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The Hough family patriarch is originally from Coeur d\u2019Alene, Idaho, and met future wife Mariann Heaton<\/strong> on the ballroom team at Ricks College (now Brigham Young University-Idaho).<\/p>\n Bruce and Mariann\u2014both from Mormon families and the children of ballroom-dancing parents\u2014settled in Salt Lake City. There he worked as a communications executive and co-founded supplement maker Nutraceutical Corporation, which, according to Deseret News<\/em><\/a>, reached a valuation of $300 million under his watch before it was sold in 2017.<\/p>\n Bruce also ventured into politics, serving two terms as state Republican Party chair and running for congress in 2023.<\/p>\n While he didn’t win that race, he told Deseret News <\/em>at the time that he was running for his family’s future. “I\u2019ve got 10 kids, I\u2019ve got 22 grandkids and growing,” he explained. “And I really feel that America\u2019s promise is in jeopardy for those grandkids especially.”<\/p>\n Of his most famous offspring, he quipped, “I never thought that those dance lessons would pay off,\u201d noting that he took the most pride in hearing from others that son Derek Hough<\/strong> and daughter Julianne Hough<\/strong> were some of the\u00a0“kindest people\u2026in the entertainment business.\u201d<\/p>\n In addition to Derek and Julianne, Bruce shares daughters Sharee Hough Selman<\/strong>, Marabeth Poole<\/strong> and Katherine<\/strong> Hough<\/strong> with Mariann. After they divorced in the late 1990s, he married Debra Francom Hough<\/strong>, also a parent of five.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n