Julianne Hough's Husband Brooks Laich Reflects on Divorce: Couples Can 'Develop an Indifference'
Brooks Laich is weighing in on all things marriage and divorce.
On Monday’s episode of his iHeartRadio podcast, How Men Think, the hockey player and his co-host Gavin DeGraw welcomed famed divorce attorney Laura Wasser to explore the reasons why couples chose to divorce.
Laich — who recently hit a rough patch in his marriage to Julianne Hough, according to multiple sources — said he thinks couples “need to continually evolve.”
“You’re going to change, I’m going to change in the course of my life, my wife is going to change in the course of her life,” he said. “But also, I think people over time can develop some sort of indifference where once there was an attraction. They can just develop an indifference, and it’s not staying connected enough to continue to learn and grow and accept your changes, accept their changes, and also challenge each other.”
“There are so many resources out there — seminars, books, all kinds of things,” he continued. “There’s areas in your relationship you can undoubtedly grow, and maybe there’s just an indifference in people where they don’t want to put in the energy to do it, or they don’t think they can.”
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Laich, 36, also said most couples don’t communicate as much as they should.
“I don’t think a lot of people in their marriage really, really truthfully communicate all the needs and desires and cravings and yearnings they have for themselves, for their partner, all of it,” he said. “I think they lack a little bit of courage there, to share those things, that could really actually keep people together and light their marriage on fire.”
He wrapped the episode by paying his compliments to Wasser, 51.
“Listening to you talk, I really respect and admire your approach to this topic,” he said. “You aren’t in it just to make money and get people on their way — you actually care about all parties involved, you look at all scenarios and you actually care about people’s happiness. So I want to commend you for all of that and how you handle yourself personally, professionally.”
But while Laich said he “learned a lot” during their discussion, he isn’t exactly hoping to require her services.
“I’m really happy for you, but I hope I’m never on your podcast,” he said with a laugh. (Wasser hosts the Divorce Sucks podcast, newly relaunched as All’s Fair with Laura Wasser.)
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Laich and Julianne, 31, wed in July 2017. On New Year’s Eve, fans began speculating about a split after noticing that Julianne wasn’t wearing her ring while co-hosting NBC show with Carson Daly. She also posted a video of herself ringless on Christmas Eve.
According to one source, Julianne — who revealed last summer that she’s not straight — “is very independent and a free spirit, and that’s been tough for their marriage.”
But another insider told PEOPLE that the two “are not giving up, but also not talking about [their issues publicly].”
“They want to do this their way,” the second insider added. “They don’t want to discuss their marriage. They have been having problems, but many people do.”
And Laich is hoping to make things work, according to a third source.
“If it was up to Brooks, he would stay married,” the source said. “And he is obviously still hoping things will work out with Jules.”
Neither has publicly addressed any marital trouble, and their reps have not commented. The couple was most recently seen together grabbing lunch together in Studio City, California, on Saturday. (Julianne was not wearing her wedding ring.)
During a recent appearance on PEOPLE Now, Julianne’s brother Derek Hough declined to address the rumors about his sister’s marriage, though he did share that Laich had been tending to her while she was sick.
“Brooks is taking good care of her,” he said.
