We've talked about on-set romances before – those that have stood the test of time and those that didn't work out – but Chad Michael Murray and Sophia Bush's short-lived marriage still holds a fascination for many.
The two met on the WB show One Tree Hill (which then became the CW) in 2003. The show follows five high-school friends who try to navigate love, friendships and growing up in Tree Hill, North Carolina. Murray plays the brooding and sensitive Lucas Scott, who comes to Tree Hill to live with his dad and half-brother Nathan Scott (James Lafferty). He immediately ingratiates himself in the community and gains the attention of a few local girls. One of those girls is Brooke Davis, played by Bush, the captain of the cheerleading squad and the resident wild child.
The on-screen chemistry between Murray and Bush was palpable, and naturally, it translated off-screen as well, as the two began dating. After two years together, they married in 2005, but five months after their nuptials, they announced they were separating. Things turned even uglier when Bush petitioned to have the marriage annulled. What happened to this celebrity pairing everyone rooted for?
Here are 17 Crazy Secrets Behind Chad Michael Murray And Sophia Bush’s Brief Marriage.
HOW THEY GOT THEIR ROLES ON ONE TREE HILL
Murray was the first person to be cast on One Tree Hill, snagging the role of Lucas Scott. In a past interview, series creator Mark Schwahn explained, “Chad Michael Murray was the first piece of casting. He was sort of the key. I wanted him to be Nathan,” but exec producer Michael Tollin added, “Chad really wanted to be Lucas. Ultimately, that made the decision for us. He just responded to the character. He felt like he could inhabit that character.
Murray himself talked about why he connected to the role. “Lucas' life had a lot of similarities to my life. My mother left when I was a kid and felt I had the opportunity to bring the truth and reality to a story I don't think a lot of people may have the opportunity to bring the truth in and tell that story the way I see it through my eyes.”
Bush, on the other hand, had to audition three times for the role of Brooke Davis. Reportedly, the actress was first told by the producers she wasn't alluring enough and then when she went in again to read for the role, she played it steamier and they thought it was too much. On her third try, Bush was offered the part. Whew.
THE CONNECTION BETWEEN BROOKE AND LUCAS BECAME REAL
The WB show became a hit after its 2003 premiere, and Murray, as the brooding and sensitive Lucas, was immediately a fan favorite. When he first comes to the two of Tree Hill, Lucas sees Peyton (Hilarie Burton) and falls for her, but she eventually rebuffs him. He starts up a friendship with Petyon's bestie, Brooke (Bush), and things quickly turn romantic between the two.
Of course, on the show, Brooke and Lucas' relationship was a bumpy ride, and a love triangle between Lucas, Brooke, and Peyton was formed. Even though Peyton initially pushed Lucas away, the two ended up engaging in a secret love affair (without intimate relations) behind Brooke's back. They finally let Brooke know, and it broke her heart. Lucas, however, realized he still had feelings for Brooke at the end of season 2, and by season 3, they gave it another go.
As Murray and Bush got closer working together on the series, a real-life love sprung up between them as well, and the two started dating pretty soon after the show began. Murray once described to MTV, “Sophia is my cool breeze. She's wonderful, she's kind, she's intelligent – and she makes me happy. I woke up one day and said, 'This is the woman I want to spend the rest of my days with.'”
THE BIG ROMANTIC MARRIAGE PROPOSAL
After just a year of dating, Murray decided he wanted to pop the question to Bush in 2004 while he was on location in Australia shooting the horror film House of Wax. In an MTV special at that time, the actor was seen calling his dad and telling him he was going to ask Sophia to marry him. Then Murray laughed with pal and House of Wax co-star Jared Padalecki that his dad wasn't overly excited about the news. Murray said, “You don't understand. We don't get married in our family.”
Nevertheless, the actor went ahead with his plans and also called Bush's father to ask for her hand. Then you see Murray shopping for an engagement ring Down Under and helped design the perfect one.
When it came time to propose, Murray didn't skimp on the details.
