‘I’m just grateful to be alive’: Derek Hough and Hayley Erbert give fans an update in emotional video
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When Hayley Erbert woke up from an emergency surgery that involved removing part of her skull, she found her husband, Derek Hough, sitting at the foot of the hospital bed.
“There’s so many people thinking about you,” he told her. “There’s so many people sending love to you.”
In that moment, Erbert said she didn’t even need to hear those words to know they were true.
“I remember just looking at him and just saying, ‘You didn’t even have to tell me that. I can feel it. Like I genuinely felt that through my body,” Erbert said with emotion in a new video shared on Instagram that has more than half a million likes. “I felt it in my heart, I felt it in my soul. So thank you all so much for all of your messages, your love, your energy, your light, your prayers. Thank you guys for all of it, ‘cause it means so much to me, and to us as a family.”
The video comes roughly two months after Erbert “became disoriented” and was rushed to the hospital, where she received a cranial hematoma diagnosis and had an emergency surgery, the Deseret News previously reported. At the time, the “Dancing With the Stars” power couple, who married last August, were on a dance tour that was ultimately postponed.
Since the injury, Erbert and Hough have regularly provided updates on the recovery process. Their new video, shared this week, marks one of the first times they have spoken directly to fans about the health scare.
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Derek Hough and Hayley Erbert give fans an update in new video
Both Hough and Erbert were visibly emotional as they recounted the past two months. Since the injury in early December, there’s been surgeries, holiday celebrations, an Emmy win and an up-and-down recovery process that is ongoing.
“It’s been wild — I mean, going from the highest of highs to the lowest of lows,” Hough said in the video, sitting alongside Erbert. “But I had to say, throughout this experience, this woman has been unbelievable, and her perseverance and her acceptance of the whole situation, her strength, it’s been remarkable to witness firsthand. She really is a miracle, and it’s been miraculous — and it’s still a journey.”
“To this day, I still have really good days and I have really bad days, emotionally and physically sometimes.” Erbert added. “But I’m doing so much better every single day, like truly there is so much progress every day, and I’m so grateful for that.”
Erbert showed off her “new scar” and “new haircut” — and how it’s all led to a “new outlook on life.”
“Life is so precious,” she said. “Just spend time with the ones you love. Hold them close, ‘cause you never know what could happen.”
The couple expressed their gratitude for each other, and for the ongoing support they have received from their concerned friends and fans.
“I believe that it’s gotten me through this a little bit faster, and it’s what helped me heal and helped me stay positive throughout the entire experience,” Erbert said.
Hough said they plan to share more details about the health scare and recovery process, including “all the moments of grace and tender mercies.” But for now, they’re just taking it a day at a time.
“I’m just grateful to be alive,” Erbert said. “We have a lot to tell, and eventually we will.”
How did Derek Hough and Hayley Erbert meet?
Erbert’s cranial hematoma came just a few months into the dancers’ marriage. The 29-year-old professional dancer married Hough, 38, last year after several years of dating, per People.
Erbert went on tour with Hough and his sister, “Dancing With the Stars” host Julianne Hough, in 2014. The pair began dating a year later, when they both appeared on “Dancing With the Stars,” People reported. They married last August, and their Symphony of Dance tour in the fall included a choreographed version of their wedding dance.
“Every time we rehearse it, I cry,” Hough previously told USA Today ahead of the tour. “If we get over-frazzled, we take a moment where we just look into each other’s eyes and say, ‘I love you.’ When I hear those words, it’s like juice; I feel unstoppable.”
