Derek Hough Weighs Fans Theory Claiming He’s Planning Proposal to Hayley Erbert on ‘Dancing With the Stars’

Theories are floating around that Dancing with the Stars judge Derek Hough may propose to his girlfriend Hayley Erbert on an upcoming episode of the hit dance competition. It was recently revealed that the two would be performing together on the ABC show this week, and fans threw out their guesses that he would actually be proposing in addition to dancing. While Hough has been quiet about his relationship for the most part up until the last few years or so, he did shoot this idea down real quick.

“I’m just going to be straight up, that’s not happening,” he told Entertainment Tonight. “Just because, that’s just not my style I don’t think, you know?” He continued with, “Even though on [our] YouTube we said, ‘Hey, if we get 500,000 subscribers then we’ll do it.’ Of course that was a joke, but also I was like, it’s a joke, but if it happens… I’m just kidding!” he joked. When he was asked more about maybe when he actually plans to propose he said, “I don’t know timelines, I just know shapes.”

The sweet pair started dating in 2015 but only recently have started giving fans more insight into their relationship. The six-time mirror ball champion simply said keeping it a secret just became too exhausting. “It’s just tiring. It was liberating, honestly, just being like, ‘Hey, this is our relationship. This is cool. this is what it is and it’s great. I think I just kind of got almost conditioned to feel or believe that I have to hide everything. When it reality I was just like, ‘You know what? There’s a freedom to just being open about it.”

He further detailed, “It’s been wonderful and it’s brought us closer together in certain things. It just feels good. It feels light.” The two plan to dance on Monday’s episode of DWTS to a special Paso Doble to “Uccen” by Taalbi Brothers, which will mark his return to the dance floor since 2017. “It worked out well because, obviously, we’re dancers. And my girl, she’s an extraordinary dancer. So it was a perfect excuse to be able to dance together on the show. I’m just going to really just enjoy the whole experience.”

“Someone said, ‘Are you nervous about the expectations people might have for you, or that you might have for yourself?’ And it’s a sort of great expression — of trading your expectation for appreciation,” he continued. “That’s how I feel. I just feel appreciative of being a part of this beautiful show once again and to have the opportunity to dance. I feel like that’s the part that I’m taking with this one and I’m looking forward to it.”