Julianne Hough and Nina Dobrev have been the best of friends since meeting through a mutual hairstylist six years ago. Nina was a bridesmaid at Julianne’s lakeside wedding to hockey player Brooks Laich last year and the two are #friendshipgoals.
The actresses, both 29, are featured in PEOPLE’s Beautiful Issue this week. Even though Julianne and Brooks are still sort of newlyweds, Nina has no fears about her relationship with her bestie changing if and when the Julianne has kids, joking that “I’ll just go from best friend to babysitter.” Julianne interjected, “We’re already parents, we already have kids. They’re just furry kids.”
Julianne’s fur kids are Lexi and Harley, both Cavaliers, who served as the ring bearers for her wedding. She recently shared a slideshow of her cute pooches on National Puppy Day and also posted an adorable shot of the two enjoying the great outdoors in a doggie-sized convertible. Yes, it’s sickeningly sweet, but I still miss my pooch, so let me have this.
Nina just adopted an adorable puppy named Maverick, who already has her own Instagram account. What a cutie.
On being a pet parent, Julianne admitted, “We’re those moms that take our kids everywhere,” adding, “I think that’s how we’ll be in the future, too.” Nina chimed in, “Our kids are going to come out on every trip with us. They are going to jump out of planes with us.” Is she talking about dogs or children? I don’t think I’d jump out of a plane with either one. But, hey, to each her own.
As far as their enduring friendship, Nina told Julianne, “It feels like we met when we were 2 years old, because I feel like I have known you my entire life.” She also regards her BFF as “such a positive, awesome person. She has an infectious energy that you just want to be around, so selfishly I am just trying to get a little bit of her energy transferred to me.”
Returning the compliments, Julianne said of Nina, “you also have an infectious energy. You’re always the person that’s inclusive of everybody and always making sure everybody is having fun, and we’re like a spontaneous combustion of energy when we’re together, at least we think so.”
I have to admit, I have never seen Nina in anything and have only seen Julianne in Rock of Ages (ummm…yeah…), so I don’t know much about them. Their friendship, however, is sweet. They look like they have a blast together and Nina sure seems to be the yin to Julianne’s yang, even if the two may not know exactly everything about one another. Those pups are precious though. I’m sure the fun-filled play dates will continue even after kids are added into the equation.
Photos: WENN.com, Getty Images, Instagram
They seem like ACTUAL friends (unlike the #squad of a couple of summers ago), and I like that they love their pets. I am not particularly familiar with either of their work – but I like them based on this.
That was an adorable story to start my day 😄
This makes me glad/sad. I love seeing strong female friendships! I’m a little bummed because one of my longest (and closest geographically) female friendships is fizzling and it makes me jelly.
Do you ladies have a best friend, or a group of girls? How did it change as you grew older?
Hey @deets, I’m sorry to hear that…but I also think the fizzling is natural/normal.
All of my very close girlfriends are friends from College/Grad school, and by virtue of our careers we all now live in different places; For my College girlfriends I almost feel like this has helped keep a couple of us ‘close’ as we spend less time together and we value each other’s time more when we ARE together. Over the years people have dropped off, but I think this has made the rest of us closer. With my grad school friends the dynamic is a little different (we were PhD students when we met, so a little older and it was a difficult time for many of us!); that group isn’t just girls, I’d say we are equally close with the boys/men, in fact 6 of us have married within the group. I’m really only close with 1 person from high school, so I’d say most of my close friendships were formed in College/Grad School.
In my early thirties now, I find it harder to make ‘closer’ friendships – and I find I am also just less interested, because a) I already have close friends and b) I’d rather hang out with my husband and dogs in my free time. I also feel like I have less patience for petty shit/jealousy/drama even when it’s not directed at me, so I’m kind of ok with friendships that aren’t positive fizzling away.
It indeed is sad when you break up with your friend. I broke up with my childhood friend a few years back, it was really difficult. But sometimes you just change and the relationship you have, if it doesn’t modify it fizzles off.
To answer your question, I do have a group of girls. Yes two of them are closest to me but I share specific things with each of them.
