Julianne Hough Abused as a Child; 'I Was a Tormented Little Kid'

Julianne Hough admitted that she was abused as a child living away from her family while in dance training in the U.K.

The comments were made by the "Dancing With the Stars" champion during an interview with Cosmopolitan that features Hough on the cover of the February issue.

"While I was in London, I was abused, mentally, physically, everything," Hough said to the magazine about her childhood studying dance at the prestigious Italia Conti Academy of Arts.

The 24-year-old actress and dancer said that the abuse got worse as her body started to develop with age, saying, "when I started hitting puberty, when I started becoming a woman and stopped being a little girl."

Hough was also discouraged about leaving London and that it would ruin her career.

"I was told if I ever went back to the United States, three things were going to happen. One: I was going to amount to nothing. Two: I was going to work at Whataburger. And three: I was going to end up a slut. So, it was like, I can't go back. I have to be this person."

She recalled that she was forced to play a sensual role of a dancer while trying to maintain her childhood innocence.

"I was 10 years old looking like I was 28, being a very sensual dancer. I was a tormented little kid who had to put on this sexy facade because that was my job and my life. But my heart was the same, and I was this innocent little girl. I wanted so much love."

Hough said that she took her troubled life experiences and used them to fuel her role in her latest film "Safe Haven" where plays a victim of abuse in the film adaptation of a best-selling Nicholas Sparks novel, according to E! Online.