In the midst of press speculation about Sophia Bush’s alleged relationship with soccer player Ashlyn Harris, many fans will recall the actress’ highly-publicized marriage to her One Tree Hill co-star Chad Michael Murray. On the teen drama series, which ran from 2003 to 2012, the two actors played Lucas Scott and Brooke Davis, who were love interests on the show.
After meeting on the series, Bush and Murray quickly began dating, before announcing their engagement in 2004. The couple married in April 2005, in a highly-publicized wedding ceremony that attracted significant press interest. At the time of their wedding, Bush and Murray were 22 and 23 years old, respectively.
In September 2005, the couple publicly announced their separation, after just five months of marriage. The following year, Bush filed to annul their marriage, but her petition was denied, requiring the actress to dissolve the union through a divorce. The divorce was finalized in December 2006. Press speculation pointed towards an alleged affair between Murray and his House of Wax co-star Paris Hilton, but neither party addressed this rumor. Their published divorce papers cited “fraud” as the grounds for their separation.
Despite their off-screen split, Lucas and Brooke continued their romantic relationship on One Tree Hill, eventually breaking up several years after the actors who portrayed them. Speaking about their marriage on Watch What Happens Live in 2014, Bush stated, “We were two stupid kids who had no business being in a relationship in the first place. To all the other co-stars who’ve worked it out, more power to you.”
Bush’s comments on WWHL attracted a lot of attention and were widely publicized. Speaking about the relationship again on Armchair Expert in 2018, the actress expressed her reluctance speaking about her former relationship.
“If you’re in our job, for some reason, people wanna talk to you about like, when you’re fully-fledged adults who’ve done really amazing [expletive] with your lives, they wanna talk to you about the dumb thing you did in college basically.”
Bush did, however, imply a dislike of her former husband. When pressed further about the marriage, she responded “My mother once said to me that if you don’t have anything nice to say, not to say anything at all.”
In another interview on Andy Cohen’s SiriusXM podcast that same year, Bush went one step further and alleged that she felt pressured into marrying her co-star. “It was not a thing I actually really wanted to do, but you know, it’s cool,” the actress stated.
“When asked why she would walk down the aisle if she didn’t want to, the actress replied, “Because how do you let everybody down, and how do you — what’s the fight? And when you have bosses telling you that you’re the only person who gets a person to work on time, and 200 people either get to see their kids at night or they don’t because our days start on time?”
Bush later apologized on Twitter, claiming her words were taken out of context and that her intent was humorous.
In a rare comment from Murray, the actor took offense to Bush’s words. This story is ludicrous. Chad conducts himself in a completely professional manner and would never marry for any reason but love,” a rep for the actor told Us Weekly. “Thirteen years since his divorce from Sophia, he has a very happy family life with his wife and children. He has completely moved on and doesn’t feel the need to engage in this type of behavior
Right after Bush’s podcast comments were released in the comments, the two former spouses seemed to indirectly post about one another on Twitter.
In 2021, Bush stated that she was done talking about her former marriage, after consistent backlash from the press and the public.
“I’m not allowed to because I’ve tried to poke fun at being a dumb kid and whenever I’ve done that, it gets twisted into [that] I’m talking s**t about somebody who I don’t even know anymore, who’s clearly a grown-up,” Bush explained on the Inside of You with Michael Rosenbaum podcast.
While re-affirming that she has “no ill will” towards her ex-husband, the actress went on to conclude, “I was a very naive 21-year-old kid and that’s all there is to it,” Bush said. “Lots of people do lots of stupid s–t before their prefrontal cortexes are fully formed — and they’re not until they’re 26. So you do the math on my timeline.”