How Julianne Hough Makes Her Long Distance Relationship Work

The "Dancing With the Stars" judge admits she gets creative.

ByABC News
January 7, 2016, 12:53 PM
Brooks Laich and Julianne Hough attend the 2015 Creative Arts Emmy Awards at Microsoft Theater, Sept. 12, 2015, in Los Angeles.
Brooks Laich and Julianne Hough attend the 2015 Creative Arts Emmy Awards at Microsoft Theater, Sept. 12, 2015, in Los Angeles.
Jason LaVeris/Getty Images

— -- Julianne Hough isn't afraid to get creative in order to keep the spark in her long distance relationship with hockey star Brooks Laich. The "Save Haven" actress recently revealed she has phone sex.

"But I'm really bad at it," she admitted in the February issue of Cosmopolitan magazine. "I'll get halfway through and start laughing. It's an art. I applaud people who are good at it. They need to come and help me keep a straight face!"

Hough, 27, and the Washington Capitals player got engaged last August after dating for nearly two years.

The couple have "Masters of Sex" actor Teddy Sears to thank for their introduction.

"I did a horror movie that never got released. I'm convinced the only reason I was meant to do that movie was to meet my fiancé," she explained. "Six years prior, Teddy Sears, my co-star, tried to invite Brooks -- who was a good friend of his -- to visit him in L.A. Brooks, who knows nothing about pop culture, joked, 'What are you going to do -- hook me up with that Juicy Fruit starlet?' He'd seen the commercial and was like, 'Where do I meet a girl like that?' I was the girl in the commercial! Teddy remembered that comment and texted Brooks, 'You're never going to guess who I'm doing a movie with.'"

Still, before meeting and falling in love with Laich, 32, Hough endured a very public failed relationship with Ryan Seacrest. The two dated from 2010 to 2013.

"I definitely hated that everyone had an opinion about what I was going through," she said of her split with the "American Idol" host. "At the time, I was constantly running and touring, which sometimes looked like I was totally fine and couldn't care less, which wasn't the truth. But it was my form of being able to deal."