Brooks Laich Credits Wife Julianne Hough with Perking His Interest in 'Exploring My Sexuality'

Brooks Laich has made exploring his sexuality a top priority this year.

On an upcoming episode of his iHeartRadio podcast, How Men Think, the hockey player, 36, opened up about the “beautiful new side of life” he’s been exposed to, partly as a result of his wife Julianne Hough‘s own explorations.

“Nothing dirty can exist between two people in love,” he says in the episode. “A big part of my journey in 2020 is exploring my sexuality. And by that I don’t mean if I’m gay or straight. I mean, in my sexual relationship, what is my sexuality and what am I craving, and what are my desires and what are my wife’s?”

“How can we have this language to feed each other and get everything we want and be sexually expressed to the nth degree in everything,” he adds.

Laich went on to explain that as an athlete, “learning and figuring out my capacity for sexual feelings” hasn’t always been something he’s thought a lot about.

“I woke up as an athlete, wanted to train, wanted to eat, sleep, rest, perform. Sexuality was way below all of that for the majority of my life,” he says.

Brooks Laich and Julianne Hough | Michael Tran/Getty
Brooks Laich and Julianne Hough | Michael Tran/Getty

Thanks to the conversations he has on the show with co-host Gavin DeGraw and their guests, as well as with Hough, 31, things have changed for Laich.

“I’ve been exposed to a beautiful new side of life that I’d never explored or thought to explore,” he adds. “It’s amazing.”

However, while Laich is open to exploring his sexuality, he did share that at this point threesomes are not something he has any interest in.

“I don’t know if I could ever get that. I can’t ever see myself being physical with somebody else. I just don’t think I could get there. I just don’t,” he says. “In this stage of life, I’m looking for a deeper connection and romance.”

RELATED: Julianne Hough and Husband Brooks Laich Spend Valentine’s Day Together in Texas

Throughout the conversation, Laich also reflects on how much he appreciates marriage.

“When I think of being married and being in my relationship, truthfully at my core, I don’t see any other life for me. Like that’s the life that I choose,” he says, when asked if he ever fantasized about being single.

Laich, who has been married to the Dancing with the Stars alum for over two years, went on to point out that while he “could completely leave my relationship,” he chooses “the life that I have” instead.

“I choose that every second of every day,” he said. “So could I fantasize about it? Maybe. But that’s all it would be. Truthfully, genuinely to my heart, do I actually want that? No.”

“I remember so vividly what it was like to be alone, to be single and feel alone and feel lonely,” he added, noting that feeling “makes me appreciate being married so much more.”

Julianne Hough and Brooks Laich | Frazer Harrison/Getty
Julianne Hough and Brooks Laich | Frazer Harrison/Getty

RELATED: Julianne Hough’s Husband Brooks Laich Reflects on Divorce: Couples Can ‘Develop an Indifference’

Laich first revealed that sexuality would be a top priority of his in January, amid rumors of troubles in their marriage.

Opening up on his podcast, he confessed that he doesn’t feel “100 percent fully expressed” in his true sexuality and that he is now taking a “pleasure first” approach to his life.

“We’re not 10s of 10s. It doesn’t mean you’re the best performer. It just means, ‘Are you fully expressed?’ Do you even know who you are sexually? And I truly, to my core, do not. But I’m super excited about that journey to really learn about sexuality and also get better at the performance of it, but also just the understanding of who I am, who my wife is, that sort of dance.”