Julianne Hough reveals why she split with Ryan Seacrest

Julianne Hough has revealed why she split with former partner Ryan Seacrest.

The Dancing with the Stars host, 36, dated Ryan between 2010 and 2013.

Now she's told how their split was because she wanted to forge a career in her own right.

"I remember when I decided to break things off," she told Dax Shepard on his podcast Armchair Expert. "I had a lot of these Brentwood mums and producers in that world that were like, 'What are you doing?' And I was like, 'What do you mean?' They're like, 'Your life is completely set up.'"

She continued, "Of course, I was like, 'I need to create this. Competitively, it's not mine. I need to feel the pride of doing it.' I had this insecurity that I was like, 'I don't ever want anybody to think that I'm with him for this reason.' And so I then started playing smaller."

She reflected on how Ryan, now 49, had experienced a similar dynamic in his previous relationships, so she "overcompensated," saying she "was malleable to fit into exactly what somebody needed me to be for them to be happy."

Soon after they split, Julianne started dating ice hockey player Brooks Laich. They married in 2017, before separating in 2020.

She told Dax how she felt her "relationship and our marriage (with Brooks) was exactly right, and the end of it is right too. We both have regrets that it didn't work out because I don't think we had the maturity to come together," she said, while noting that "he was contracting while I was expanding."

Julianne and Ryan have remained friends since their split over a decade ago. In 2022, he interviewed her on On-Air With Ryan Seacrest, where the pair talked about their enduring friendship.

"There is nothing uncomfortable about it because we remained friends for years and still are," he said.