Actress Julianne Hough Says She Was Physically Abused
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In the cover story of the February issue of Cosmopolitan magazine, actress, dancer and singer Julianne Hough says she was abused as a child in London while studying at a prestigious dance academy.
Hough, originally from Utah where her family was Mormon, said she was 10 when adults began taking advantage of her.
“I was abused, mentally, physically, everything,” she told Cosmo. “I was 10 years old looking like I was 28, being a very sensual dancer.”
Hough, 24, doesn’t go into specifics about how she was abused or by whom, but says the abuse got worse as she got older.
“When I started hitting puberty, when I started becoming a woman and stopped being a little girl,” she said.
The two-time winner of “Dancing With the Stars” has decided to talk about her abuse now because of a character she plays in the upcoming movie, “Safe Haven.”
Hough plays Katie, a young woman living in a small North Carolina town who falls in love with a man named Alex, played by Josh Duhamel. Hough’s character is reluctant to start the new romance because of a previous abusive relationship.
While on set filming a difficult scene, Hough says, “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.”
The actress, who dates entertainer Ryan Seacrest, says she was told by her abusers that if she spread the word back in the United States, she would “amount to nothing.”
Now a successful country-music singer with more films in the works, Hough is riding high as a Hollywood triple-threat.
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Oh BOO-HOO….why did you wait so long to come out with this information? Not getting any drama in your life now? YOu were once my favorite on DWTS but that all changed when you arrived late and drunk at our county fair and put on the worst performance ever. You did not even issue an apology in the local paper. People paid money to see you and you let them down.
Posted by: Rufred | January 3, 2013, 9:57 am 9:57 am
Really Julianne a Hollywood triple threat? I hardly think so.
Posted by: Kim Ellis | January 3, 2013, 10:06 am 10:06 am
It says why in the article….she is coming out now to get attention for a movie she was in…..what a joke.
Posted by: john | January 3, 2013, 10:09 am 10:09 am
some pseudo celebrities will pick any drama in their life to capitalize on. Sorry, honey, still don’t want to see your movie. You chose not to name names, basically letting the offenders do it again to other unsuspecting innocent girls. Maybe it did happen, maybe it did not happen. I just can’t feel sorry for someone who uses something like this for fame or to get people to watch a movie. It’s a kick in the pants to real victims out there. What sort of message are you sending???? Ugh…pseudo celebrities make me ill.
Posted by: PghReader | January 3, 2013, 12:52 pm 12:52 pm
Sorry, not buying it! She’s been dating Ryan Seacrest, who is a known over-promoter. It’s all to sell her latest movie and to hard wire the public opinion of her as a sympathetic figure and victim.
Posted by: R.A.B | January 4, 2013, 10:57 am 10:57 am
That’s a really bad picture of her.
Posted by: Tanya | January 4, 2013, 1:25 pm 1:25 pm
hold up. why is a underage girl overseas without her parents!! 10!!.
i blame her parents. go bet sympathy from them.
Posted by: krw | January 4, 2013, 1:40 pm 1:40 pm
Hope Julianne Hough gets married soon. I hate to see her not succeed and have to work for the burger joint. According to IMDB she has no movies on the horizon nor is anyone interested in hiring her.
Quite honestly her acting is really bad. Maybe she can reinvent herself by joining up with DWTS again. Any and everyone can sing country so I don’t count that as special. I think they say 3 strikes and you are out. 4 movies in the last 2 years was to many without working on her acting skills.
This abused stuff is sketchy. What some may consider hard work others may think it is abuse. This is why it important to clarify your definition of “abuse” before crying abuse. The problem with using this “abuse” to sell her movie is those folks familiar with her history will make assumptions on who the abuser is. She always claims how great her “family” is and apparently does not hold them responsible for the “abuse” and since Italia Conti denies abuse I guess the default is the Ballas’s. She really opened a “can of worms” here.
Posted by: Gust | January 5, 2013, 8:00 pm 8:00 pm
If it’s a lie then she does a disservice to actual child abuse victims. If it’s true then I have sympathy for her because she was abused by adults whom she and her parents trusted enough to let them be her guardians and dance mentors. I’m sure this is not the end of this story. I expect a rebuttal from those who chaperoned her during her time in London.
Posted by: Mac | January 6, 2013, 2:36 pm 2:36 pm