Sophia Bush Comes Out As 'Queer,' Talks Love Story With Ashlyn Harris

Sophia Bush is ready to embrace who she really is. The “One Tree Hill” actress is speaking out about the end of her marriage to Grant Hughes, her relationship with soccer player Ashlyn Harris, and her newfound sense of self.

Bush penned an essay for Glamour magazine in which she recalled wanting to call off her 2022 wedding to entrepreneur Hughes.

“In April of 2022 I was close to calling off my wedding. Instead of running away, I doubled down on being a model wife,” she wrote in the magazine, where she also graces the cover.

Bush married Hughes, in a wedding she describes as “one of the greatest wedding weekends ever,” despite the feelings of doubt she was experiencing. On their one-year anniversary, she posted a photo commemorating the day, but said inside, she felt “nothing.”

“Make it look easy. Make it look perfect. If your smile is shiny enough, maybe no one will notice that up close all of your teeth are broken,” she wrote. “But sometimes, broken is just broken.”

Bush goes on to describe the loneliness of her fertility struggle with her husband, and the dawning realization that she may have made a mistake. She says she escaped to London to do a play, hoping to reawaken something inside of her.

“I had to get out of our house. I had to get onstage. I had to get back in my body. Maybe that could shift things. Maybe that would jump-start the joy I’d been chasing. The play slowly began to put me back together. It was grueling, and it was also the most exhilarating experience. I loved every second of it,” the actress wrote.

After experiencing health issues during the run of the play, Bush resigned herself to going back to Los Angeles. But, she says, at that point, she was separated from Hughes, and she found solace in a group of female friends back home. One of those friends was Harris, a former U.S. soccer player, who was going through her own relationship issues with her wife, Ali Kreiger, also a soccer player.

“For those of us who had no solution in sight or Hail Marys left, having this community changed everything. We really wrapped one another up in support. It was tragic and hard. But it was also beautiful. There were moments of incredible sadness because no one signs up to get married thinking it’ll end,” said Bush.

Bush said that, somewhat unexpectedly, she found something else within that support group: a love story with Harris.

“It really took other people in our safe support bubble pointing out to me how we’d finish each other’s sentences or be deeply affected by the same things. When you’re so in the trenches of hardship—plus you have the added weight of having to go through it on a public stage—it can be hard to see anything but what’s right in front of you,” Bush, 41, reflected.

She asked Harris on a date and says that their four-and-a-half hour meal changed her life. And, she says, it ushered in a relationship that Harris says was deeply misunderstood by the public, with rumors and accusations flying.

“There was a lot that quickly turned ugly too. People looking in from the outside weren’t privy to just how much time it took, how many painful conversations were had. A lot of effort was made to be graceful with other people’s processing, their time and obligations, and their feelings. What felt like seconds after I started to see what was in front of me, the online rumor mill began to spit in the ugliest ways. There were blatant lies. Violent threats. There were accusations of being a home-wrecker. The ones who said I’d left my ex because I suddenly realized I wanted to be with women—my partners have known what I’m into for as long as I have (so that’s not it, y’all, sorry!),” she stated.

Bush described the media frenzy as “painful,” but she declined to elaborate on Harris’ relationship status during their romance. However, Bush praises Harris’ “relentless integrity” and her role as a parent during this time.

“Seeing Ashlyn choose to not simply survive, but thrive, for her babies has been the most beautiful thing I’ve ever witnessed a friend do. And now I get to love her. How lucky am I?” gushed Bush.

Bush, who said she finally feels like she can “breathe,” goes on to describe herself as "queer," saying, “I’ve experienced so much safety, respect, and love in the queer community, as an ally all of my life, that, as I came into myself, I already felt it was my home. I think I’ve always known that my sexuality exists on a spectrum. Right now I think the word that best defines it is queer. I can’t say it without smiling, actually. And that feels pretty great.”