“I couldn’t bring her home until the sun went down because I had 500 candles and 20 bouquets of roses set up,” Murray told People. “Then I had this big light strand on a tennis court with a message (spelled out) to her that you could see looking down from the balcony of our 18th-floor penthouse.”
SAYING THEIR “I DO'S”
After such a carefully planned and heartfelt proposal, Murray and Bush took another year to plan their wedding, and it reportedly was a beautiful event.
The One Tree Hill stars exchanged handwritten vows during their wedding in April 2005 at the gorgeous Santa Monica’s Hotel Casa Del Mar before 200 guests. According to People, Bush wore a Vera Wang gown and Murray donned a custom-made Ralph Lauren tuxedo.
“He and I are both in favor of elegance,” Bush told the magazine about planning the nuptials. “In addition to being elegant, we don’t want to be stuffy. We’re going to keep it small and intimate.”
Because we know how quickly the marriage dissolved one wonders during at least the year between the engagement and wedding if some red flags popped up. It certainly could have been the case, but clearly, it wasn't enough to stop the wedding from moving forward.
Bush told People later, “The advice I would give to my younger self — or really any young woman who is trying to find her place in the world — is just to stop worrying about being somebody else’s definition of enough... I know that the woman that I am in my 30s was equally influenced by those things as by you know everything that I was able to achieve.”
IT ENDED AFTER JUST FIVE MONTHS
After just a mere five months of marriage, Murray and Bush announced in September 2005 that they were separating.
Both released statements. “This is a difficult and unfortunate situation,” said Bush. “I am glad this is being resolved sooner rather than later.” Murray added, “I am saddened to announce that Sophia and I are separating. This is a very difficult time for me.”
In early 2006, Bush petitioned to have the marriage annulled, citing “fraud,” but in the papers filed with the court, there was no explanation of what type of fraud it was.
A fraud claim to have a marriage annulled can be “difficult to prove,” according to a lawyer who spoke with People at the time. In essence, an annulment states that the marriage was never valid to begin with and that some type of deception was involved.
Sure enough, Bush's request for an annulment was denied by a judge, and she and Murray had to proceed with a regular divorce. It took another 10 months or so to finalize the divorce, with both sides waiving any spousal support. They also thankfully had no children together.
Whatever Sophia thought was a “fraud” wasn't completely divulged, but it sure sounds like things between the two turned ugly pretty quickly.
DID CHAD STRAY?
Although it wasn't officially confirmed, the “fraud” in the brief marriage may have stemmed from alleged infidelity.
As you recall, Murray was filming House of Wax when he and Bush got engaged, a movie that also co-starred Paris Hilton. At the time, Hilton was dating singer Nick Carter, and in a very candid interview with Ryan Seacrest in 2006 (via TMZ), Carter admitted he “hooked up” with Ashlee Simpson as a way to get back at Hilton, who, Carter claims, had a brief on-set fling with Murray. The plot thickens.
The timing of all this wasn't made exactly clear, but when asked by Seacrest if Murray was with Bush at the time of the affair, Carter replied, “Yeah.” When Murray and Bush split, a source reportedly told People, “Sophia went into the marriage believing in the sanctity of marriage, and Chad simply did not share that vision.”
Bush then hinted at it herself, telling People, “It’s not that I don’t respect other women in my position, but there are things I won’t forgive. I have too much going on in my life to focus on.”
Ultimately, Sophia saw this as a learning experience. In a 2014 op-ed she penned for Cosmopolitan, the actress wrote about her relationships, “Some are meant to heal you, some are meant to teach you how to build yourself up, and some are meant to show you how to trust your own intuition.”
SOPHIA SAID THEY SHOULDN'T HAVE GOTTEN MARRIED
Bush opened up later about her brief marriage to Murray, admitting how they were really way too young to take on such a huge responsibility.
In a 2014 appearance on Watch What Happens Live, Bush told host Andy Cohen, "We were two stupid kids who had no business being in a relationship in the first place. To all the other co-stars who've worked it out, more power to you."
