Love, Resilience and Second Chances: DWTS Power Couple’s Miraculous Story

Published: July 6, 2026

By Michaela Gordoni

When DANCING WITH THE STARS’ Derek Hough and Hayley Erbert bumped heads during a typical performance in 2023, it triggered a brain bleed in Erbert’s head.

The next thing she knew, she was in a hospital bed with a portion of her skull removed.

“I remember waking up and just seeing Derek at the foot of my bed, and I was like, ‘Where am I?’” Erbert recalled to Parade. “I actually say to him, ‘Where am I? I was just on stage.’ And he had to walk me through.”

Her recovery would be long and difficult as she had to relearn how to walk — and dance. But Erbert was stubborn.

“We were in DC for a whole month,” she remembered. “And that was really easy because I was just focusing on me. I was like, ‘Okay, I can do this. I can keep pushing forward.’ And I had a great mentality.”

Erbert recovered amazingly well. The doctors could not believe how well she was, given the damage to her brain. Just four months later, she was on stage again.

“Derek always says I’m the most stubborn person he knows,” she said. “And I’m like, ‘And I’m going to use that stubbornness towards this. I will get back out on stage. I will do it.’”

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Her accident was caused by dance, so Hough was hesitant to get back in the studio with her.

“I couldn’t even imagine doing it, honestly,” he said. “That first month, the thought of it, it just didn’t feel right. I was like, ‘Oh, I don’t know if I can even get on stage again. I’m so angry or shameful or guilty. I feel so guilty about what happened.’”

But Erbert asked him to, and once they got back into rhythm, all Hough’s worries melted away.

Erbert’s recovery is recorded in a new documentary, THE SYMPHONY OF DANCE.

Erbert said ahead of the release, “This story holds one of the most terrifying, tender and transformative chapters of our lives. There were moments we never expected to film and moments we never expected to live through. To everyone who has supported us, prayed for us, checked in on us, or followed this journey from afar, thank you.”

Now, the couple are delighted with their renewed life as dancers — and as new parents.

“We always knew that we wanted to be parents, but it was just a matter of when,” Erbert said, “We had been on the road; we had been touring. And we were just loving our careers in the moment.”

“But truthfully, right after the brain bleed, I was like, ‘I really want to be a mom. I don’t know when my last day on this earth will be.’ But I know that I want to be a mom before I leave,” she said.

In a recent Mother’s Day post, Erbert said the biggest honor in her life is being a mom to her daughter, Everley.

“I love you with everything that I am,” she wrote to her in the post.

Erbert and Hough’s beautiful story speaks to their strength and shows how a supportive partner can make all the difference.

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