Sophia Bush Recalls the Unexpected Moment She Fell in Love With Ashlyn Harris

The ‘One Tree Hill’ actress also addresses her sexuality and divorce from Grant Hughes in a candid new essay for ‘Glamour.’

Sophia Bush is ready to share new details about her relationship with soccer player Ashlyn Harris. In her self-written Glamour cover story published on Thursday, April 25, Sophia, 41, recalled the moment her friendship with Ashlyn, 38, turned into something more.

It began in the summer of 2023 when the actress was separated and planning to file for divorce from Grant Hughes.

“Groups of women in my life started opening up about issues they were going through in their own homes,” Sophia wrote. “It seemed like every week there were more of us, including Ashlyn, whom I’d first met in 2019 and who was in the process of figuring out her own split from her wife.”

In August 2023, Sophia officially filed to end her marriage to Grant. One month later, Ashlyn filed for divorce from Ali Krieger after nearly four years of marriage.

In her essay, Sophia assured readers that there was no cheating. Instead, she simply looked at Ashlyn as a friend with a “big, happy life.” But as the pair continued to open up about their splits, things began to change.

“It took me confronting a lot of things, what felt like countless sessions of therapy, and some prodding from loved ones, but eventually I asked Ashlyn to have a non-friend-group hang to talk,” Sophia said. “And that meal was four and a half hours long and truly one of the most surreal experiences of my life thus far.”

Sophia and Ashlyn made their first public appearance as a couple at the Elton John AIDS Foundation’s annual Oscars viewing party in March 2024. While the “Work in Progress” podcast host received support from friends and family, some members of the public were not so kind.

“People looking in from the outside weren’t privy to just how much time it took, how many painful conversations were had,” she wrote. “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!).”

While Sophia said that she hates the notion of having to come out in 2024, the actress explained that she’s always known that “my sexuality exists on a spectrum.”

“Right now I think the word that best defines it is queer,” she continued. “I can’t say it without smiling, actually. And that feels pretty great.”