A close bond! Derek Hough and his sister, Julianne Hough, may each be grown and have their own successful careers, but none of that has gotten in the way of their incredible relationship.

“We moved to England at a young age, she was 10, I was 13, and so we basically had to look out for each other,” the 34-year-old exclusively told Closer Weekly of his bond with his younger sister, now 31. “We were like a team growing up, more mature then than we probably are now. Now we are more like siblings, more like kids where we tease each other. She lived with me while her house was being done, I lived with her while my house was being done, so we are like — yeah, it’s funny, we are just best friends. It’s great.”

While the siblings are both quite the successful dancers, they like to keep it a bit more low-key when they find themselves hanging out with each other. “We will just talk, as crazy as that sounds. We just like talking about philosophy and life and energy and all sorts of different subjects and things like that that,” the TV personality — who partnered with Lay’s for its upcoming ‘Lay’s Smiles‘ program — explained. “We just share and talk. We are very like-minded, we have very similar vocabulary as far as what we want to achieve in this life and how we want to serve in this life and how we want to make an impact — we are just like-minded in that way.”

“It’s easy to sort of talk and also to check each other, and to see where we are in our life and make sure that we are in the right emotional or mental state of mind, and be there for one another — so it’s a good little partnership,” Derek continued. Julianne is currently a judge on America’s Got Talent, while the Taking the Lead author works on World of Dance alongside Jennifer Lopez.

Julianne Hough Derek Hough
John Salangsang/Variety/Shutterstock

“I don’t know what her thing is, but she is like, ‘I am a better judge than you,'” Derek joked. “Like, she plays into it a lot. She likes it but I am also her older brother so she is more competitive with me than I am with her. I am not competitive with her, she is competitive with me.” However, the pair won’t be working on separate projects for long.

“We have some stuff coming up this Christmas,” the Dancing With the Stars alum revealed, adding that working with his sister is “super easy.” Derek and Julianne sound like such a fantastic brother/sis duo!

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