Julianne Hough, two-time winner of the “Dancing With the Stars” mirror ball trophy, has announced she will not return for the show’s eighth season.
The same week she and her celebrity partner, former “Hannah Montana” star Cody Linley, were voted off the show, Hough hit her blog to share the news.
“I won’t be on Dancing this spring season,” the professional dancer, who recently released a country music album, wrote on her blog. “I don’t know about the fall. Maybe, maybe not. We’ll see.”
Hough, who released her self-titled debut, “Julianne,” earlier this year, and “The Julianne Hough Holiday Collection” EP last month, said she is hanging up her cha cha heels for her second career.
“I’m definitely going to focus on the music,” she wrote. “My first album was a learning experience, and I can’t wait for the next one. I feel like the writing and producing will be even better, really awesome.”
Though she made it to the final four on “Dancing,” with partner Linley, this season of the show was the roughest for the pretty blonde. She took two weeks off in order to undergo surgery for endometriosis and appendicitis. Edyta Sliwinska filled in alongside Linley as Hough recovered at home over the course of two competition rounds.
Hough is expected to return to the show for the season finale, and as a two-time champ, she has a prediction who will win — her brother, Derek Hough and his celebrity partner, model and mom of four, Brooke Burke.
“My prediction: I really hope Brooke and Derek win,” Hough wrote. “I think they deserve to win. From day one, they’ve been awesome. I think Brooke is the most technically sound of the celebrities and she’s a beautiful dancer.”