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Dancer-turned-actress Julianne Hough reveals some midriff on the cover of this month's Cosmopolitan magazine — and some painful aspects of her past in the accompanying interview.
Hough tells Cosmo that she suffered physical and emotional abuse as a child dancer, when she left her home in South Jordan, Utah, at age 10 to study dance in London.
"I was 10 years old looking like I was 28, being a very sensual dancer," Hough, now 24, told Cosmo. "I was a tormented little kid who had to put on this sexy facade because that was my job and my life. But my heart was the same, and I was this innocent little girl. I wanted so much love."
"While I was in London, I was abused, mentally, physically, everything," Hough said. She wouldn't give details, adding, "I'm a very forgiving person, and I don't want to hurt anybody. What's past is past." She said the situation got worse, "when I started hitting puberty, when I started becoming a woman and stopped being a little girl."
Hough's next movie, the Nicholas Sparks-based romance "Safe Haven," opens in theaters Feb. 15.