Julianne Hough shares the cause of death of her two dogs

Julianne Hough talks about the loss of her two beloved Cavalier King Charles Spaniels.

The Dancing with the stars The 36-year-old talent first announced that her dogs Lexi and Harley – whom she had for 11 and 8 years respectively – died suddenly in 2019.

But it was only with her appearance in The Jamie Kern Lima Show On Tuesday, August 27, she shared how the dogs died.

The TV star told Lima that she only learned of the loss through a phone call: “I woke up before my phone even rang and I knew. I picked up the phone and my then-assistant was just screaming.”

Hough said that before Lexi and Harley's deaths, there were “never any coyotes” in her yard and she even had a fence.

On the podcast, Hough said the loss came at a particularly difficult time in her life, as she was not only dealing with the “breakup” of her eight-year friendship with her longtime assistant while launching a new business, Kinrgy, but was also going through the separation from her now ex-husband, Brooks Laich.

“I had asked for a separation,” she recalled. “And then ten days later my dogs were killed by coyotes.”

Hough paused for a moment and noted that she was becoming “so emotional.”

“I felt like I had lost my integrity or my balance,” the dancer said of the numerous losses she suffered while starting her business. “My dogs, who represented unconditional love and security – they're gone.”

But there was a ray of hope that gave her some comfort.

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“They left together, I'm so grateful they left together,” she said. “Secondly, I'm grateful that it usually happens very quickly and that we got their bodies. But at the time I thought, 'Oh, that was the dissolving of the absolute security of unconditional love.'”

At the time of her death, Hough paid tribute to her pups on Instagram, writing, “Thank you for the timeless memories. Thank you for your magic. Thank you for being the most constant and enduring beings in my life. Thank you for being you. Thank you for being my guardians on this earth and now more than ever.”

Over the summer America's Got Talent The judge announced that she had once again become a dog mother.

“Sunny, you have brought so much love and literally sunshine into my life ☀️ I can't remember a time without you,” she captioned a sweet Instagram video showing a montage of moments with the new dog.

“Lexi and Harley would have loved you and played with you every day and I know they sent you to me only when I was ready to open my heart and love again – you opened me up, darling,” she continued.

Hough concluded the July 6 post with wishes for Sunny on her first birthday.