Dancing with the Stars co-host Julianne Hough has opened up about her childhood trauma like never before, recalling a devastating story of when she was sexually abused at age 4.

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Julianne, 36, previously shared in 2013 how she had been abused "mentally and physically" at age 10 when studying competitive ballroom dance in London with her brother and Dancing with the Stars judge Derek Hough.

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But Julianne just dropped a bombshell that her history of abuse actually started much earlier than that.

"For a long time, I actually didn't remember a lot of my childhood before I was 10 years old... There was a whole life before 10 years old that I completely blocked out," Julianne revealed during the Thursday, August 15 episode of "The Jamie Kern Lima Show."

The former Dancing with the Stars judge and champion elaborated, "My first experience was when I was about four-years-old by a neighbor in our neighborhood, in our cul-de-sac. I've actually never said that out loud to anybody in an interview before."

Julianne -- who was raised in Utah as a Mormon and therefore felt pressure to be "perfect" -- recalled the heartbreaking details of telling her mother about the incident after it happened.

"When I came back and told my mom at 4, my clothes were inside out. She asked why my clothes were inside out, and I said, 'I don't want to talk about it.' And she said, 'Tell me what happened,'" Julianne said.

"My only way of describing it -- because we weren't allowed carbonation as kids, no [soda] or pop -- I remember tasting it and it, like, burned and it hurt in my lungs. And I remember saying, 'I felt like I had a Sprite bottle between my legs.'"

"That's what I told my mom," Julianne admitted, "and so she freaked out and was panicking. Her response was, 'Get up and move.'"

In addition to her brother Derek, 39, Julianne also has three sisters. Julianne said her family reacted to the apparent rape by moving out of the neighborhood.

"And by the way, I'm not the only one in my family that had gone through similar things," Julianne said.

She continued, "There were other things that happened [there too]. My brother was hung upside down and there was a gun put to his head. There were all sorts of things by these people."

As Julianne told Derek's story, she started to get choked up.

According to the professional dancer and actress, there was "not a lot of repercussion" for what happened to her and her siblings and "nobody did anything" to the offenders, which was "a very challenging thing" for her to come to terms with.

"The people that also violated my sisters or my brother or myself, they never got reprimanded for it. Because we didn't say something," Julianne recalled in tears.

"Instead we just pivoted and we moved. Which is good, because we got out of the situation, but also, that's another thing for me [in life where] I just pivot, pivot, pivot."

Julianne had a "profound revelation" during her chat with Jamie Kern Lima that her mother did "the best she could" in that situation.

"I guess my mom did do what she could. She just wanted to move and leave. She didn't want to talk about it, but she did want to get us out," Julianne noted.

Julianne shared how it was "a very, very confusing time" in her life.

She lamented, "Being so young, and those being your first experiences -- whether it be physical, mental, sexual -- those abuses of power to someone who is vulnerable to it, it immediately sets a precedent of, 'Other people have the power.'"

At age 10, Julianne and Derek moved to London and lived with their professional dance teachers, Corky Ballas and Shirley Ballas.

While they were only supposed to study in London for a few months, Julianne lived there for five years and Derek stayed overseas for about 10 years.

As she previously revealed in 2013, Julianne went through more abuse and trauma during her training, and once she returned to the United States at age 15, she confronted her mother.

"At about 15, I came home and started sharing those things -- but I forgot about the neighbor thing at four-years-old until I really started doing this [therapy and healing] work in the last few years," Julianne explained.

"From birth to 10, I had completely disassociated myself from that ever happening."

Julianne confirmed that her family is no longer in contact with the neighbor who abused her.

Julianne also shared that her parents "felt guilty" about how they initially handled the horrible abuse.

"They have their own guilt and shame of other things that they were trying to do in the moment," Julianne acknowledged on Thursday. "So they can't hear what happened because they were having their own experience."

Julianne pointed out how she "really reconnected" with her parents and established more of a parental-daughter relationship with them when she was going through her divorce from Brooks Laich.

"I got to be the kid and they got to take care of me. And that was the most healing time for us," Julianne concluded.

Going forward, Julianne said she never wants to feel "like a victim," and she added, "You just try to do the next right thing to keep going forward."

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Julianne will return as co-host for the upcoming Dancing with the Stars season alongside host Alfonso Ribeiro.

Dancing with the Stars' 33rd season is set to premiere Tuesday, September 17 at 8PM ET/PT on ABC. Derek will be returning as a judge along with Carrie Ann Inaba and Bruno Tonioli.




About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski

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