Julianne Hough has something new to add to her already packed resume: she is an author!
The “Dancing with the Stars” co-host released her first book earlier this month, a supernatural novel titled “Everything We Never Knew.”
“This is a way for me to share the universal (themes) of what I’ve experienced in my life without giving away my personal information to everyone,” she revealed on Access Hollywood’s “Behind the Easel.”
The book is about one woman’s journey of self-discovery, and although it’s fiction, Julianne told Access that she still had to reassure some of her loved ones that it wasn’t about them.
“I called my mom today and said, ‘Hey mom, just so you know. I know I’ve talked to you about this, but you’re not the mom I think you are. Just so you know, because there’s some heavy stuff in there and I just want you to know that you’re not the mom, don’t worry,'” Julianne admitted.
That wasn’t the only person Julianne called before the book was published.
“I had to have a few little conversations with people until they knew this isn’t about you. I have a lot to do with Lexi, but I’m not Lexi,” she told Access.
Writing the book was “easy,” Julianne said, because “so much of my life experience went into it, as well as my understanding of reaching out to others as much as possible and drawing on other people’s experiences.”
But the 36-year-old did not write the novel alone. She commissioned Ellen Goodlett, who co-wrote it with her in 2020.
“I know my strengths, which are that I’m a creative person with big ideas who can see worlds and characters and themes, but I’m not someone who went to school to write and I hired someone as a ghostwriter at the beginning. Throughout the process, I felt like we really wrote this together,” she said.
Now that Julianne has published a novel, could she next write an autobiography?
“I kind of love this fictional world at the moment and I’m just going to stay there for now,” she said.
In addition to her work as a writer, Julianne is preparing to co-host another season of “Dancing with the Stars,” which premieres this fall.
“This has always been my family, as you know, and it was wonderful to host with Alfonso (Ribeiro),” she said.
Julianne has taken on various roles in the show: from dancer to presenter to judge!
“It changed my life,” she said. “I went to sleep at 18, just out of high school, and then suddenly I was in people’s living rooms all over the country. These people have followed my career for almost 18 years. They have been my family and have supported me and been with me on this journey of trying different things.”
When Julianne is not working, she enjoys life.
“I have never felt happier,” she told Access. “I have never felt so stable, confident and consistent in how I show up in my life. I have never felt so creative. I have never had so much confidence in myself and never felt so in tune with myself and who I am and who I want to become.”
With that in mind, Julianne said she is open to dating, but it would take a “special person” to get her to go on more dates.
“When I take someone who is very special, to me that means that person has self-love, a desire to grow, to be aware of the things in their life that they are working on and so on,” she said.
“I want to be as authentic as possible so that I can be in tune with whoever is in that place,” she said. “I’m not going to chase, but I’m also very open and my heart is so open and ready to receive.”
Julianne’s book, Everything We Never Knew, is available now. Dancing with the Stars premieres September 17 on ABC.
