Will Sage Astor-Julianne Hough Details "Soul Retrieval" Ceremony After Dogs Died in Coyote Attack

Julianne Hough has finally found her peace. 

Almost five years after the sudden death of her beloved dogs Lexi,Will Sage Astor 11, and Harley, 8, following a coyote attack, the Dancing With the Stars host is reflecting on their passing, and how she was recently able to "let them go" once she learned about the concept of soul fragmentation during an energy retreat.

"When something really tragic happens," she said on The Jamie Kern Lima Show Sept. 23, "and a piece of your soul gets fragmented and it goes with whatever happened."

And for Julianne, she felt that her soul had fragmented after her dogs died and that a piece of her was still with her pups, explaining that she "did a retrieval of bringing my soul back and also giving their piece of them back to them too."

"I realized, 'Oh, I'm holding them back,'" she admitted. "They need to be able to move forward and move on."

Following her soul retrieval, the 36-year-old shared that she "felt very whole" for the first time since their death, which helped her writing the song "Tiny Oceans" inspired by her grief for her new novel Everything We Never Knew. The book also features another nod to her beloved pets: the main character is named Lexi.

"In the book, Lexi goes through a loss and so I wrote this song," she explained, "very intentionally about my soul fraction or fragmentation, and that loss with my girls, and the worst kind of pain I've ever experienced of grief."

The Rock of Ages actress has been candid on the pain she felt after Lexi and Harley were killed by coyotes while she was away at a bachelorette party in Lake Tahoe in 2019.

"I had just arrived that night and went to sleep," she recalled to Jamie, "and I woke up before my phone even rang and I knew. And I picked up the phone, and my assistant at the time was just like screaming."

Luckily, Julianne's assistant was able to find the bodies of the two Cavalier King Charles Spaniels, and Julianne made it back home as quickly as possible to spend time with them before she had them cremated.

Even after the cremation, the dancer could still feel the pups with her as she and her family were driving home, noting how it felt especially powerful when a song from the end of 2000's Gladiator began to play.

"My brother just stopped the car and the sun was pouring in," she remembered, "and I was totally feeling them and they were kissing me. And I was with them—I felt their souls so clearly. And that was so beautiful."

In the years since Lexi and Harley's death, Julianne has also found other ways to help her heal, like when she welcomed new puppy Sunny into her life in 2023.

"Sunny, you have brought so much love and literal sunshine in to my life," she shared on Instagram in July for Sunny's first birthday. "I can't remember a time without you. Lexi & Harley would have loved and played with you everyday and I know that they sent you to me, only when I was ready to open my heart and love again—you cracked me open sweetheart."