Feelings ran excessive Tuesday night time when Hayley Erbert returned to “Dancing With the Stars” for the primary time since her 2023 well being disaster to carry out together with her husband, Derek Hough.
The skilled dancers, who tied the knot final yr, opted for a up to date routine set to an acoustic model of Benson Boone’s “Beautiful Things.” For a lot of viewers, the music’s allusions to like and loss held new which means: The efficiency took place 10 months after Erbert underwent emergency mind surgical procedure following a prognosis of cranial hematoma, which is characterised by blood amassing within the cranium.
In footage aired forward of the efficiency, Hough recalled the “pure fear” he skilled when he realized that his spouse was having seizures backstage whereas the 2 have been on their joint “Symphony of Dance” tour in December of final yr.
“It just all came to a screeching halt in the most devastating way,” recalled Hough, who’s lengthy been a standout on “DWTS.”
“I was onstage, and she’s supposed to come out. And the stage manager walked out and just said, ‘Hey, she’s not coming onstage.’ She was on the side of the stage having full seizures and essentially dying.”
After Erbert was rushed to the hospital, Hough mentioned a physician instructed him that his spouse “might not make it, and that even if she does make it, she won’t be the same person.”
“He told me that ‘you basically have lost the person that you knew,’” he famous.
Eric McCandless by way of Getty Photographs
In an interview with Individuals printed on-line Wednesday, Erbert acknowledged that she was “flooded with emotions” by Tuesday’s episode of “DWTS,” and that “I started losing it because I actually haven’t seen a lot of the footage in quite some time because I’ve just been focusing on progressing every single day.”
Hough echoed these sentiments, suggesting he’d believed that he and Erbert would by no means share a dance once more.
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“Tonight was just sort of the beginning of telling the full story,” he mentioned.
Erbert and Hough have confirmed they’re at work on a documentary that can additional chronicle Erbert’s well being disaster and subsequent restoration. A launch date has not but been introduced.
