JULIANNE Hough has opened up about her decision to break up with Ryan Seacrest in a new interview.
Julianne, now 36, reflected on their time together in a chat with Armchair Expert podcast host Dax Shepard, admitting that she “overcompensated” for Ryan’s fame by making herself “smaller.”
She said it felt like “the rug was swept out from under me” when they started dating, adding, “I was experiencing things I didn’t even know existed.”
Julianne told Dax she was conscious of the way outsiders might perceive their relationship, explaining that she didn’t want anyone to think she was using Ryan, now 49, for her Hollywood connections.
“I had this insecurity and I was like, ‘I never want anyone to think I’m with him for this reason,’” the Safe Haven actress said.
“And then I started playing minor,” she continued.
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“I know that was his experience in past situations and stuff, so I again overcompensated, I was malleable to fit into exactly what someone needed me to be to be happy.”
Looking back on her romantic relationships, Julianne shared that this was a pattern she repeated because she enjoys the “feeling of being loved.”
Julianne remembers feeling “so alienated” and “dissociative” about the difference in their fame levels at the time, adding that her decision to end the relationship shocked “Brentwood moms and producers.”
“Eventually, I remember when I decided to break up, I had a lot of Brentwood mothers and producers in that world who said, ‘What are you doing?’
“They say, ‘Your life is completely set up.’ And I thought, but I didn’t build it,’” she continued. “I was like, ‘I need to create this. Competitively, it’s not mine. I need to feel proud of doing this.'”
More than a decade since their split, Julianne, who described Ryan as a “lovely person,” appears to be on good terms with her ex.
She recently wished Ryan’s mother Connie her birthday in May after the American Idol host marked the occasion with an Instagram post.
Reacting to Ryan’s photo of him hugging his mother, Julianne commented: “Happy birthday to the one and only Cosmo Connie!”
The Dancing with the Stars co-host, now 36, dated Ryan, now 49, for three years from 2010 to 2013.
Commenting on the reason for the split at the time, a source told Us Weekly: “Honestly, their schedule was really hectic.”
Eventually, I remember when I decided to break up, I had a lot of mothers and producers from Brentwood in that world who were like, ‘What are you doing?
Julianne Hough
Julianne previously said she “didn’t deserve” the luxuries that come with dating an A-list celebrity during a 2020 Instagram Live chat with influencer Valeria Lipovetsky.
“I was on private planes and yachts and lived in a very, very rich house and my life was very different from where I grew up,” she shared, adding, “I wanted to create that for myself.”
Elsewhere, during the interview with Dax, 49, Julianne got emotional as she talked about her divorce from former NHL player Brooks Laich.
The Grease star described the year they got married as “the year everything started to fall apart,” referring to their 2017 nuptials.
Julianne and Brooks started dating in 2014 and got married three years later.
‘IT WASN’T RIGHT’
In January 2020, it was reported that they were “having problems” in their marriage – five months before they released a statement announcing their split.
Julianne told the podcast host that although she and Brooks “regret it didn’t work out,” she is now at peace with their decision to go their separate ways.
“It wasn’t right. This can be a difficult thing to fully accept,” she said. “I feel like our relationship and our marriage were exactly right, and the end of this is exactly right.
“We’re both sorry it didn’t work out because I don’t think we had the maturity to come together,” Julianne added. “It was contracting while I was expanding.
“We just couldn’t find ourselves in it.”
This story originally appeared on The-sun.com read the full story