Derek Hough, 37, and Hayley Erbert, 27, announced their engagement on June 2 after dating for seven years. The couple shared the exciting news with a sweet snapshot on both their Instagram pages that showed Derek holding Hayley as Hayley straddled her legs around his body. “It’s only the beginning…the beginning of forever,” they both captioned the adorable photo.
It’s known that Derek and Hayley are both very accomplished dancers who met when Hayley joined Derek and Julianne Hough’s MOVE Live Tour in 2014. Their paths then crossed again when Hayley was hired onto the season 21 Dancing With the Stars troupe, which ended up being another winning season for Derek, who was partnered with Bindi Irwin. They began dating at some point after that, but did not go public with their relationship until 2017. Aside from being a dancer, Hayley is a nature lover and woman of many talents. Read on to learn more about the dancer and future wife of Derek Hough!
Hayley Erbert is from the Southwest
Hayley was born and raised in Texas. She has one brother, Collin Erbert, who is a few years older. She has shouted him out several times on her Instagram, like with the below throwback photo of them looking adorable together as children. It is not known what Collin does professionally, but he did graduate from college in 2015. It is safe to say he chose a life away from the spotlight just from a glance at his Instagram page. That doesn’t mean he hasn’t had a run-in with the stars, though. In 2016, he posted a photo with Julianne Hough the night she starred in Fox’s Grease Live! He joked that he set the picture as his phone background.
Hayley Erbert is a former pageant queen
Hayley shot to fame as a finalist on the 10th season of So You Think You Can Dance, which jumpstarted her career as a professional dancer. However, Hayley also had a passion for pageantry. She was the first runner-up in 2013’s Miss Kansas Teen USA pageant. If you looked through her Instagram page, though, one would not be able to tell. Her oldest Instagram photos, dating back to 2012, are centered around her dance endeavors and daily life with her friends. No shots of her smiling on stage during a pageant can be found. The only photo in which she wears a crown is a snapshot from her 22nd birthday, which she captioned with the very famous words of Taylor Swift, “I don’t know about you, but I’m feeling 22.”
Hayley Erbert is super athletic
If being a well-known dancer isn’t enough, Hayley has proven just how athletic she is off the dance floor time and time again. She has shared multiple photos of herself partaking in water sports over the years, such as wake surfing and surfing. She tried surfing in 2021, and even though the video she posted of herself in the water doesn’t show her standing up on the board, she looks like she could have it down in no time. Plus, the 2017 shot of her wake surfing (seen here) made it look like anyone could do it.
Nature is Hayley Ebert’s Muse
If her seemingly seamless participation in watersports doesn’t show that Hayley has a deep connection with nature, a myriad of posts peppered throughout her Instagram will. Hayley posted a carousel of photos to her Instagram page on Earth Day in 2022 and captioned it, “How lucky are we that we get to call this place home?! Happy Earth Day!” Some snapshots she shared included a selfie with a gorilla, swimming with dolphins, enjoying a waterfall, walking on sand dunes, and gazing at the sunset. In 2021, Hayley posted photos of herself on a safari in Kenya with Derek, smiling in Joshua Tree National Park, and scuba diving in Hawaii. She has also never been shy about her love for animals, which she has been posting about since 2012. It’s clear Hayley can dance through nature over and over!
Hayley is a dog and cat mom
Hayley doesn’t have kids of her own, but she does have a brood of pets! She and Derek are proud owners of two dogs and two cats. The dogs’ names are Luna and Romie, while the cats are named Palo and Lily. The pro dancer shared a photo in Oct. 2020 of the cats playing while Romie begged for cuddles and Luna watched the cats, and she said it summed up her life “pretty well” and that she would not “change it for the world.”
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