In her Cosmo piece, however, Bush was a bit more introspective about how she fell in love with Murray. “It seems we often learn about what love is—or what we think it should be—from movies and TV,” she wrote. “There’s this binary idea of 'I love him!/He’s the worst!' 'I’m going to marry him!/I never want to speak to him again!' Sure, everybody has moments when they look at their partner and wonder, Could this person be my person? But I believe that the more you experience, the more your feelings begin to exist in shades of gray.”
As we all know, young love can be a very powerful thing.
The actress continued, “In my 20s, when I was starting out my career as an actor, I wasn’t looking for a relationship, but one found me and became serious, even though I hadn’t planned to settle down until my 30s. But when the person you’re with asks you to marry him, you think: This must be happening because it’s supposed to.”
THEY STILL HAD TO WORK TOGETHER AFTER THE BREAK-UP
Murray and Bush continued to play on-again, off-again lovers Lucas and Brooke on their smash hit show after their split. How did that work?
The actress was diplomatic about it when the two first separated in 2005. Bush explained to People, “My job is my job, and my personal life is my personal life, and I keep them separate. It’s my job. It’s not always easy, but it’s my work – it’s what I love and take pride in, and I won’t let that slack because of personal circumstances.”
In 2014, the actress had a much angrier tone when asked how she and Murray were able to push past things and work together.
Bush explained on WWHL, "At the end of the day, we're grownups, and I actually think it's interesting that when people split in a way that's unpleasant, they usually just go on quite literally hating each other—or the person in my situation hates the other person, whatever—but when you have to work with somebody for another half a decade, you kind of have to deal with it.”
She added, “Because for me, at the end of the day, my job is my priority. And so I think at the end of it, it really let me just let go of it." Enough said.
THEIR REAL-LIFE DRAMA ENDED BROOKE AND LUCAS' ROMANCE
While the One Tree Hill co-stars maintained a professional demeanor on the show, their characters' love affair finally was put to rest, thus alleviating what must have been some awkward moments.
As we mentioned, on the show, the love triangle between Peyton, Lucas, and Brooke continued to complicate things. Lucas and Brooke do spend most of season 3 together, as they grow closer after a school shooting. Except Lucas also got a little too close with Peyton during the school shooting as well, and when Peyton confesses she still has feelings for Lucas, Brooke loses it, though they patch things up once again.
By the time season 4 rolled around, Murray and Bush were already on their way to a divorce, so certainly the tensions must have been high on the set. Thankfully, the writers decided to finally put an end to the “Brucas” romance. The fourth season highlights a “pregnancy scare,” after which Brooke breaks it off with Lucas to gain perspective. Lucas tries to get her back, but ultimately it's too late for them.
Lucas and Brooke decide they are better off as good friends, and Lucas and Peyton finally have the romance they deserve.
Murray and Bush continued to work on One Tree Hill together until Murray left after the show's sixth season. Bush remained on the show through its ninth and final season in 2012.
CHAD QUICKLY PROPOSED TO SOMEONE ELSE
With his divorce from Bush not yet finalized, Murray found new love with actress and former beauty queen Kenzie Dalton – and popped the question once again. =
Murray met Dalton on the set of One Tree Hill (now clearly a hotbed of on-set romances), while she was playing a cheerleader extra on the show.
When he proposed in 2006, Dalton was only 18-years-old and a senior in high school.
It's not hard to understand why Bush may have harbored some ill-will towards her ex-husband.
Dalton and Murray stayed together for seven years. During that time, Murray once gushed about Dalton, "She is a little stunner. She is a sweetheart. She is my best friend and we have been together a long time" and acknowledged that even though they hadn't tied the knot as yet, “We just keep going." This might refer to the actor's statement that the men in the Murray family stay in long-term relationships but don't get married.
Still, it wasn't meant to be. In 2013, the couple called off their engagement. "Chad Michael Murray and Kenzie Dalton quietly parted ways earlier in the year," his rep told Us in a statement. "Please respect their privacy at this time."
