JULIANNE HOUGH REVEALS ABUSE BOMBSHELL

JULIANNE HOUGH

Dancing with the Stars' JULIANNE HOUGH has revealed she was a victim of abuse as a child while pursuing her dance career in England.

"While I was in London, I was abused, mentally, physically, everything," the 24-year-old star admits in the February 2013 issue of Cosmopolitan.

She explains, "I was 10-years-old looking like I was 28, being a very sensual dancer. I was a tormented little kid who had to put on this sexy façade because that was my job and my life. But my heart was the same, and I was this innocent little girl. I wanted so much love.”

While she doesn't go into detail about by who or in what way she was abused, she says, "I’m a very forgiving person, and I don’t want to hurt anybody. What's past is past."

Hough, originally from Utah, added the abuse got worse “when I started hitting puberty, when I started becoming a woman and stopped being a little girl” and that her abuser threatened her.

“I was told if I ever went back to the United States, three things were going to happen. One: I was going to amount to nothing. Two: I was going to work at Whataburger. And three: I was going to end up a slut. So it was like, I can't go back, I have to be this person.”

At 15, Hough got the courage to leave. “I was like, f**k that. I know who I am, and I don’t want to be this person who I am becoming."

Hough, who is dating RYAN SEACREST, says her latest role as a domestic abuse survivor in the upcoming movie Safe Haven inspired her to go public with her painful past. “I don’t want pity. To me it’s more about being that voice for people who don’t necessarily have a voice.”

Visit RadarOnline.com for more from Julianne's Cosmo interview and to see the cover.