Jennifer Lopez and Derek Hough go way back, having worked on the short-lived but intriguing World of Dance together between 2017 and 2020. The the two reality stars are friendly, and she has given the pro dancer advice in the past when he put together a Las Vegas residency, but as it turns out she was also who helped the former Dancing With The Stars pro to come to the conclusion that it was high time he got engaged. So, how did Jenny from the Block help convince Hough to ask Hayley Erbert to marry him?
Jennifer Lopez is as notable for her high-profile romances as she is for her career in Hollywood and entertainment at large. She’s currently married to Ben Affleck, after the couple reunited back in 2021 and were engaged in 2022 while Lopez was memorably soaking in the tub. Prior to that, she was engaged to Alex Rodriguez from 2019-2021, though that engagement was ultimately broken off.
Though she'd been in high profile marriages before, just looking at those two relationships, Hough realized he’d been with Erbert, whom he’d been seeing since 2015, two years prior to Lopez dating A-Rod -- and far longer than either of his former co-star's two major romances combined. It struck him then: maybe it was time to get engaged...
I remember seeing her and I was like, 'Yo, if she can get two [engagements] within the time that I've been with [Erbert] I better step up my game.' You know what I mean?
While his comments to ET about Lopez are all in good fun, he does make a good point. The year 2015 was a long time ago, eight years in fact, and it was kind of clear when the couple got engaged that Erbert thought she had waited long enough too. In fact, on their engagement announcement post, Hough asked fans if they could believe it and Erbert amusingly responded, "I think some people actually can't."
It's also worth noting that Lopez was well aware of how long Derek Hough had been with Hayley Erbert before he actually popped the question back in June of 2022. She even responded to the engagement announcement to rib him a little about how long it took him to ask:
Omg!! Yessss... we've been waiting for this!! Lol... Congratulations.
The Dancing with the Stars alum and Lopez were working together during many of these major moments in their personal lives, and he definitely took some inspiration from her ability to make changes for herself when he decided to move forward. But he says there was another reason the timing felt right to ask: he already wasn't thinking of Hayley as his girlfriend, but as his life partner, the person with whom he weathered storms and made decisions with.
Another indication that it was time to get engaged came when Hough "introduced Hayley as my girlfriend and I kinda stopped myself and was like, 'This feels wrong. That word does not live up to what this relationship is.' That was a good indication of like, 'OK, I think it’s time to go to the next step.'
Eventually he stuck the ring in his front pocket, where it bulged uncomfortably, and took the soon-to-be Mrs. Hough on a helicopter ride to his home, where he'd had someone set up hundreds of candles. She said yes, and the rest is history, though with a wedding coming up, I'm sure there will be plenty of new details soon.
