While promoting her new film, "Safe Haven," in which she plays an abused woman who eventually finds true love, Julianne Hough revealed that she was a victim of child abuse herself.

In the February issue of Cosmopolitan, the "Dancing With the Stars" pro spoke publicly for the first time about her dark encounters as a young dancer training in the UK. "While I was in London, I was abused, mentally, physically, everything," the blonde beauty revealed.

Hough studied dance at the prestigious Italia Conti Academy of Arts as a child, and says she was forced to be too sexual at too young of an age.

"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 façade 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." 

Though the 24-year-old declined to name names, she did say that the abuse became worse "when I started hitting puberty, when I started becoming a woman and stopped being a little girl."

The abusive situation was made worse by the fact that she was an ocean away from her parents. "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.”

Despite her painful past, Hough says she does not hold grudges, "I'm a very forgiving person, and I don't want to hurt anybody. What's past is past."