Brooks Laich Opens Up About Julianne Hough Not Taking His Last Name: 'It Was a Little Jarring'
Brooks Laich is getting candid about Julianne Hough‘s decision not to take his last name.
During the latest episode of his iHeartRadio podcast How Men Think, the athlete, 36, got talking about his professional dancer wife, 31, and her decision to go by her maiden name, despite tying the knot two years ago.
“I don’t find it disrespectful,” he said of his wife’s choice. “I’m obviously open to it, but at the start, yeah, it was a little jarring for me.”
Though Laich said he looked forward to the day that Hough would officially take his last name, the ice hockey player revealed that things didn’t go exactly to plan and noted that it’s been an “ongoing discussion” since the early stages of their relationship.
“When we first met and got engaged and stuff, we had this conversation and I was like, ‘I want you to take my last name,'” he recalled to his podcast co-host Gavin DeGraw. “I said that. It was important to me.”
Laich explained that the couple never “resolved the issue” before they got married, but said they’ve continued to talk about it over the years — and he only sees that discussion becoming more in-depth when they start a family.
“To me right now, it’s not that big of an issue,” he said. “We don’t have any kids right now, but she doesn’t have my last name.”
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“I will say I didn’t think that initially — I figured it would be an issue — but I’m surprised for myself now that it’s not an issue,” Laich continued. “But, it will be interesting to see when we have kids. When we have children, I would want them to have my last name, our last name.”
When the time comes, Laich admitted that he’s unsure whether his future children would take his last name or find a way to incorporate Hough’s. “Maybe hyphenated, I’m not sure,” he told his co-host of what his wife might want to do.
“I’m actually kind of surprised that it hasn’t become an issue in our relationship because I do, as a man, I take pride in the last name and being, having that last name as the family name and especially when we have kids, I think that will amplify,” he said.
“I don’t know for a fact, but I’m assuming it might amplify for me,” Laich predicted. “I think it’ll always be an ongoing discussion but I’m not going to make my wife change her last name if she doesn’t feel comfortable, but I don’t think that creates a division within our relationship.”
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Still, he shared his hopes that one day the America’s Got Talent judge will decide to officially change her last name to Laich.
“To be fully honest, I would like my wife to have my last name, whether it’s now or sometime in the near future or far future,” he admitted, noting that he even “refers to their house as the Laich household.”
Though they may not see eye-to-eye on this particular issue, that hasn’t stopped the couple from communicating about other important aspects of their marriage, including their ideas of intimacy.
Earlier this month, Hough appeared on Laich’s podcast where she revealed how the pair have managed to keep the fire between them alive — in part by seeking out a sex therapist to learn about their individual perceptions of intimacy and how sexually compatible they are.
“By almost learning each other’s language — sort of like love languages — it was almost like a menu of how we could please each other sexually, but also intimately,” Hough shared, noting that her idea of intimacy is about “just wanting to be seen.”
“We go to dinner a lot of the time and dinner for Brooks is great because he’s getting fed, he’s got me there, whatever it might be,” she continued. “Dinner to me means I want eye contact and I would really appreciate you, maybe touching my hand at some point.”
While Hough values a physical connection, Laich confessed that he’s more about visuals when it comes to feeling intimate. “When you put lingerie on, I am f— fired up,” he admitted to his wife. “I love it.”
A post shared by Julianne Hough (@juleshough) on Jul 8, 2019 at 9:09am PDT
Hough also said on the podcast that the word “intimacy” has come to mean so much more to her since she met her husband.
“I think it’s one of the most sacred things you can have between a partnership. I think it’s what separates friendship and lovers, and I think that most people do think about sex when they think of intimacy, but when I think about intimacy, I think of presence,” she explained. “I think of absolute, complete and utter connection, when we are two people connecting and then we actually become one person.”
“I can have chemistry and connection, but my intimacy with Brooks is because he challenges me, and he sees me for exactly who I am and accepts me for the fact that I can have chemistry and connection with a lot of people, but I choose him every day,” she added. “I think that is also really sacred, and that’s why we have an intimate relationship. I don’t have that kind of intimacy with a lot of connections that I make throughout my life.”
