From I do to divorce! Julianne Hough and Brooks Laich seemed like they had a perfect relationship after meeting in 2013 and getting married in 2017. However, they shocked fans in early 2020 when they announced their separation.
“We have lovingly and carefully taken the time we have needed to arrive at our decision to separate,” the Hollywood duo said in a joint statement in May 2020. “We share an abundance of love and respect for one another and will continue to lead with our hearts from that place. We kindly request your compassion and respect for our privacy moving forward.”
The couple wanted “different things in life,” according to a source who exclusively spoke to Life & Style after the Dancing With the Stars pro and former hockey player revealed their split. “They’ve had so many ups and downs, but they also have very different ways of dealing with them.”
Less than six months later, Julianne made their separation official and filed for divorce from her husband on November 2, 2020, Life & Style confirmed. But just because they’re no longer in a romantic relationship doesn’t mean they don’t have love for one another. An insider told In Touch in August that the pair are “friendly exes” who “remain on good terms.”
“Having some time apart has been beneficial for both parties,” said the source. “It’s made them reflect on what went wrong in their marriage.”
The couple has been spotted out grabbing lunch together since their split, proving they want to stay in each other’s lives. At one point, the couple had “left the door open to giving their marriage another shot and have discussed their issues,” but they decided it’s best to remain apart.
Brooks and Julianne did not have any children together, although the athlete said his then-wife was “going through IVF” in June 2019 so that they could increase their odds of starting a family. “My wife and I want to have children in our future,” he told Us Weekly at the time.
However, Julianne later clarified that they “never actually tried to get pregnant” during an interview with Women’s Health in 2020, though she did also freeze her eggs amid her endometriosis struggles.
“It was more of a precautionary measure: Let’s do our due diligence for the future,” she said at the time, adding that she doesn’t “believe in labels” or following a status quo timeline of milestones.
Keep scrolling to get the breakdown of their full relationship timeline, from the sweet beginning to the heartbreaking end.