Sophia Bush reveals that Hilarie Burton warned her not to date Chad Michael Murray before their brief marriage ended amid cheating allegations.
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Add BollywoodShaadis on GoogleSophia Bush is opening up about her turbulent love life ahead of the release of her new memoir, And I Will Tell You Mine: Notes from a Life in Progress. In her recent interview with Alex Cooper, the actress reflected on her brief marriage to Chad Michael Murray and the blunt warning her One Tree Hill co-star, Hilarie Burton, made before the pair dated.
Burton had previously worked with Murray on another show, and it allegedly "wasn't a great experience." As one of Bush's closest friends on the One Tree Hill set, she reportedly gave Bush a direct warning. Looking back, Bush admits that she was too young and inexperienced to listen.
The 44-year-old actress discussed her brief marriage to Murray during the October 21, 2026, episode of Alex Cooper’s Call Her Daddy podcast, where she also opened up about her upcoming memoir.
Bush and Murray met while filming One Tree Hill in 2003 and began dating soon afterward. They married in an oceanfront ceremony in Santa Monica, California, on April 16, 2005, when Bush was 22 and Murray was 23. Before their relationship progressed, her co-star Hilarie Burton had "explicitly" warned her, saying, "Do not date him." She reflects:
"It was good advice, and I just didn't have the wherewithal or the experience... There was a while where my friends used to joke like, 'Look up gullible in the dictionary, and you'll see her face.'"
The couple separated just five months later, and their divorce was finalized in December 2006. Speculation about infidelity immediately followed their split, and Bush addresses that difficult chapter in her memoir. During the podcast, Cooper asked whether the relationship had affected Bush’s friendship with Hilarie Burton.
Bush recalled, "For years, I thought that’s why we stopped being two peas in a pod," explaining that she “felt so much shame” about not listening to her friend.
Bush acknowledged that Burton had been right about Murray at the time, while making clear her comments referred to who he was then. She also anticipated that her remarks might attract criticism online, joking that the “trolls” would “have a field day,” but insisted that things were “all good” between the former friends now.
Bush has generally avoided discussing her ex-husband publicly. In a 2021 podcast interview, she said she had no “ill will” toward Murray but explained that her attempts to joke about their relationship as young adults were often misinterpreted.
In the same conversation, Bush revealed that she has unexpectedly developed close friendships with some women she believes Murray cheated on her with during their relationship. She revealed she still talks to them and genuinely cherishes the bond they share.
Joking about how Chad had great taste in women despite infidelity, Bush explained that she was able to maintain these friendships because they've evolved into "completely different people from who we were [then]." She said:
"I wrote about some of the friendships I made with women who I think the world would probably think I would never speak to, that I really cherish. And frankly, when I look at the landscape, I'm like, badass, badass, badass, badass. You did have great taste, bro, and like, congrats, you crushed it. I'm like, 'I get it.' I'm just like, 'Damn.' Like, in a lineup, I'd take any one of us."
Murray has not publicly responded to Bush’s latest comments about the alleged infidelity. In 2023, he addressed a separate accusation from former girlfriend Erin Foster that he had cheated on her with Bush, telling E! News that he preferred not to revisit the past and felt “blessed to be where I am right now.”
Both actors have since moved on in their respective lives. Murray went on to marry actress Sarah Roemer in 2015, and they now share three children. Bush, on the other hand, married businessman Grant Hughes in 2022, but they separated the following year. She later married former professional soccer player Ashlyn Harris in 2025.
Sophia Bush's memoir And I Will Tell You Mine: Notes from a Life in Progress is scheduled for release on October 27, 2026.
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