Julianne Hough is opening up about the trauma she suffered as a child… and it’s just horrible.
The Dancing with the Stars co-host sat down for a candid conversation on The Jamie Kern Lima Show on Wednesday and revealed a deeply upsetting truth for the first time ever: she was sexually abused at just 4 years old.
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While talking about vulnerability and “abuses of power,” the 36-year-old made the shocking confession:
“My first experience with [sexual abuse] was when I was just 4 years old.”
Poor, poor Julianne. What an awful thing to happen to someone of any age, let alone a 4-year-old. And what makes her story even more sad is that her abuser was her “neighbor.”
Heartbreaking.
The Footloose alum bravely admitted it was the “first time” she’d ever “said that out loud to anybody in an interview,” before explaining how growing up within the Mormon community in Utah made the situation all the more “confusing.” She shared:
“That was a very, very confusing time because, obviously growing up in the Mormon culture, everything needs to be perfect, everybody needs to put on the shiny ‘We’ve got our stuff together,’ and there was not a lot of repercussion for what had happened.”
Unfortunately that sounds all too familiar. Far too many predators use religious communities as their playgrounds — and get away with it for years.
And even more shocking, Julianne made ANOTHER confession:
“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, which is like, nobody did anything.”
The Safe Haven star admitted she didn’t tell her parents until years later because amid “other things” that were happening in her childhood, she “forgot.” But it all came bubbling to the surface one day when she was 15. She was telling them about the unspecified other trauma, and her truth about the sexual abuse came out, too:
“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 added that she “blocked out from birth to 10 basically because I had completely disassociated from [the abuse] ever happening.” Sounds like PTSD.
But when she did finally tell her parents, she said they “felt guilty”:
“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 noted that at the time it was a difficult conversation, but that now as an adult and upon more self reflection, she’s more willing to address her trauma.
Elsewhere in the interview, Julianne opened up more about the toll abuse can have on a person at such a young age:
“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.”
Powerful stuff. Watch her entire interview (below):
What a truly heartbreaking story. She’s so strong and we commend her for sharing her story!
[Images via Jamie Kern Lima/YouTube]