In a personal essay written for Glamour magazine, Sophia Bush details her public “coming out” journey, and relationship with soccer star, Ashlyn Harris.
View this post on Instagram
On August 4, 2023, news broke that Sophia Bush and her now ex-husband, Grant Hughes, were divorcing just one year after their Tulsa nuptials.
With the picture-perfect wedding, fans and naysayers alike took to social media desperate to piece together what could have possibly shattered the fairytale wedding and romance between the couple.
For the first time, Bush details what led to her divorce, how she and Harris connected, and how her identity as a queer woman took shape in her forties.
Sophia Bush on her Divorce
“In 2023 my now ex-husband posted a lovely tribute to our first anniversary on Instagram. When I saw it, I felt the blood drain from my face,” the One Tree Hill star began.
“Fans and friends were telling me how exciting this milestone was and how happy I looked. I felt nothing. Things hadn’t been easy at home, but everyone says marriage is hard, right?”
In the process of divorcing, Bush sought refuge in her circle. Both Bush and Harris were seemingly deep within their own respective hardships and turned to one another to navigate the storm.
The rumor mill spun ferociously when “intimate” photos of Bush and Harris began circulating the internet. Dots were connected, or so we thought.
“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,” Bush said.
Having been publicly linked to the likes of Chad Michael Murray and Jesse Lee Soffer, the internet couldn’t process the news.
Sophia Bush on her romance with Ashlyn Harris
“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 about it.”
“That meal was four and a half hours long and truly one of the most surreal experiences of my life thus far.”
Simply put, they buoyed each other.
Ultimately, Bush’s “coming out ” was stolen from her as online publications were quick to report on what they perceived as a “scandal.”
“Would I have liked to make the public part of this journey a choice for myself, and not have it taken from my lips and set ablaze by gossip blogs and bottom-feeder online bots? Of course,” the podcaster wrote.
Bush is in the prime of her life and she doesn’t care how the trolls feel. For once, she is putting her feelings on a pedestal and sitting in her newfound joy.
She’s exhaling.
“I turned 41 last summer, amid all of this, and I heard the words I was saying to my best friend as they came out of my mouth. ‘I feel like this is my first birthday,’ I told her.”
“This year was my very first birthday.”
View this post on Instagram
