It’s great that Derek Hough seems to have a great relationship with his sister, Julianne, but the dancer now reveals that he is also quite close to her husband, Brooks Laich, too.

“He’s awesome. We are very, very close,” the 34-year-old exclusively told Closer Weekly. “We get along fantastic. He is an amazing man and I so fortunate for him because I have so much estrogen in my life which I am so thankful for, so it was nice to have a man’s man kind of come into the scene a little bit. It was a good balance, it was great, great to have him.” Derek — who partnered with Lay’s for its upcoming “Lay’s Smiles” program — also revealed that he is all about exercising with the athlete.

“I will go to the gym, I will do workouts with my brother in law – he is really intense,” the World of Dance judge explained. “He’s a hockey player so he is like legit you know, athlete, as far as intense workouts but I like being outdoors. I like traveling, whether it be wakeboarding or hiking. Anything — I love being physical in any sort of way, but dancing obviously keeps me super in shape. But yeah, I will do like HIIT training or I will do cycling or I will all types of things like that, boxing.”

The America’s Got Talent judge, 31, and her man, 36, tied the knot in 2017 — and the Dancing With the Stars alum recalled first meeting Brooks. “I thought he was Irish for three months, but he is Canadian,” Derek said. “His accent was so strong, I was like so, ‘what part of Ireland are you from?’ He’s like ‘uh huh?’ I had known him for like three months so it was pretty funny, but no, he’s great, he’s awesome and talk about a guy too who focuses on doing good.”

“You know, any room that he walks into, he brings smiles to people’s faces — he really does and I noticed that when I first met him,” Derek continued. “That is what really made me like him because he is very present with people, especially in Los Angeles where people are kind of like talking to somebody and they are kind of looking over your shoulder a little bit, seeing who else is in the room perhaps — he is very much with you in that moment and I just was really like impressed with that right off the bat and just a great guy, really great guy.” So incredible!

We’re sure that Derek having a good relationship with Brooks is a big deal to Julianne, especially since the siblings have always had a strong bond. “We were like a team growing up, more mature then than we probably are now,” the Taking the Lead once exclusively told Closer. “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.”

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