Julianne Hough reveals “mental and physical abuse” when she was a young girl

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The adorable Julianne Hough lands the February cover of Cosmopolitan. In the interview, Hough reveals that she was abused mentally and physically while living in London as a young girl. She also discusses her relationship with Ryan Seacrest and her upcoming film, Safe Haven: a story of a girl who survives horrific abuse at the hands of an ex-boyfriend who eventually learns to open up and accept the love of a handsome widower played by Josh Duhamel (in theaters February 14th).

Hough on her time in the UK as a child where she studied dance at London’s prestigious Italia Conti Academy of Arts:

“I was 10 years old looking like I was 28, being a very sensual dancer. I was a tormented little kid who had to put on this sexy facade because that was my job and my life. But my heart was the same, and I was this innocent little girl. I wanted so much love.”

With her parents an ocean away, Hough says the adults around her took advantage. “While I was in London, I was abused, mentally, physically, everything,” she says. In what way or by whom exactly, she declines to say: “I’m a very forgiving person, and I don’t want to hurt anybody. What’s past is past.” A ripple of tension tightens a face that is always so relaxed and bright, like a sheet being pulled tight. It got worse, she says, “when I started hitting puberty, when I started becoming a woman and stopped being a little girl.”

On not speaking much about the situation prior to now:

“This is the farthest I’ve ever gotten into my London situation. I was told if I ever went back to the United States, three things were going to happen. One: I was going to amount to nothing. Two: I was going to work at Whataburger. And three: I was going to end up a slut. So, it was like, I can’t go back. I have to be this person.”

On her upcoming film, Safe Haven:

On the set of Safe Haven, director Lasse Hallstrom called on Hough to improvise in ways she’d never done before. He even asked her to speak, in character, on camera, about “some of the horrors she had been exposed to in London” as a way of revealing her character’s painful past. So one night, in a small house in the woods of North Carolina, [co-star Josh] Duhamel and Hough took off their clothes and got into bed. As the cameras rolled, Hough spoke for nearly an hour: “I went from bawling to containing to laughing to crying again. Josh was crying. I think it was the most therapeutic moment of my life.”

 

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