Julianne Hough Joins the Club of Women Who Are Not Straight–With Husbands!

I have a strange habit of stripping naked and proudly exclaiming: “I might have a husband—but I’m definitely not straight!” Until recently I’ve felt very alone in this experience. Women with husbands (who are also not straight) are an underrepresented segment of the population. Thankfully, former competition show dancer and frequent podcast guest Julianne Hough has broken down our community’s barriers in an interview with Women’s Health for their “Naked Strength” issue. Speaking on her sexuality, the recently married tabloid fixture recounts telling husband Brooks Laich “something that he never knew”:

“I [told him], ‘You know I’m not straight, right?’ And he was like, ‘I’m sorry, what?’ I was like, ‘I’m not. But I choose to be with you.’ I think there’s a safety with my husband now that I’m unpacking all of this, and there’s no fear of voicing things that I’ve been afraid to admit or that I’ve had shame or guilt about because of what I’ve been told or how I was raised.”

I remember very specifically the conversation my own husband and I had when we ran into my ex-boyfriend and his new boyfriend—who’d also dated a woman I’d fallen in love with. The enlightenment we both felt in that moment is something I’d wish for all married women! It’s also why I’m so thankful that Hough has shared her own testimony. Like me, many are not thin, blonde, or famous enough to discuss such a revelation in the hallowed pages of Women’s Health.

Her path to this revelation was paved with Hough’s own brand of “high sensory activated interpretive dance,” called “Kinrgy.” Women’s Health helpfully explains the name, written in the language of witchcraft: Kin as in family and kinesthetic, plus energy. Okay! Paired with accepting the nuances of her sexuality, her “superpower-ed” dance has transformed sex with her husband:

“I was connecting to the woman inside that doesn’t need anything, versus the little girl that looked to him to protect me. I was like, ‘Is he going to love this version of me?’ But the more I dropped into my most authentic self, the more attracted he was to me. Now we have a more intimate relationship.

I think we can infer that the implied intimacy is pegging—but maybe I’m just projecting! Women’s Health’s “Naked Strength” issue will be available in dentist’s offices and nail salons August 13th.