With divorce rumours looming, Brooks Laich shared his thoughts on marriage and "indifference" between couples that lead to separation, and also took the chance to clarify that he is not ending his marriage with Julianne Hough.

The ice hockey star, who recently hit a rough patch in his marriage to the dancer, invited an unexpected guest to his iHeartRadio podcast "How Men Think." On Monday, he and his co-host Gavin DeGraw welcomed famed divorce attorney Laura Wasser to explore the reasons why couples chose to divorce, reports People.

The 36-year-old said he believes couples "need to continually evolve" to make their marriage work. "You're going to change, I'm going to change in the course of my life, my wife is going to change in the course of her life," he said.

The statement comes weeks after a source claimed to People magazine that Hough loves Laich, but has become a "completely different person than she was when she married him."

"But also, I think people over time can develop some sort of indifference where once there was an attraction. They can just develop an indifference, and it's not staying connected enough to continue to learn and grow and accept your changes, accept their changes, and also challenge each other," he added.

The NHL player said that there are areas in a relationship where the partners will "undoubtedly" grow, adding "maybe there's just an indifference in people where they don't want to put in the energy to do it, or they don't think they can."

Laich's marriage with the "Footloose" actress had made headlines last year as well when Hough came out of the closet and also revealed how she told her husband about it. In an interview with Women's Health magazine in August 2019, the 31-year-old said: "I (told him), 'You know I'm not straight, right?' And he was like, 'I'm sorry, what?' I was like, 'I'm not. But I choose to be with you.'"

On his podcast, the athlete said about communication: "I don't think a lot of people in their marriage really, really truthfully communicate all the needs and desires and cravings and yearnings they have for themselves, for their partner, all of it. I think they lack a little bit of courage there, to share those things, that could really actually keep people together and light their marriage on fire."

Julianne Hough dressed as Crazy Eyes, from the hit show Orange is the New Black. (Reuters)
Julianne Hough dressed as Crazy Eyes, from the hit show Orange is the New Black. (Reuters)

At the end of the podcast, he finally put an end to the rumours of divorce, and jokingly said to Wasser: "I'm really happy for you, but I hope I'm never on your podcast." The lawyer does a podcast, "Divorce Sucks!" podcast.

Speculations of divorce started after Hough was spotted without her wedding ring on multiple occasions, even though Laich was wearing his. The couple added to the rumours by sharing cryptic posts on Instagram. However, the couple who tied the knot in July 2017 after three years of dating, was spotted on a brunch date in California on Saturday.