The Perverted Lives of the Rich and Famous > Julianne Hough sexually abused at the age of four

 

So proud of you for coming out about your abuse, Julianne. You seem to have handled it about as well as anyone can. God bless you.

Julianne Hough Reveals She Was Sexually Abused

at 4 Years Old by a Neighbor

Hough admitted she's "never said that out loud to anybody in an interview before" as she shared her first experience with abuse

By 

Julia Moore

 

 

Published on August 15, 2024 10:43AM EDT, People

Julianne Hough is opening up about the sexual abuse she suffered in her early childhood for the first time.

During a candid conversation on The Jamie Kern Lima Show, the Dancing with the Stars co-host revealed that her "first experience" with sexual abuse was when she was "about 4 years old" growing up in Utah. The perpetrator was a "neighbor," she said, calling it a "very confusing time."

Hough, 36, admitted that she's "never said that out loud to anybody in an interview before," and then reflected on how the experiences influenced her.

"There was not a lot of repercussion for what had happened – and by the way, I'm not the only one in my family that had gone through similar things. And so that was a very challenging thing to come to terms with," she shared. "Nobody did anything."

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Julianne Hough on 'The Jamie Kern Lima Show'. 

Jamie Kern Lima Show 

Hough said she told her parents about the experience "later on because [she] forgot about it," and it only came out when she confided in her parents about other experiences with the abuse she'd faced around age 15.

"I started sharing those things, but I had forgot about the neighbor thing at 4 years old until I started really doing this work in the last few years," she admitted, adding that she had "blocked out from birth to 10 basically because I had completely disassociated from [the abuse] ever happening."

"Being so young, and those being your first experiences – whether it be physical, mental, sexual – those abuses of power to someone who is vulnerable to it – it immediately sets a precedent of: other people have the power," she added.

Brilliant deduction! Sometimes I think that the age of the victim is directly related to the long-term effects of child sex abuse. I was 3 years old when sexually abused and just turned 4 when it ceased. I took the same attitude as Julianne. When my uncle caught me being abused by an adult man, he chastised me for allowing him to do that. I was a tiny little kid and my abuser was over 6 feet tall. How was I supposed to stop him? 

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Hough — who just released a new book titled Everything We Never Knew, which allowed her to reflect on her life — told Jamie Kern Lima that her parents "felt guilty" after learning what she'd experienced.

"At the time, when I was younger, I think they also didn't know what to do. And were also in a position of not feeling capable or also feeling helpless," she said. "We've definitely gone through conversation after conversation like, 'But we get it now, right? And we're on the same page? I'm not blaming you now, but I definitely needed more at the time.'"

Julianne Hough attends Baccarat x Basil Hayden Speakeasy at the 77th Annual Tony Awards at David Koch Theatre at Lincoln Center on June 16, 2024 in New York City. 

Bennett Raglin/Getty 

The Footloose actress also shared that she was able to truly reconnect with her parents while she went through her 2020 divorce from Brooks Laich. "During my divorce is when I really reconnected with my parents and they showed up for me – as my parents," Hough said. "And I needed that. I reclaimed my parental relationship with them and I got to be the kid and they got to take care of me. And that was the most healing [thing]."

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Hough has previously shared that when she was 10 and living in London with her brother Derek Hough to attend a dance academy, she was "abused mentally, physically, everything," as she told Cosmopolitan in 2013. However, she did not elaborate further on her former experiences.

If you or someone you know has been a victim of sexual abuse, text "STRENGTH" to the Crisis Text Line at 741-741 to be connected to a certified crisis counselor.

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