An awkward moment onDancing With the Starsbasically leftJulianne Houghthinking, “Oh, brother.”
TheDWTSco-host reacted to a cringey moment from the Nov. 10 episode when her brother—and judge on the competition series—Derek Houghmade a quip about sibling dynamics.
ICYMI, after ParalympianEzra Frechand his pro partnerDaniella Karagach, who have detailed their sibling-like relationship this season, performed a sensual Argentine tango, they received some shocking praise from judgeCarrie Ann Inaba.
“You were able to stay so centered on yourself while also delivering the story that I want so much with this dance,” she said. “The intimacy, turning your sister into your lover for one night is all good.”
As Ezra and Daniella were left in surprise, co-hostAlfonso Ribeirosaid, “Sister lover, that’s awkward.” And as the mic was turned over to Derek, he quipped with laughter, “Tell me about it. That was weird.”
The moment prompted a flurry of comments online, as fans pointed out how Julianne and Derek have been paired up for some sensual dances over the years. As one fan wrote on Threads, “Derek adding in ‘tell me about it’ after Carrie Ann gave Ezra and Daniella credit for doing an intimate dance when they feel like siblings had me GIGGGGGGGLING.”
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After all, the 38-year-old only added a shrugging emoji while sharing a Thread post to her Instagram Stories Nov. 12 that read, “Derek adding in ‘tell me about it’ after Carrie Ann gave Ezra and Daniella credit for doing an intimate dance when they feel like siblings had me GIGGGGGGGLING.”
But Julianne appeared to sidestep the awkwardness with one smooth move. After all, the 38-year-old re-posted the comment on her Instagram Story and simply added a shrugging emoji to prove her nonchalance.
But while Julianne may have shimmied away from this week’s snafu, it’s not the first sibling-centric shuffle that Carrie Ann has caused between her and Derek. In fact, after Carrie Ann paired them up in 2014 for an intimate routine,fans thought the Houghs were married.
“Our first thing that we ever did onDancing with the Starswas the live tour,” Julianne said on a September 2025 episode of theChicks in the Officepodcast. “Carrie Ann was the one who choreographed everything, and she got us to do a rumba together. You guys, that’s the dance of love that my brother and I had to dance together.”
Plus, another flub was in the mix.
“Our names in the program were ‘Derek and Julianne Hough,’ so everybody thought we were married and were doing this rumba,” Julianne continued. “When people found out we were brother and sister? I remember there was one venue, and we just heard, ‘That’s just wrong!’”
For a deeper dive into the siblings’—yes,siblings’—family tree, keep reading…
Julianne Hough/Instagram
Bruce and Mariann—both from Mormon families and the children of ballroom-dancing parents—settled in Salt Lake City. There he worked as a communications executive and co-founded supplement maker Nutraceutical Corporation, which, according to Deseret News, reached a valuation of $300 million under his watch before it was sold in 2017.
Bruce also ventured into politics, serving two terms as state Republican Party chair and running for congress in 2023.
While he didn’t win that race, he told Deseret News at the time that he was running for his family’s future. “I’ve got 10 kids, I’ve got 22 grandkids and growing,” he explained. “And I really feel that America’s promise is in jeopardy for those grandkids especially.”
Of his most famous offspring, he quipped, “I never thought that those dance lessons would pay off,” noting that he took the most pride in hearing from others that son Derek Hough and daughter Julianne Hough were some of the “kindest people…in the entertainment business.”
In addition to Derek and Julianne, Bruce shares daughters Sharee Hough Selman, Marabeth Poole and Katherine Hough with Mariann. After they divorced in the late 1990s, he married Debra Francom Hough, also a parent of five.
She and Bruce were in the process of divorcing when Julianne and Derek, then 10 and 13, moved to London to attend the Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts.
Their leaving was “devastating,” Mariann recalled on a 2019 episode of The Minds Gym podcast. But they wanted to dance and, she explained, “The biggest thing that kept me going is that I grew up feeling very dominated over and controlled. Love my parents, but that was like a generational thing.”
However, she added, “I’m grateful for that now because…it made me sway to I love having free agency.” It was also “so important” for her to pass that on to her kids, she said, and “all of them are so not afraid to go travel and do all these things.”
Mariann, now based in Franklin, Tenn., is a painter and has credited husband Aaron Nelson for supporting and encouraging her work as an artist.
The eldest of Bruce and Mariann’s brood danced at Ballet West in Utah and these days runs her own fitness business, Hough Werks, teaching yoga and dance.
Her “dynamic” firstborn “just came into this world with a lot of energy,” Mariann said on The Minds Gym. Sharee’s “little mind was just going all the time, just super creative” and “self-motivated.”
Moreover, with 11 years between Sharee and her youngest sister, “Julianne thinks she has two moms.”
She left Utah for Music City to “be a country star,” baby sister Julianne shared on the Not Skinny but Not Fat podcast in September 2025, and now makes the most of her positive energy as a realtor and holistic health coach, as well as a singer-songwriter.
Marabeth married Michael Poole in 2002 and they live in Nashville with son Aidan.
The esthetician was in a relationship with Tony Schnur before his death from brain cancer in 2023. “It’s unfair that I found my soulmate, my best friend, my partner in life, only to lose you too soon,” Katherine posted on Instragram in February 2025, marking the second anniversary of his passing. “I miss you every day.”
But Katherine has persevered, Julianne gushing on Not Skinny But Not Fat, “She has three beautiful daughters and she has all these activities and she plans all these things, and I’m in awe of her.”
And on Sept. 24, 2025, Katherine shared that she had found love again, writing on Instagram alongside a montage of sweet photos, “After walking through so much loss and heartache, I never imagined I’d find this kind of love again. Chris is the man I prayed for, kind, generous, loving, patient, and such a gift not only to me but to my girls.”
After his last competitive turn around the floor in 2016, Derek returned to DWTS as a fulltime judge in 2020.
He met fellow dancer Hayley Erbert in 2015 and, after navigating some “insane obstacles,” as he put it on Couple Things With Shawn Johnson and Andrew East, they got married in August 2023.
As a couple they powered through Hayley’s life-threatening health scare, a brain hemorrhage that required emergency surgery just four months after their wedding, and in July 2025 they announced they were expecting their first child together.
Posting a photo of dad Bruce dancing at his and Hayley’s wedding, Derek wrote on Facebook in April 2024, “Smart, kind and thoughtful. I hope to be as good as a father as he has been to his family.”
She left in 2009 to pursue acting and scored a breakthrough role in 2010’s Burlesque (though her big-screen debut was actually playing an unnamed Hogwarts student in 2001’s Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone) before scoring the lead in the 2011 Footloose remake. Julianne returned to the ballroom as a judge from 2014 to 2017, winning an Emmy for choreography along the way, and has cohosted DWTS with Alfonso Ribeiro since 2023.
Julianne married Brooks Laich in 2017 but they split up in 2020, eventually finalizing their divorce in 2022.
She said on The Jamie Kern Lima Show in 2024 that going through a divorce gave her a chance to “reconnect” with her mom and dad, and they “showed up” for her.
“I needed that,” Julianne explained. “I reclaimed my parental relationship with them and I got to be the kid and they got to take care of me. And that was the most healing [thing].”
Sharee, Marabeth and Katherine are “so, so, so happy,” Julianne continued. “They have great lives, and they love their life. But we had an opportunity that they didn’t have, and it’s hard.”
And while she and Derek have a special connection, “they were super close as sisters growing up,” Julianne said. “So, I didn’t get to have the closeness of sisters and that bond. [And] they have marriages and kids and I don’t have that experience.”
