Derek Hough and wife Hayley Erbert are taking small steps to return to their normal life after she underwent emergency brain surgery last year.
“Stepping onto this blank canvas together. Beginning to paint again ❤️ @hayley.erbert,” Hough, 38, captioned a snapshot of the couple via Instagram on Wednesday, March 20.
The photo pictured was in black and white and showed Hough and Erbert, 29, standing side by side in a dance studio with their backs toward the camera. Hough’s arm was wrapped around Erbert as her head rested on his shoulder.
Earlier this month, Hough revealed that his wife was doing so well that she might even dance with him again on his A Symphony of Dance Tour this year.
“There’s a possibility, there really is,” he revealed to E! News on March 13. “I almost need to rename the tour to the Miracle Tour or something because if there’s a moment where she’s with us and joining us on stage, it’s going to be unbelievably special. I don’t know even know how I’m going to [get] through it. I’m an emotional guy.”
Erbert’s probable return to center stage comes three months after she became suddenly disoriented following a December 6, 2023, performance of A Symphony of Dance Tour in Washington, D.C., which led to her being hospitalized.
“She was diagnosed with a cranial hematoma from a burst blood vessel and required an emergency craniectomy,” Hough wrote via Instagram one day later, noting that Erbert was in “stable condition.”
Derek Hough and Hayley Erbert captivated audiences with their chemistry well before they started dating. Hough first connected with Erbert after she was cast as a dancers in his and sister Julianne Hough’s Move Live Tour in 2014. By July 2015, they were a couple. The couple performed together as part of Derek’s fall 2021 […]
During that time, Hough continued to share updates on his wife’s health with fans, as well as let everyone know she had to get a second surgery. “She is going in for surgery this morning to replace a large portion of her skull that was removed during her Craniectomy,” he wrote on December 20.
The next day, the Dancing With the Stars judge let everyone know that the operation had gone well. “With immense relief, gratitude and overwhelming joy I’d like to share that Hayley’s cranioplasty surgery has been successfully completed as planned,” Hough revealed on Instagram.
Once Erbert was released from the hospital, Hough praised Erbert via Instagram for showing “strength” and “resilience” following her health scare, sharing a video of the two of them walking along the National Mall in Washington, D.C.
Since then, the twosome have been taking it easy and only recently made their first public appearance together earlier this month to support Hough’s sister, Julianne Hough.
Derek and Erbert began dating in 2015, one year after she joined him and Julianne on their Move Live Tour. The pair then confirmed their engagement in June 2022 and tied the knot in August 2023.
