More than a decade after his split from Julianne Hough, singer Chuck Wicks is setting the record straight on how the end of their relationship in 2009 really went down..and apparently, it wasn't as rosy as the two made it seem.
On the Dec. 14 episode of his podcast Talk to Chuck, the "Stealing Cinderella" artist got real with guest Carly Pearce about his split from Julianne, who he competed with on Dancing With the Stars in 2009.
Despite the popular belief that the two met when they were paired on DWTS, they actually got together earlier, Chuck explained, when they both went on tour with Brad Paisley, Chuck explained. While things were great in their professional lives, their romance wasn't built to last.
"You go out there, we're both loving life, we're on a high because we're both, our careers were going great. You know, we bought a house together, did all these things and then out of nowhere you find out that they're not the person that you thought they were and you break up. And then I had to...everybody wants to know why," he explained. "And, you know, I found myself doing a CMA red carpet and we made a pact together to basically lie, to say, no, we just wanted to part ways, everything's fine. It wasn't fine. S--t hit the fan."
Julianne and Chuck raised eyebrows when they were seen holding hands and looking friendly backstage at the CMAs in November 2009, despite reports indicating the two had split and were working out who would take ownership of the house they had purchased together three months earlier.
Chuck continued, "You know, I'm not going to throw anybody under the bus but it wasn't my fault. So you find yourself when you're in love, everything's great, people are loving watching you on Instagram, oh this is the perfect couple, couple goals and all this stuff. But then, man, if something goes wrong you gotta face that too."
At the time of the split, Julianne had told People that things were still great between the exes.
"We're both just really, really busy with our careers, and we spend a lot of time apart from each other, so we're just taking a little break right now," she told the outlet in November 2009. "Honestly, Chuck and I are such good friends—we still hang out all the time, and we're still writing together."
In a 2014 interview with Redbook, she again stated that there was no real drama in any of her breakups.
"Every relationship, there was nothing wrong or bad, but there was nothing right. I had one foot out because I didn't want to get hurt," the Safe Haven star, who at the time was dating now ex-husband Brooks Laich, shared. "And I didn't say what was on my mind because I didn't want to ruffle any feathers. I needed to be perfect. Now I'm not holding anything back because I'd rather get my heart broken than never know what it is to be completely, madly in love. If I had been this open in my last relationship, who knows?"