl, and I feel so grateful for the ones I’ve been in. They’ve been excellent — I’ve been hurt but never angry — and they’ve helped me grow to be who I am today,” she said in February 2014.
Hough and Laich went on to wed in July 2017. After she filed for divorce in November 2020, the Footloose star opened up about her past relationships, admitting (without naming Seacrest) via Instagram Live that it was hard to make friends with an older boyfriend.
“[In 2013], I kind of got a little lost. … I was like, ‘I’m 24 and I don’t really know who Julianne is.’ … During that year, it was kind of my wild year of abandon and freedom and I realized that the pendulum swing went from one side to the extreme,” Hough said in November 2020. “I was like, ‘OK, there’s got to be something in the middle where I can find fulfillment without having to be so dynamic and extreme.’”
Over the years, Hough and Seacrest, who is dating model Aubrey Paige Petcosky, have made headlines for onscreen reunions. In May 2022, the performer appeared on Live With Kelly and Ryan. Two months earlier, the Rock of Ages actress was a guest on On Air With Ryan Seacrest.
“Jules, just to start, [my cohosts] Sisanie and Tanya have been asking me if this is awkward for me. And I said, ‘Not at all because we’re friends,’” Seacrest said on the radio in March 2022.
Hough added, “We’re friends, we chat.”
Scroll through for a timeline of Hough and Seacrest’s relationship through the years:
