Dancing With the Stars’ host Julianne Hough has opened up about her decision to break up with Ryan Seacrest in a new interview.

Julianne, now 36, reflected on their time together in conversation with Armchair Expert podcast host Dax Shepard, admitting she “overcompensated” for Ryan’s fame by making herself “smaller.”

She said it felt like “the rug was swept up from underneath me” when they first started dating, adding, “I was experiencing things that I didn’t even know existed.”

Julianne told Dax she was conscious of the way outsiders might perceive their relationship, explaining she didn’t want anyone to think she was using Ryan, now 49, for his Hollywood connections.

“I had this insecurity that I was like, ‘I don’t ever want anybody to think that I’m with him for this reason,'” the Safe Haven actress said.

“And so I then started playing smaller,” she continued.

“I know that was his experience in past situations and stuff, and so I again overcompensated, was malleable to fit into exactly what somebody needed me to be for them to be happy.”

Looking back on her romantic relationships, Julianne shared, this was a pattern she repeated because she likes the “feeling of being loved.”

Julianne recalled feeling “so oblivious” and “dissociative” about the difference in their levels of fame at the time, adding her decision to end the relationship shocked “Brentwood moms and producers.”

“Eventually, I remember when I decided to break things off, I had a lot of these Brentwood moms and producers in that world that were like, ‘What are you doing?’

“They’re like, ‘Your life is completely set up.’ And I was like, ‘But I didn’t build it,'” she continued. “I was like, ‘I need to create this.’ Competitively, it’s not mine. I need to feel the pride of doing it.”

Over a decade since their split, Julianne, who described Ryan as a “lovely person,” appears to be on good terms with her ex.

She recently wished Ryan’s mother Connie well on her birthday in May, after the American Idol presenter marked the occasion with an Instagram post.

Reacting to Ryan’s photo of him hugging his mom, Julianne commented, “Happy Birthday to the one and only Cosmo Connie!”

The Dancing with the Stars co-host, now 36, dated Ryan, now 49, for three years from 2010 until 2013.

Commenting on the reason for their split at the time, a source told Us Weekly, “Honestly, their schedules were too hectic.”

Eventually, I remember when I decided to break things off, I had a lot of these Brentwood moms and producers in that world that were like, ‘What are you doing?’

Julianne has previously said she “didn’t deserve” the luxuries that came with dating an A-list celebrity during a 2020 Instagram Live chat with influencer Valeria Lipovetsky.

“I was on private planes and yachts and living in a very, very well-off house and my life was pretty different from where I grew up,” she shared, adding, “I wanted to create that for myself.”

Elsewhere, during the interview with Dax, 49, Julianne became emotional as she spoke about her divorce from former NHL player Brooks Laich.

The Grease star described the year they got married, 2017, as “the year everything kinda started to unravel.”

Julianne and Brooks began dating in 2014 and tied the knot three years later.

‘IT WASN’T RIGHT’

In January 2020, it was reported they were “having problems” in their marriage – five months before they released a statement announcing their separation.

Julianne told the podcast host that while she and Brooks “have regrets that it didn’t work out,” she’s now at peace with their decision to go separate ways.

“It wasn’t right. That can be a hard thing to fully accept,” she said. “I feel like our relationship and our marriage was exactly right, and the end of it is right, too.

“We both have regrets that it didn’t work out, because I don’t think we had the maturity to come together,” Julianne added. “He was contracting while I was expanding.

“We just couldn’t find each other in that.”