As I grew older, I realized sharing everything with just one person makes you too emotionally dependant and emotionally demanding on that person, and it gives the person a lot of power over you.
@deets, I’m sorry about you and your friend. I’m going through the same thing. I’ve been BFFs with her since we were 15 and now we’re 50. That’s over half of my life. We did everything together: concerts, vacations, and going to dinner and the movies every Friday night. Unfortunately I had to move out of state to take care of my elderly parents who are in ill health, and she stayed in our hometown.
I’ve noticed we don’t talk as much and she recently went on vacation with her sister and her mother and I didn’t even get asked. My mother, who is 79, says it’s just a natural progression of friendship as you get older but it still hurts.
So recently I’ve started to cultivate another friend who I can do those things with. Doesn’t mean I love my BFF any less, but as others have said, sometimes friendships change. Hugs to you.
I’m sorry deets, is there anything you can do to stop the fizzling? I ask that from experience, and will advise doing whatever you can to keep your friendship alive. My closest group of friends is from middle school, but things changed once we had kids and started moving away. We still get together when we can and always have a blast, but things naturally change over time, we still plan to grow old together and out live our husbands 🙂 I had a very close friendship with one of them for almost two decades, we had a huge argument that had been building for years, then I got married and we drifted even further. We’re trying to fix that now because it’s been 3 years, but if I could go back I would just be honest with her instead of blowing up then avoiding her. I miss her, she was like a sister soulmate!
I hope your friendship rebounds, unless it’s fizzling for a good reason.
I have my BFF from kindergarten – we don’t see each other that much anymore and I’m not as close with her kids as I’d hoped to be, but I still consider them all family. We used to get together with other friends from school, but that’s fizzled out. They all have kids, so I get they’re busy, but dinner once or twice a year would be great. I kept suggesting, it never happened. Maybe I’ll try again sometime soon.
It’s really hard to make friends as an adult, especially if you don’t have kids and don’t get to participate in all the school and activities. I’ve lucked out and made a few in the past few years, and really treasure those friendships. Most of them were through different meetup groups, and then grew from there.
I have a very close group of friends that I met when my kids started school in Palo Alto Area and we have stayed very tight over the years (now over 20 years). We have recently moved to santa Barbara and reconnected with some friends from our college years, and I have 4 women that I went to elementary, middle and high school with in LA that I am still very tight with. My best friend, who is one of those women, and I have shared a parallel life together for decades. Kindergarten thru college, then moving to east coast, both starting families and then moving back to Calif. Our kids all grew up thinking of themselves as cousins. Feel very lucky to have all these people to share memories with since my parents and only sibling have passed away.
I love animals and tight friendships between women so I love this post!
Yes! This is light, lovely, and uplifting.
Also, Hough is beautiful butI don’t think the red hair is a good look for her. She has great facial features and is recognizably herself unlike a lot of the HW carbon copy blondes.
Love to serve women friendship but hate to see dogs treated like babies. I have a dog and LOVE her ….b please….no bows ,no strollers and no mini cars!.She has a dignity as a dog that should be respected.
I’m here for all the fur baby posts lately 🙂 I’ve found after marriage and a deepening career that my friendships are not as deep. The only friendships I have are from college, we see each other less but value our time more. I’ve made new friends, but they seem superficial. The older I get the more I value and appreciate family.
I love this too. As a woman who loves her close friends and also thinks of my dog as my child. And I have a real child! It’ll be different when they have kids yes, but dogs are your family too. I love this and they’re both so pretty.
Love the mini Tesla!
That seems like a genuine friendship – plus the dogs, so this is all good!
Kids are human.
Dogs are not.
Not a fan of the humanization of pets and animals. Treat them well and adequately – absolutely yes. But pretend they were human? nope.
Feel better now?
I do! Thanks, Tata Mata – totally agree.
Totally agree, they are much better than humans for the most part and I treat them that way.
I watched Nina on Vampire Diaries and Julianne on Dancing With The Stars, and funnily enough had a crush on them both. Didn’t know they were best friends. Cute puppies!