This weekend, “Dancing With the Stars” alum Derek Hough and his family are at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York City.
The professional dancer uploaded a video revealing that he and his wife, Hayley, were taking their baby daughter on her first plane ride. He revealed they were headed to the festival to see the debut screening of their documentary.
Now, Derek Hough is giving fans a sneak peek of the documentary they made after his wife’s medical emergency.
Hayley Erbert & Derek Hough Bravely Open Up About Her Brain Bleed
“Dancing With the Stars” fans around the world felt shocked and frightened when the Hough family shared devastating news in late 2023. During a performance, Hayley Erbert Hough suffered a brain bleed and needed emergency surgery. Now, she and Derek Hough are detailing their experience.
“Tomorrow night, we will finally share this film with an audience. This story holds one of the most terrifying, tender, and transformative chapters of our lives,” the professional dancer shared on his Instagram page.
“There were moments we never expected to film, and moments we never expected to live through,” Derek continued. “To everyone who has supported us, prayed for us, checked in on us, or followed this journey from afar, thank you. Tomorrow is going to be a really special night.”
He attached a clip from the documentary, giving fans a glimpse of what to expect.
“I just remember sitting on the floor, just in shock of what’s going on,” the 41-year-old recalled to the cameras, bravely reliving the experience. “I kept getting these flashes of her smiling and looking at me.”
The clip shows Haley in her hospital bed immediately following her procedure. Her long dark hair has been shaved and her face is visibly swollen. Derek narrates over the image, recalling how the doctors gave him the grim news. His wife had a severe brain bleed and if they didn’t operate immediately, she would die.
“They started to explain what they needed to do to save her life and he began to talk to me about a craniectomy,” the DWTS judge continued. “Which is needing to remove a piece of the skull to relieve the bleeding.”
Thankfully, the surgery was successful. Hayley Erbert Hough faced a long recovery ahead of her, but she eventually returned to the stage and danced again. She and Derek went on to welcome their daughter, Everley Capri Hough, in December 2025.
The Couple Reflects On the Night That Changed Everything
Bumps and bruises are a regular part of the dance world. Derek and Hayley Hough now believe that a simple head bump caused the cranial hematoma in the first place.
“We just got married in August and three months later she had a brain bleed on stage,” Derek Hough remembered the terrifying night on “The Bossticks” podcast. “We hit heads while we were dancing, and she immediately just, you know, started bleeding essentially in her brain. But she didn’t know. Nobody knew until the end of the show. We finished the last number right towards the end. I came over there and she was in agony.”
“We think, we don’t know for sure for sure, but at this point we’re relatively sure now that it’s when we hit heads at the beginning of the show. But we’ve hit heads before,” the DWTS judge told the hosts.
After the Tribeca Film Festival, Derek and Hayley Hough will embark on their Symphony of Dance tour, running from June 24 through August 16. Tickets are available for purchase on the official website.