SOPHIA DATED CHAD'S TV BROTHER
Bush also had her own romantic ups and downs with other One Tree Hill actors. In 2008, she dated James Lafferty, who played the bad boy Nathan Scott on the show.
She actually tried to keep the Lafferty relationship on the down low, but Murray outed them as a couple.
During an interview with a local CW news affiliate (via E! News), Chad responded to a question about Sophia and the failed marriage, "It's one of those things where you grow up a lot faster... I think [Sophia and I] are both professional and mature enough to get through it. And now it's just easy. We're just friends. And she's got James, and James and I are friends. It's just a little tight group in Wilmington."
While Bush never really commented in public about her relationship with Lafferty, she may have been referring to him in her Cosmopolitan article as someone who helped her get over the painful divorce: “Luckily, I had a guy friend who was truly supportive and encouraged me to examine all aspects of my reality,” the actress wrote. “After a year, and our mutual friends always asking why we weren’t dating, we realized they were all on to something. Ever heard the phrase 'It’s a reason, a season, or a lifetime?' Well, this particular relationship was just a season, but still, it was life shaping. It truly was my space to heal. And I was able to process all that had happened and find a deeper understanding of love.”
SHE ALSO DATED ANOTHER ONE TREE HILL CO-STAR
Then Bush ended up also dating actor Austin Nichols, who played Julian Baker in the later seasons of One Tree Hill.
On the show, Julian is a movie producer who comes to town to make a film based on Lucas Scott's first novel. He has a history with Peyton but ends up falling for Brooke. When the movie falls through, he leaves for Los Angeles, and Brooke follows him there. She returns to Tree Hill, and the two embark on a long-distance romance until Julian finally reunites with Brooke. The two get married and have twin sons, and at the end of the series, they are happily raising their kids while Julian produces a TV series based on Brooke's life in high school. Very fitting.
In May 2010, Sophia confirmed she had been dating Nichols on and off for several years, but the couple called it off for good in February 2012. At the time, a source told Us that Bush broke it off with Nichols "because she didn't think he was the one... She's moving on” – and finding love outside of the One Tree Hill stable of available men.
Still, Bush and Nichols seemed to remain tight. When the actress' new show Partners was premiering on CBS later in 2012, Nichols tweeted, “I know this slammin... babe, @SophiaBush. Her new show is on tonight on CBS. Watch it or I will hunt you down,” to which she replied, “Aww shucks.”
SOPHIA SAYS THEIR DIVORCE WAS TRAGIC
Even through all her subsequent romances after she divorced Murray, the sting of that failed relationship still followed Bush throughout her life.
When she wrote her op-ed for Cosmopolitan in 2014, she really poured her heart out in explaining what it meant to her. She wrote, “I refuse to let that one relationship define me, which is why I’ve done my best to avoid discussing it for 10 years. The reality is that, yes, it was a massive event in my life. And the trauma of it was amplified by how public it became, which was incredibly foreign and bizarre to a girl who’d been just another college kid 24 months before her life blew up.”
The actress continued, “I don’t define success that way anymore. Because the answers are never black-and-white. Often in between those two, you find the keys to what you need in partnership: what you’re willing to give, what you want to get, and what things are absolutes that you cannot compromise on. A few months with the right person can be as great an experience as a decade-long union with someone else.”
The main point Bush wanted to make is that you should never limit yourself in trying to find the exact right person. “When you take the pressure of The One off, you’ll open yourself up to endless possibilities. You’ll learn to have a truly deep, knowing relationship with yourself first. Then the rest will fall into place. Reasons, seasons, and lifetimes. They’re all valid.”
YEARS LATER, THEY DEFINITELY DON'T TALK
Fans might want Bush and Murray to be friends, but it sounds like that's not going to be the case. On Sophia's appearance on Watch What Happens Live in 2014, someone called in and asked the actress when was the last time she spoke to Chad: “That's an interesting question. But my mother once said to me, 'If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all!”
