Sophia Bush recalled a conversation with “one of her best friends” that helped her realize she is bisexual following her divorce from Grant Hughes.
While appearing in it Work in progress In a podcast, the One Tree Hill alum, 41, opened up about a conversation with one of her closest friends, who suggested she might not be “into men.”
“One of my best friends looked at me and said, ‘I have to say, that was really painful to watch and I’m so happy that you’re moving on from this,'” she recalled of ending her year-long marriage in 2023.
Bush then noted that her friend bluntly dropped the hint that they “didn’t actually believe” she liked men.
Before the talk, Bush said she didn’t feel like she could identify as queer because she was primarily involved with men.
Sophia Bush recalled a conversation with ‘one of her best friends’ that helped her realize she is bisexual after her divorce from Grant Hughes; seen in June 2024
After talking to her friend, she said she had a ‘revolutionary idea’ about her sexuality.
“The queer community has been my home and is my entire family’s home since I was old enough to understand,” he said. “Uncle Tony had a boyfriend and not a girlfriend.
Bush continued: “I would never want to hurt the people I care about most and who have been in this fight for liberation for so long. (I told myself that) I was going to get out of the way. ‘And then I thought, ‘Well , maybe I don’t have to get out of the way. Maybe I can just please whoever I like.'”
In April, Bush, who is dating Ashlyn Harris, revealed in a personal essay for Glamour magazine that he now identifies as queer.
The Chicago PD actress admitted that she is in fact ‘in love’ with Harris, whom she befriended in 2019 and then began a romantic relationship with in October 2023 after her marriage to Grant fell apart and Ashlyn left his wife.
“I didn’t expect to find love in this support system,” the star began, noting that her bond with Harris was unique and beautiful. “I don’t know how to say it any other way than: I didn’t see it until I saw it.”
Also in her interview, the One Tree Hill star noted that she had told her previous partners that she was attracted to women.
As for falling in love with Ashlyn, a former soccer player, he said it was a new frontier.
While appearing on her Work in Progress podcast, the One Tree Hill alum, 41, opened up about a chat with one of her closest friends, who suggested she might not “like men” (seen with girlfriend Ashlyn Harris in April 2024).
“And I think it’s very easy to not see something that’s been in front of your face for a long time, when you’ve never seen it as an option and no one has seen you as an option,” she shared.
“What I saw was a friend with a full and happy life. And now I know she thought the same about me,” the star said.
Bush added that the road to her romantic relationship with Harris was a long one after they met in 2019 and spent years becoming friends: “People looking in from the outside weren’t aware of how long it took, how many painful conversations were had,” Sophia said.
“A lot of effort was made to be graceful with the processing of other people, their time, their obligations and their feelings.”
Harris has two children with his ex-wife Ali Krieger, from whom he separated last year.
Bush later added that rumors about her seeing a woman shocked her.
She then said there were a lot of “blatant lies and violent threats” toward her because she was with Harris.
“There were accusations that she was a homewrecker,” he said.
‘Those who said I left my ex because I suddenly realized I wanted to be with women: my partners have known what I like for a long time (so that’s not it, sorry!),’ she said, making it very clear that she was open with her ex-partners and that she liked women.
She now feels very comfortable in the queer community because she has experienced so much ‘safety, respect, and love in the queer community, as an ally my entire life, that when I came into myself, it already felt like it was my home.’
Bush seen with her ex Grant Hughes in 2022 in Washington, DC
Sophia stated that her sexuality “exists on a spectrum.”
And he concluded: “Right now I think the word that best defines him is queer. I can’t say it without smiling, honestly. And that makes me feel very good.”
In a Glamour podcast accompanying the documentary, Sophia said: “I feel like I’ve been wearing an 80-pound weighted vest for probably a decade, and I finally gave it up…
‘For the first time in my life I know what ease is, I am more excited than ever about the future and I don’t feel like I owe anyone anything.
‘I’ve never been more whole in my life… Everything I’m doing is making room for joy and I wish a lot of things had happened a little differently, but at the end of the day, I have nothing to apologize for.’
And he concluded: “The good thing about this whole trip is that I spend every day with a person nearby, and being close to them is like receiving sunlight.”
Elsewhere in the essay, Sophia, who was photographed by Lauren Dukoff, confessed that two months before she married Hughes she was “close” to calling off the wedding, but admitted: “Instead of running away, I redoubled my efforts to be a model wife.”
And when her first wedding anniversary came around, she felt sick because she knew she was not happy and that the union was not good for her.
Revealing what brought about the end of the split, she continued: “But after the wedding, I found myself in the depths and anguish of the fertility process, which was the most enlightening experience of my life.”
The star detailed enduring endless ultrasounds, hormone injections, blood draws that left scar tissue in her veins, and recoveries, “all while realizing that the person I had chosen as my partner didn’t necessarily speak the same emotional language as me.”
In April, Bush revealed in a personal essay for Glamour magazine that she now identifies as queer; seen in June 2024
Before marrying Hughes, she had been married to her One Tree Hill co-star Chad Michael Murray.
The couple said ‘I do’ in Santa Monica before celebrating at the Casa del Mar Hotel with their friends and family.
But the co-stars shocked fans when they split just five months later.
It was rumored at the time that Murray had walked out on his marriage to none other than his House of Wax co-star, Paris Hilton.
Bush attempted to annul the marriage on the grounds of fraud, but his efforts were unsuccessful and the divorce was finally finalized in 2006.
“This is a difficult and unfortunate situation. I am glad it will be resolved sooner rather than later,” he said in a statement shared with People at the time of completion.
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