Julianne Hough isn’t mincing words when it comes to online scrutiny of her body.
Over the weekend, the actor and “Dancing with the Stars” host shared a short video of herself enjoying “Sunday Spa Day” and dancing in a bikini while inside of a sauna.
Though Hough’s video may have been meant in jest, it drew a mixed response from fans, with some saying in the comments that they were “concerned” by her “weird” behavior.
Others went a step further by criticizing her appearance. “She needs to eat some milkshakes and cheeseburgers,” one person wrote, while another suggested she “lighten up on the Ozempic.”
On Monday, Hough responded to the negative commentary with a lengthy note aimed at her detractors.
“My body has never been healthier,” she wrote. “I was full of inflammation in my 20’s and had a marker for an auto immune that I addressed and committed to over a year and a half ago. I’ve frozen my eggs over the last few years which also shifts the body fluctuation. I’ve never been healthier or happier from the inside out.”
Hough also stated that the video was aimed at showcasing her “playful” side, which she described as the “most authentic version.”
“For those of you genuinely concerned because this is unusual for you to see, I understand that what you don’t understand feels unfamiliar and sometimes scary,” she wrote. “I’m going to continue feeling safe within myself regardless of the outpouring of your comments, and have fun with life which can be really heavy and challenging.”
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Hough concluded her note urging her followers to “be playful and laugh and enjoy the journey” rather than “taking everything so seriously.”
“Sending love, light and playful energy your way,” she wrote.
Hough also offered a more pointed response to those urging her to “eat cheeseburgers.”
“This was on Sept. 17th the premiere date of DWTS!” she wrote in the caption of a video shared to her Instagram stories that showed her taking a bite out of a homemade burger.
Hough ― who will return to the big screen next year alongside Christian Bale and Peter Sarsgaard in the science fiction film, “The Bride!” ― has been candid about the challenges of maintaining a positive outlook on her body as a public figure.
“I post pictures of what I’m wearing or my hair from ‘Dancing with the Stars’ every week, and one person says I look too skinny, and then one person down below says I look pregnant,” she told People in 2016. “I’m like, how does that work? Are you looking at the same picture? At the end of the day, it is what it is.”
In an interview with Redbook published the following year, Hough explained how she learned to take things a bit less seriously when it came to such criticisms.
“I was very self-accepting growing up, then something switched in middle school,” she said at the time. “I would compare myself to everyone…and later I did a film where I basically was told I was fat every day, yet I was the skinniest I’d ever been. Now, when I’m self-conscious, I’ll do something completely crazy or goofy to get out of my own head—something fun that reminds me of the freedom I felt as a kid before all that happened.”
Watch an E! News report on Julianne Hough’s surprise clapback below.