Emotions ran high Tuesday night when Hayley Erbert returned to “Dancing With the Stars” for the first time since her 2023 health crisis to perform with her husband, Derek Hough.
The professional dancers, who tied the knot last year, opted for a contemporary routine set to an acoustic version of Benson Boone’s “Beautiful Things.” For many viewers, the song’s allusions to love and loss held new meaning: The performance came about 10 months after Erbert underwent emergency brain surgery following a diagnosis of cranial hematoma, which is characterized by blood collecting in the skull.
In footage aired ahead of the performance, Hough recalled the “pure fear” he experienced when he learned that his wife was having seizures backstage while the two were on their joint “Symphony of Dance” tour in December of last year.
“It just all came to a screeching halt in the most devastating way,” recalled Hough, who’s long been a standout on “DWTS.”
“I was onstage, and she’s supposed to come out. And the stage manager walked out and just said, ‘Hey, she’s not coming onstage.’ She was on the side of the stage having full seizures and essentially dying.”
After Erbert was rushed to the hospital, Hough said a doctor told him that his wife “might not make it, and that even if she does make it, she won’t be the same person.”
“He told me that ‘you basically have lost the person that you knew,’” he noted.
In an interview with People published online Wednesday, Erbert acknowledged that she was “flooded with emotions” by Tuesday’s episode of “DWTS,” and that “I started losing it because I actually haven’t seen a lot of the footage in quite some time because I’ve just been focusing on progressing every single day.”
Hough echoed those sentiments, suggesting he’d believed that he and Erbert would never share a dance again.
“Tonight was just sort of the beginning of telling the full story,” he said.
Erbert and Hough have confirmed they are at work on a documentary that will further chronicle Erbert’s health crisis and subsequent recovery. A release date has not yet been announced.
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