The Hough family patriarch was born in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, where he later met his future wife, Mariann Heaton, on the ballroom team at Ricks College, now known as Brigham Young University-Idaho.
Bruce and Mariann, both raised in Mormon families by parents who enjoyed ballroom dancing, eventually made their home in Salt Lake City. Bruce built a career as a communications executive and co-founded supplement company Nutraceutical Corporation. Under his leadership, the business reached a valuation of $300 million, according to Deseret News, before being sold in 2017.
He later entered politics, serving two terms as chair of Utah’s Republican Party before running for Congress in 2023.
Although he did not win the race, Bruce told Deseret News at the time that he was campaigning with his family’s future in mind. “I’ve got 10 kids, I’ve got 22 grandkids and growing,” he said. “And I really feel that America’s promise is in jeopardy for those grandkids especially.”
Reflecting on his most famous children, Bruce joked, “I never thought that those dance lessons would pay off,” adding that he was especially proud when people described his son, Derek Hough, and daughter, Julianne Hough, as some of the “kindest people…in the entertainment business.”
Along with Derek and Julianne, Bruce and Mariann are parents to daughters Sharee Hough Selman, Marabeth Poole and Katherine Hough. The couple divorced in the late 1990s. Bruce later married Debra Francom Hough, who is also a parent of five.