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Julianne Hough Details Gut-Wrenching Story of How Her Dogs Died
Julianne Hough’s dogs Lexi and Harley have forever left a paw print on her heart.
Nearly five years after her beloved canines passed away, the Dancing With the Stars host revealed their cause of death.
Even before the heartbreaking loss in 2019, Julianne had been going through a difficult time. As the dancer recently explained on The Jamie Kern Lima Show, she and her longtime assistant had decided to part ways, she was juggling her newly launched company KINRGY and her marriage to now-ex-husband Brooks Laich was unraveling.
“There was also a long time of questioning is this working, is this not working? We’re going in different directions,” Julianne shared about her relationship with the former hockey player—whom she split from in 2020 and later divorced—on the Aug. 27 episode of the podcast. “So I had asked for a separation with the intent to work through. Asked for a separation, and then 10 days later my dogs were killed by coyotes.”
Lexi and Harley both died Sept. 28, 2019. Julianne announced the devastating news two weeks later on Oct. 12—sharing not how they passed but how they’d shown her “pure love is real.”
Julianne Hough/Instagram
“Thank you for your love,” she wrote in an Instagram tribute. “Thank you for being my babies, my daughters. Thank you for choosing me. Thank you for teaching me how to be your mother. Thank you for allowing me to give and receive love. Thank you for your kisses. Thank you for your blessings every single minute of every single day. Thank you for your souls. Thank you for protecting me. Thank you for letting me protect you. Thank you for protecting each other. Thank you for the timeless memories. Thank you for your magic. Thank you for being the most consistent and constant beings in my life. Thank you for being you. Thank you for being my guardians on this earth and even more so now.”
“I’ve never experienced a love like ours,” the Grease Live! alum added. “I miss you. I love you forever. Now You Are Free.”
As time went on, Julianne occasionally spoke about her dogs’ deaths but continued to stay quiet on how they passed.
“I had them for 11 and eight years,” she shared on a 2021 episode of Danica Patrick’s podcast Pretty Intense. “I would have nightmares about how they died, and they died that same way.”
And while Lexi and Harley will forever hold a place in Julianne’s heart—with her even naming a character in her new book Everything We Never Knew Lexi—she’s been able to open it back up to another four-legged friend. She introduced “little miss Sunny girl” in September 2023. As she later put it on TikTok, “Love comes in Sunny form.”
To learn more about Julianne’s dogs, keep reading.
Instagram/Julianne Hough
What breeds were Julianne Hough’s dogs Lexi and Harley?
Lexi and Harley were Cavalier King Charles Spaniels.
When did Julianne Hough get her dogs Lexi and Harley?
Lexi was born July 21, 2008.
“I’ve always wanted a dog, but I didn’t know what I wanted or if I could take care of one,” Julianne once explained to Modern Dog Magazine. "When I was on tour with Brad Paisley, he had a Cavalier King Charles and I fell in love with the breed. My sister was also looking for a dog, and [the breeder] told me that they had a runt from the litter, but they didn’t know if I would want a runt. They sent me photos and I loved her.”
As for how she came up with the name Lexi?
“Her name was Princess, but I didn’t love that name,” the two-time Mirrorball champion continued. “My middle name is Alexandra, so I came up with Lexi.”
Less than three years later, Harley was born on March 28, 2011.
What had Julianne Hough shared about her love of her dogs?
Whether she was posting sweet pictures of her dogs on social media or raving about her adorable “fur babies” in interviews, Julianne had let it be known just how much Lexi and Harley meant to her.
“I love my dogs because they are perfect to me,” she told Pacific Rim Video’s That’s So Hollywood in 2014. “They give unconditional love. I love them unconditionally. And they give not just me joy but they give anybody who meets them joy and happiness….They’re little companions that mean everything to me. I mean, they’re like my kids.”
Instagram/Julianne Hough
How did Julianne Hough’s dogs Lexi and Harley die?
Lexi and Harley died Sept. 28, 2019. When Julianne announced the news that October, she didn’t share how they passed.
Nearly five years later, Julianne revealed Lexi and Harley were killed by coyotes.
“I woke up before my phone even rang, and I knew,” she said on the Aug. 27 episode of The Jamie Kern Lima Show. “I picked up the phone and my assistant at the time was just screaming.”
The dancer said she'd never had coyotes in her yard and that she has gates. While the loss of Lexi and Harley was heartbreaking for Julianne, she’s been able to find some peace around their passing.
“One, I’m so grateful they went together,” she continued. “Two, I’m grateful that usually how it happens is very quick and that we got their bodies.”
In addition to mourning her dogs' deaths, Julianne was navigating her split from her now-ex-husband Brooks Laich—noting Lexi and Harley were killed by the coyotes just 10 days after she'd asked the former NHL player for a separation. Around this time, she and her assistant of eight years had also decided to stop working together. On top of all this, Julianne was preparing to have her dance and fitness platform KINRGY be a part of Oprah Winfrey’s tour.
“I felt so out of integrity or out of alignment that I'm about to start this company which is all about helping people connect to themselves and living their most expanded free self and my assistant and I are breaking up, my husband at the time—I’m asking for for a separation ‘cause something's not working, my dogs that represented unconditional love and safety, gone," the Safe Haven actress added. "I'm like, 'What am I doing? I'm blowing up my life.'"
Does Julianne Hough have any other dogs?
While nobody could ever replace Lexi and Harley, Julianne added another member to her family in 2023—her dog Sunny.
“Sunny, you have brought so much love and literal sunshine in to my life,” she wrote on Instagram July 6 on the pup’s first birthday. “I can’t remember a time without you. Lexi & Harley would have loved and played with you everyday and I know that they sent you to me, only when I was ready to open my heart and love again - you cracked me open sweetheart. Thank You.”
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