'She's Our Rainbow After the Storm'

AFTER HAYLEY'S HEALTH CRISIS AND A MISCARRIAGE, THE DANCING WITH THE STARS COUPLE FOCUS ON THEIR FUTURE WITH NEW BABY EVERLEY

- By BRIANNE TRACY

Mama & Papa Bear "It is really beautiful how the instincts kick in," Hayley says. "I am like, 'I will literally do anything for you.""

Tears have been flowing at Derek Hough and wife Hayley’s Los Angeles home ever since they welcomed their daughter Everley Capri on Dec. 29—and, shockingly, the newborn hasn’t been the main source. “Literally every time I see Derek and Everley together, I just start crying,” says Hayley. Derek has been feeling just as blissfully sappy. When he went to the Golden Globes on Jan. 11, his first event since becoming a dad, “everybody was asking me, ‘You going to the afterparties?’ ” recalls the Dancing With the Stars judge and Extra host. “I remember saying it out loud for the first time: ‘No, no. I’m going straight home to my daughter … and now I got to go because I’m about to cry.’ ”

It’s been a long-awaited period of joy for the two professional dancers after what Derek, 40, calls a “traumatizing” past three Decembers. First, in 2022, the couple were involved in a serious car accident that required Hayley, 31, to get four stitches in her forehead. A year later Hayley was rushed to the hospital mid-performance on their Symphony of Dance tour and nearly lost her life after a burst blood vessel caused a brain bleed (see sidebar, right). She had to have part of her skull removed to relieve the pressure and later a second surgery for a skull implant. Then, the following December, Hayley miscarried. “She’s been through so much,” Derek says of his wife, tears welling up in his eyes. “To see her go from where she was to now, giving birth, is amazing. My daughter has a great example here.”