From Oprah Magazine

• Derek Hough was recently announced as a judge for the upcoming 29th season of Dancing With the Stars.

• As a DWTS pro, Hough has already won six Mirrorball Trophies.

• Hough’s girlfriend, Hayley Erbert, is also a professional dancer. Here’s what we know about their relationship.

They say that opposites attract, but when it comes to Derek Hough and girlfriend Hayley Erbert, that couldn’t be further from the truth.

The 35-year-old dancer and Hollywood favorite—whose sister happens to be equally famed choreographer Julianne Hough—was announced as a judge for the 29th season of Dancing With the Stars, out September 14. Hough had already been a judge on NBC’s World of Dance, where he captivated the attention of audiences thanks to his supportive one-liners and the same gyrating dance moves he flaunted as a Dancing with the Stars professional.

And while the focus of Dancing With the Stars is on who will take home the Mirrorball Trophy (Hough already has six), we also wondered which lucky woman captured the handsome multi-hyphenate’s heart. It turns out to be none other than 25-year-old fellow dancer Hayley Erbert. Because we know you’re curious too, here’s everything we’ve learned about his girlfriend.

First of all, Hayley Erbert is a dancer.

She’s been one of the troupe dancers on Dancing with the Stars since season 21, and she’s currently on the show’s A Night to Remember tour, which she frequently posts photos from. In addition, she was also a top-six finalist on season 10 of So You Think You Can Dance. According to her bio, she’s also danced alongside stars like Paula Abdul and Pitbull.

Erbert’s audition for So You Think You Can Dance, completed when she was 18, shows a star in the making.

She and Hough Met on Dancing with the Stars.

Back in 2015, the two stars competed separately on the reality competition show—though they eventually danced together. In 2017, she posted a throwback from their joint performance of Ed Sheeran’s “Thinking Out Loud.” Previously, Erbert was hired for Derek and Julianne Hough’s Move Live! tour in 2014. She eventually caught the eye of a producer that hired her for DWTS, according to Heavy.com.

They first started dating in 2015.

According to Entertainment Tonight, Erbert and Hough became romantically linked in 2015—and have been together since. “She’s grounded,” Hough told ET of Erbert in 2018. “She’s really, really grounded—just really down to earth, and just [has] a good heart and a beautiful soul.”

There’s always talk about them getting engaged.

After his sister Julianne married Brooks Laich in 2017, Derek opened up about waiting to make sure the timing for an engagement was right (Julianne and Laich have since separated). “I want to marry once. I want to be with that person that I love dearly. I want to get to know that person. I feel like, if anything, it’s something that I don’t feel like should be rushed into doing at all,” he told ET.

That said, it sounds like he does intend to pop the question—some day. According to Women’s Health, he said so on World of Dance, during an episode in which his fellow judge Jennifer Lopez asked, “Well, do you want to get married?” To that, he replied, “Well, yeah, I think I do.”

Erbert has several talents.

In addition to being a dancer and a trained gymnast, the Topeka native also took home the second place spot for Miss Kansas in the 2013 Miss Teen USA pageant.

The couple recently launched a YouTube channel about their life together.

Hoping for a glimpse into Hough and Erbert’s domestic life? There’s a YouTube channel for that. Dayley Life, a play on the couple’s first names, was launched during the quarantine period. Now that Hough will be busy judging Dancing With the Stars, the videos’ cadence might be different—but we hope Erbert continues with her cooking videos.

She donned Belle’s yellow gown in the Disney Family Singalong.

The Hough siblings appeared in both Disney Family Singalong specials, which aired earlier in 2020. In the first, Hough and Erbert choreographed a dance set to “Be Our Guest” from Beauty and the Beast.

Erbert channeled her inner Belle, just as she had as a girl.

Erbert and Hough have a cat together.

Their kitten Palo regularly makes appearances on Erbert’s Instagram feed.

And a dog, too.

Clearly, theirs is a pet-loving household.

Like all of us, they loved A Star Is Born.

Here’s Hough singing “Shallow” to Erbert in the kitchen.

And they always post cute photos together.

Cue the Awwwwwws.

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