Derek Hough Will Absolutely Not Propose to His Girlfriend on DWTS
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In case you've been wondering if Derek Hough is single and available to recreate scenes from Dirty Dancing Havana Nights (superior to the original, fight me) with you, the answer—regrettably—is no. He most certainly is not. Turns out Derek has been in a committed relationship almost as long as he's been lurking on Dancing with the Stars AKA literally forever.
So, who is Derek's other half? That'd be Hayley Erbert, and the time has come to channel our inner FBI agents and learn everything about her and their relationship. Some highlights: they danced their way into each other's hearts, kept things "secret" for years, and now everyone's obsessed with them getting engaged. So yeah, lots of ground to cover, pls buckle up.
Derek and Hayley Started Dating on Dancing with the Stars
Correct: Derek and Hayley are one of the many couples to come out of DWTS, which is basically moonlighting as a dating show at this point, given the number of couples who meet on set. These two started dating when Derek was still a pro dancer and Hayley was a troupe dancer (though they actually met before the show, which we'll get to in a moment). Watch below if you want to see what the dictionary definition of chemistry looks like:
Hayley Originally Competed on So You Think You Can Dance
After training as a gymnast and doing the beauty pageant circuit, Hayley tried out for So You Think You Can Dance and made it all the way to the top six. She then joined the SYTYCD tour in 2013, which led to her being hired by Derek and his sister Julianne to go on tour with them in 2014—at which point a producer from DWTS reached out.
“They got my contact information from Derek and Julianne, called me and set up an interview," Hayley told told CJ Online, via Heavy. "I interviewed right after I got off tour and found out a couple of weeks later that I was on Season 21. That was really exciting for me, not being a trained ballroom dancer, it was really exciting."
They Tried to Hide Their Relationship at First
Which, lol. As if DWTS fans couldn't tell. But yeah, while these two started dating in 2015, they only really began opening up to fans about their relationship in the past few years. Derek explained why they went public to Entertainment Tonight, and it turns out they were just exhausted with the whole secret-keeping thing:
"It's just tiring. It was liberating, honestly, just being like, 'Hey, this is our relationship. This is cool. This is what it is and it's great.' I think I just kind of got almost conditioned to feel or believe that I have to hide everything. When in reality I was just like, 'You know what? There's a freedom to just being open about it.'"
^ Hi, I've watched this six times in a row
Now They Dance Together All the Time
Here they are doing a ~tango of the dead~ on Dancing with the Stars Season 30!
This routine has me literally considering changing my career and becoming a professional dancer.
Hayley and Derek Have a YouTube Channel Together
Where you can watch cute content like this:
And this...which, yep...is Derek Hough covering a Justin Bieber song, thanks for asking.
Literally Everyone Wants Them to Get Married
Due to the fact that they've been dating for years, Derek and Hayley basically can't go five minutes without someone politely inquiring as to when they're going to get engaged/married. But back in 2018, Derek told E! News that "It's not something we really talk about so much right now."
Still, though, it comes up all the time, ahem:
Either way...
Don't Expect them to Get Engaged on DWTS
Despite an ongoing fan theory that Derek will, at some point, get down on one knee and pop the question, he shut down the possibility of a public proposal during an interview with Entertainment Tonight, saying "I'm just going to be straight up, that's not happening. Just because, that's just not my style, I don't think, you know?"
Their Red Carpet PDA Is the Cutest
Just gonna drop these and say....
....Kourtney and Travis whomst?
She's Joining Derek During His Las Vegas Residency!!!
Derek confirmed this cute news, telling Us Weekly, “She is joining me on stage, and I’m so excited. The past year, we’ve been entertaining people from our kitchen or dancing in the house during the Disney Singalongs. It’s really cool to be able to have people come see us dance. We’ve been desperate for them in our house, but now they can see us live on stage.”
This should be equal parts cute and impressive, so if you're in Vegas, go ahead and hit Derek and Hayley up.
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