Sophia Bush has revealed what it was like to continue working with her ex-husband Chad Michael Murray on the set of One Tree Hill after their divorce.
The actress, 40, starred as Brooke Davis on One Tree Hill alongside Murray, who played her love interest Lucas Scott. The co-stars started dating in real life in 2003 and were married in 2005, only to split just five months later. Still, the two continued working closely on the teen drama series until Murray left at the end of season six in 2009.
In the latest episode of the Drama Queens podcast with fellow One Tree Hill co-stars Bethany Joy Lenz and Hilarie Burton, Bush revealed that it was the love of her character that motivated her to keep working alongside her ex-husband.
During the podcast, Lenz praised Bush for her professionalism throughout the series, saying: “Not for nothing, you were going through a breakup with the person that you were playing a romance opposite of. And regardless of what all those circumstances were, that’s incredibly difficult emotionally to be able to be vulnerable and be there in that moment.”
She then acknowledged that there’s tons of actors who have dated their co-stars in the past and it hasn’t worked out. “But the fact that you were able to just be that raw and open and vulnerable, it’s a real credit to you as an artist,” Lenz said. “That you put your art in front of everybody and just were like: ‘Look, this is it. I’m just sharing my heart and here we are.’ I thought it was really beautiful.”
In response, Bush replied: “People can call it whatever they want. They can say it’s strength, they can say it’s pride, they can say it’s professionalism. You can put a positive or a negative skew on it.”
“But I was always going to put Brooke Davis ahead of everybody and everything else,” she continued. “Nothing mattered to me but being honest for her.”
The actor and activist has previously spoken about her marriage to Murray, chalking it up to the fact that she was “22 and stupid” when they decided to tie the knot. Speaking to Andy Cohen in 2018, Bush revealed that she didn’t really want to be married in the first place.
“Everybody’s been 22 and stupid,” she said. “It was not a thing I actually really wanted to do.”
Bush is now married to entrepreneur and real estate investor Grant Hughes, after tying the knot in June. The couple’s wedding ceremony took place in Oklahoma less than a year after they got engaged in August 2021.
