Derek and Julianne Hough Are ‘Working on’ Their Relationship: They Had ‘Bad Blood Between Them in the Past’

The long-simmering sibling rivalry between Derek and Julianne Hough has finally cooled — but it took a family crisis to do it, a source exclusively dishes to Life & Style .

In a frank interview, the Dancing with the Stars cohost Julianne, 36, says the duo became close once again after Derek’s dancer wife, Hayley Erbert , fell ill following a performance with her husband in Washington, D.C. last December.

Hayley, 29, was found to have suffered a cranial hematoma, with blood pooling inside her skull and causing dangerous pressure on the brain!

She underwent emergency surgery to relieve the pressure, then underwent a second surgery to replace the portion of her skull removed during the first one. And Julianne says while Hayley convalesced, she and her big bro, 39, put aside their differences.

“Something happens and it just is like a clean slate,” she says. “There could have been little things just kind of looming or lingering in the background, but when you’re left with life-or-death situations, nothing else matters!”

And she explains that although she works with Derek, who serves as a judge on DWTS , they are far from two peas in the same pod, with both differing in their “beliefs or understanding of things.”

“The thing that hurts the most is when we’re not connected," she says. “And so sometimes you do the thing that hurts the most, which is remove yourself because you’re trying to protect yourself.”

“So, our family is like any other family. We have our situations and our s--t!”

While fans may be shocked Julianne has admitted often feeling distant from her brother, a pal says the pair is now on a better path.

“Make no mistake, it’s always been highly competitive between those two,” the insider says.

“When one of their careers is going better than the other — honestly I think Derek would rather be a host of Dancing than a judge, but Julianne got the gig — jealousies arise and there’s been bad blood between them in the past.”

The friend adds Julianne also felt uneasy that Derek stayed close friends with her ex husband, Brooks Laich , after her 2020 split from him, and Brooks, 41, even served as co-best man at Derek’s 2023 wedding to Hayley.

“It’s like they put up a wall between them, but to their credit, they’re working on it, really trying to be friends even more than blood relatives,” the source says.