What Exes Julianne Hough & Ryan Seacrest Have Said About Their Romance

Julianne Hough and Ryan Seacrest’s relationship certainly didn’t start off on the wrong foot.

“The rug was swept up from underneath me and I was just flying,” the Dancing With the Stars host recalled on the Aug. 12 episode of Dax Shepard’s podcast Armchair Expert, recounting the early days of her nearly three-year romance wiht the American Idol emcee, and I was experiencing things that I didn’t even know existed.”

And while their glamorous red carpet appearances and yacht getaways made it seem like everything was picture-perfect, Hough eventually began feeling like something was out of sync.

“I had this insecurity that I was like, ‘I don’t ever want anybody to think that I’m with him for this reason,’” she continued. “And so then I started playing smaller.”

Soon, Hough could see herself change.

“I, again, overcompensated,” the Safe Haven star added, explaining that she “was malleable to fit into exactly what somebody needed me to be for them to be happy.”

And she suggested it’s a pattern that’s made her now question all of her past relationships.

“What I’ve realized over the years is I don’t know if I’ve ever truly been in love with someone, but I have loved the feeling of being loved,” she noted on the podcast. “And so let me be what that needs to be so that I can be loved. And then because I’m so filled with love from someone, of course I love you. I love everyone. I’ve been in love with everybody I’ve ever dated, but have I? I don’t wanna overanalyze it because every person I’ve also dated has been a very good person.”