Julianne Hough and her brother Derek Hough rose to stardom simultaneously, and while they've certainly explored their individual ventures, their professional dancing careers have always bonded them, both personally and in the public eye.
It all came full circle last year, when the Footloose actress joined her brother, longtime judge of Dancing with the Stars, as a co-host on the show, but that's not to say they haven't had their differences, and even some tense competition.
Nonetheless, a life-or-death situation can quickly prompt a "clean slate," and that's just what the siblings experienced earlier this year.
Julianne, speaking with People, opened up about how Derek's wife Hayley Erbert's health scare last year — she underwent an emergency craniectomy and was diagnosed with a cranial hematoma — was a turning point for her relationship with her brother.
"Something happens and it just is like a clean slate," she said, noting: "Especially with what just happened with Derek and Hayley, there could have been little things just kind of looming or lingering in the background, but when you're left with life-or-death situations, nothing else matters."
She added: "Whatever little things of competition there are or whatever it might be, those things just go away."
© GettyJulianne noted that she and her family have had differences when it comes to "beliefs or understandings of things," but at the end of the day, "when something tragic happens or something really hard or something where somebody needs you ... It makes you realize that as humans, as people on this planet, we really do care so much."
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She further shared: "I am so blessed to have the family that I have, even when we're not all on the same page, when we don't sometimes have the same beliefs or understandings of things."
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© InstagramBecause of that, she said, "sometimes you do the thing that hurts the most, which is remove yourself because you're trying to protect yourself," however she maintained: "The thing that hurts the most is when we're not connected."
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© Getty"Our family is like any other family. We have our situations and our [expletive], but our deepest desire is to connect. And I think we all really have a strong desire to make that happen."
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© Instagram"Just in general in life, when things happen, people want to come together," she reiterated, adding: "And I think that we're so inundated with people fighting against each other that we have to remember that I think the goodness in humanity is that we do want to show up for each other."
Julianne and Derek were born in Orem, Utah to parents Bruce and Marianne Hough. They are two of five children, and were raised Mormon.
