"I had completely disassociated" — Julianne Hough gets emotional revealing she was abused at 4 years old by her neighbor 

Julianne Hough recently appeared on The Jamie Kern Lima Show on August 15, 2024, and opened up about her childhood trauma. Breaking her silence on being s*xually abused when she was just four years old, Julianne Hough said:

“My first experience was when I was about 4 years old. It was a neighbor in our cul-de-sac. I’ve actually never said that out loud to someone in an interview before. That was a very confusing time, because growing up in the Mormon culture, everything needs to be perfect.”

She then spoke up about how she had “blocked out” her childhood memories because of the instance. Sharing how she “had completely disassociated,” the actress shared:

“I forgot about it. Then other things happened later in my childhood and at about 15, and I started sharing those things but I forgot about the neighbor thing. It wasn’t until I started doing the work recently. That’s why I blocked out from 10 to 15, because I had completely disassociated from that happening.”

Julianne Hough also wrote about similar experiences in her newly released book, Everything We Never Knew, which was released on August 13, 2024.

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“At the time, when I was younger, I think they also didn't know what to do”— Julianne Hough talks about opening up about the instance to her parents

During the podcast, Julianne opened up and stated how she told her parents about the childhood assault instance very late in life. Stating how her parents felt very guilty after knowing what had happened to her.

"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. 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,'" she said.

She stated that her family is no longer in contact with the neighbor. She also stated in the podcast that she went through similar experiences when she moved overseas with her brother, Derek Hough. On the other hand, she stated that she is not the only sibling of the Hough family to have suffered from traumatic events.

Julianne Hough claimed that her brother was “hung upside down” with a “gun put to his head.” Claiming that there have been more instances in the family, she applauded her mother for always being there for the kids, saying that “she did the best she could.”

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Julianne Hough is a popular dancer and actress best known for her appearance in ABC’s Dancing with the Stars. She has also appeared in many movies, including Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, Footloose, Safe Heaven, Curve, Dirty Grandpa, Bigger, and even Rock of Ages.