Derek Hough Blasts Amber Rose’s Claim That Julianne Body Shamed Her On ‘DWTS’

Derek Hough is defending his sister against claims made by Dancing with the Stars contestant Amber Rose. In an interview with Entertainment Tonight, Derek said that his sister, DWTS judge Julianne Hough, did not “body shame” Amber during her booty-themed dance last week on the ABC celebrity ballroom competition. Hough said his sister’s comments were “100 misunderstood” by Rose.

“I think we all know Julianne and she is a huge advocate for being kind,” Derek said.

“You get your feelings hurt when you’re on the show. I understand [Amber] felt bummed out. But to say [Julianne] was [body shaming] is definitely just false. Julianne’s the complete opposite of that, and she stands for everything that’s [the opposite of] body shaming.”

Derek said he predicts his sister will try to hash things out with Rose when she sees her ahead of this week’s show. You can see Derek Hough talking about the incident in the video below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gjV08gZkp6o

On her Loveline podcast last week, Amber Rose accused Julianne Hough of body shaming her while critiquing the salsa dance she did with Maxim Chmerkovskiy. According to E! News, Amber said she felt that Hough was criticizing her curvy body when she said watching her dance to the Jennifer Lopez song “Booty” made her feel uncomfortable.

“They did the commentary and it was a point in the dance where I had to lift my leg up, and Maks dipped me, and she said, ‘Ooh, I’m uncomfortable.’ And I instantly, I felt, I did feel body shamed,” Rose said.

“All the beautiful professional dancers that are on Dancing With the Stars, I mean, they dress very sexy and they do the splits and they grind up on these guys and they look absolutely stunning and get a standing ovation. And me, and my body, my hips, my a**, my breasts made her uncomfortable.”

But Hough told E! that her sound bite about Amber was taken out of context as part of a taped package for the long-running ABC reality show. Julianne explained that her comment about being “uncomfortable” was because Rose didn’t put enough energy into the dance and it made it uncomfortable to watch. Derek Hough’s sister added that “any kind of body shaming is the furthest thing from who I am and what I stand for.”

While DWTS fans will have to wait and see if Rose and Hough hug things out, this is not the first time that Derek Hough has come to his little sister’s defense. When Julianne was first cast as a permanent judge on Dancing with the Stars, some eyebrows were raised. At the time, pro dancer Karina Smirnoff told Us Weekly that she didn’t feel it was entirely ethical that Julianne was judging the competition while her older brother was a contestant on it. But Derek fired back to defend his sister. On his blog for TV Guide, Derek Hough wrote that Julianne would never give him preferential treatment when judging his routines on the ABC reality show.

“She’s very fair and I know she would never treat me any differently than any other contestant. She hasn’t and she won’t,” Derek assured fans.

Derek Hough is a six-time mirrorball champion and an Emmy Award winner. He is also one of the most popular—and positive—pro dancers on Dancing with the Stars, so it’s no surprise that he is coming to Julianne’s defense.

And it’s not the first time he has defended someone on the show this season, either. On Week 1, when two protesters stormed the ballroom floor as Olympian Ryan Lochte awaited his judges’ scores, Derek Hough shooed away their accomplices by shouting, “Get out of here! This is a positive show!”

You can see Derek Hough on Dancing With the Stars on Mondays at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.

[Featured Image by Earl Gibson III/Getty Images for Dizzy Feet Foundation]