Dancing With the Stars’ Julianne Hough Reacts to Danny Amendola Flirting With Her in Bed During Fi

By Hanan Redwan Published on November 27, 2024

Dancing With the Stars cohost Julianne Hough had a cryptic response after Danny Amendola asked a flirty question on the season 33 finale Nov. 26 on ABC.

Julianne Hough might be ready to tango with Danny Amendola.

After the former NFL player and his Dancing With the Stars partner Witney Carson finished their Barbie-inspired freestyle on the Nov. 26 finale, the pair joined Julianne onstage to get their scores. The trio got comfy on a prop bed, which was reminiscent of Ken's (Ryan Gosling) Mojo Dojo Casa House from the 2023 Barbie movie.

"How is it dancing as Ken?" Julianne asked, prompting the athlete to respond, "I think the real question, Julianne, is why are you in my bed?"

Witney looked away, saying, "Oh," while Julianne answered his flirtation more directly. "Oh, is that an invitation?" she said, before laughing. "Let's get your scores!"

Danny and Witney ultimately placed fifth in the season 33 finale, followed by Olympian Stephen Nedoroscik and Rylee Arnold in fourth; actress Chandler Kinney and Brandon Armstrong in third; Olympian Ilona Maher and Alan Bersten in second and Bachelor star Joey Graziadei and pro partner Jenna Johnson taking home the Len Goodman Mirrorball Trophy.

But when it comes to their partners off the dance floor, Danny recently sparked romance rumors with TikToker Xandra Pohl; however, he told E! News in September that she was simply a "great friend of mine."

“I’m a huge fan and supporter of her," he said, "and it’s good to have a friend like her.”

As for Julianne—who finalized her divorce from Brooks Laich in 2022—she confessed last weekthat she is on the dating market.

"Well, you know, I am single,” she quipped during the Nov. 19 episode, “and I’m looking for a guy anywhere I can find one.”

And while she previously shared that she is "not straight," the 36-year-old does picture herself in a relationship with a man.

“I feel as if I am going to be with a man,” Julianne said on the Sept. 23 episode of The Jamie Kern Lima Show. “I would like to have a partner and build a life with somebody, have a family. My heart is open.”

When it came to Julianne Hough's dogs Lexi and Harley, she made it clear she loved "my girls more than anything on this planet!"

So when the Cavalier King Charles Spaniels suddenly died in September 2019, fans wondered what happened. However, Julianne only expressed her grief.

"I’ve never experienced a love like ours," she wrote on Instagram the following month. "I miss you. I love you forever. Now You Are Free."

It wouldn't be until five years later that Julianne shared they were killed by coyotes.

“I woke up before my phone even rang, and I knew,” she said on an August 2024 episode of The Jamie Kern Lima Show. “I picked up the phone and my assistant at the time was just screaming.”

Julianne said she had gates and never had coyotes in her yard before. However, she expressed how she's grateful Lexi and Harley "went together," that "usually how it happens is very quick," and that she recovered their bodies.

Their deaths came amid a difficult time. As Julianne recalled on the podcast, she'd separated from now-ex-husband Brooks Laich, stopped working with her longtime assistant and was preparing to bring her brand KINRGY on Oprah Winfrey's 2020 tour.

And while Lexi and Harley will always be in her heart, she's extended her love —getting dog Sunny in 2023.

"Lexi & Harley would have loved and played with you everyday," she wrote in a 2024 post, "and I know that they sent you to me, only when I was ready to open my heart and love again - you cracked me open sweetheart."

Though Julianne and Brooks announced their split in May 2020—finalizing their divorce less than two years later—the dancer suggested she and the former NHL player had been facing challenges for a while.

“There was also a long time of questioning is this working, is this not working?" Julianne shared on The Jamie Kern Lima Show. "We’re going in different directions."

Julianne and Brooks first sparked romance rumors in 2014 and tied the knot three years later.

"I went full force ahead into relationship," she added, "and it was amazing. And I will tell you it was the greatest thing that could have happened to me at that time in my life because what I needed at that time was to reconnect to my 10-year-old self. And what did I need at 10? I really needed safety and almost like a father figure to come in and be that grounding force of stability. So I think a lot of our dynamic was this little girl feeling and this stability and stable man to be there."

This dynamic provided her with healing.

"When I started going through all of that journey, I started becoming more of a woman," she continued. "When that was happening, I was starting to listen to my voice more—not the 10-year-old voice that was making decisions subconsciously."

And Julianne began to learn more about herself.

"As that started happening," she later added, "I really started shifting and changing and questioning what I believed in."

While still with Brooks she once told him, "'You know I’m not straight, right?'" the Safe Haven star recalled to Women’s Health in 2019. “And he was like, 'I’m sorry, what?' I was like, 'I'm not. But I choose to be with you.'"

However, Julianne isn’t focusing on labels.

“Coming out is one of the most vulnerable and empowering things that you can do,” she noted on The Jamie Kern Lima Show. “And I think for me was very much like it’s not about being straight or gay or bi or queer. It’s more about I think I’m just learning what love is and I love people. I don’t know what I’m attracted to, but I choose you.”

As her journey of self-discovery continued, Julianne learned more about how she connects with others.

“That is the freedom of the love that I was starting to experience in seeing people,” the dancer added. “Because I think I had been able to take off a layer of, again, protection. And instead of being so internalized, I was starting to see people and seeing their hearts and seeing their beauty and their essence coming through in a way that I was like, 'Wow, I love people. And I don’t know if it’s a sexual attraction or a this attraction, but I’m just seeing people.' And that was such a beautiful revelation."

She wouldn’t give this celebrity the mirrorball trophy again.

While appearing on an August 2024 episode of Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen, the Dancing With the Stars host cosigned when fellow guest Mickey Guyton said she disagreed with Bobby Bones winning season 27 with pro SharnaBurgess in 2018.

“I actually agree with you,” Julianne replied, “and I think it’s because the fan base, right? It’s all about fan base on that show. He was not the best dancer.”

However, Bobby made it clear that Julianne didn't step on his toes with her remark.

"I was the worst dancer," the radio personality said in an Instagram video later that month. "I take pride in that. Now, I tried as hard as anybody in the history of the show. But I can't dance now, couldn't dance then."

When Julianne started dating Ryan Seacrest in 2010, she was introduced to a new world—one with luxury vacations, courtside Lakers seats and glamorous date nights.

“The rug was swept up from underneath me and I was just flying,” she said on an August 2024 episode of Dax Shepard’s podcast Armchair Expert. “I was experiencing things that I didn’t even know existed. But then I had this insecurity that I was like, 'I don’t ever want anybody to think that I’m with him for this reason. So I then started playing smaller.'"

And Julianne saw herself change.

“I, again, overcompensated, was malleable to fit into exactly what somebody needed me to be for them to be happy,” she added. “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. 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.”

When Julianne and Ryan split 2013, she noted, a lot of "Brentwood moms and producers" questioned the decision.

"They're like, ‘Your life is completely set up,'" she said. "And I was like, ‘But I didn't build it.’ And of course I was like, ‘I need to create this,’ competitively, like, 'it's not mine, and I wanna feel the pride of doing it.'”

Hanan Redwan

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