Bush also once talked about dating “wrong guys.” She said in an interview, “I’ve dated a couple of the wrong guys, but I’ve also had great love in my life. I think every woman on Earth has dated the wrong guy at some point.”
She added about that chapter in her life, “It devastates me now that I have been reduced to a Hollywood statistic – another joke marriage. I never expected to be married more than once... because I knew what I was getting into and will always believe in love.”
Bush poignantly wrote in her op-ed, “You call in exactly whom and what you need over the course of your life, as you are learning life’s lessons. And learn them you will. Even if you try to avoid these teachings, they’re coming for you. This reality has taught me that the relationships that don’t lead to lifetime commitments are not failures. Not every love can last forever.”
SOPHIA SHADED CHAD ON SOCIAL MEDIA
Bush still had some digs to get in, especially when someone on social media talked trash to her about their breakup.
During the 2016 presidential race, Bush shared her support for Hillary Clinton on Twitter, and one Internet troll took offense to it. They tweeted at her,“So @sophiabush you side with liars? No wonder Chad cheated on you, your taste sucks. UNFOLLOW.”
Not allowing such a tweet to go unanswered, the former Chicago PD star responded, “Super classy... Yes I side with the most experienced person to ever run over a white supremacist, pathological liar who is a crook that has defrauded our government. And claims that doing so makes him 'smart.'”
The actress added, “Much like him you seem to blame women for their [expletive] partners’ actions. Hope that kind of karma doesn’t sucker punch you some day. Good luck in life to you. You seem to need it.”
It's not the first time she's called someone out on social media for “creepy” behavior. Bush once tweeted to a male fan on a plane who was relentlessly bothering her and another woman. “Stop believing that you are entitled to make me uncomfortable because you ‘watch my TV show’ so I owe you some magical debt,” she wrote. “I make it, you watch it. After that, the ‘exchange’ is done. You do not get to harass me, or any woman, because you think you pay our bills. You don’t bro, I DO.”
CHAD SUPPORTS SOPHIA WHEN HER #METOO LETTER CAME OUT
When it comes to supporting each other, the One Tree Hill cast definitely have each other's backs.
In November 2017, as the #MeToo movement just began, several women accused One Tree Hill creator Mark Schwahn of harassment, starting with Audrey Wauchope, a writer on the show who detailed her experiences working with Schwahn in a series of tweets.
Bush, Hilarie Burton, and Bethany Joy Lenz, along with several other women who worked on the show, responded by releasing a letter, stating they “have chosen this forum to stand together in support of Audrey Wauchope and one another.” The letter also said, “Many of us were, to varying degrees, manipulated psychologically and emotionally. More than one of us is still in treatment for post-traumatic stress. Many of us were put in uncomfortable positions and had to swiftly learn to fight back, sometimes physically, because it was made clear to us that the supervisors in the room were not the protectors they were supposed to be.” (Read the full letter here).
This was followed by a statement of support from Murray, Bryan Greenberg, James Lafferty, and Austin Nichols and other male cast members.
Chad tweeted, “The women of OTH have always been strong and incredible. Today they’ve made us all even more proud by standing as a beacon of what is right, and continuing to lead & change the atmosphere of society.”
HOW THEY MOVED ON
Ultimately, time does heal wounds and both Sophia Bush and Chad Michael Murray found happiness with new people in their lives.
Murray married his Chosen co-star Sarah Roemer in 2015 and months later, Roemer gave birth to the couple's first child, a son. Murray and Roemer also welcomed their second child, a daughter, in March 2017.
The actor once talked about being a dad with Entertainment Tonight. “Having a family just changes your perspective on everything. I mean, it's a world changer. … For me, it was the greatest thing that's ever happened to me. ... I think you're always walking around with the mentality that you want to make sure that they're proud and you want to represent them well and just be a great leader.”
Bush had other relationships, post One Tree Hill. She dated Google executive Dan Freidinburg for a year before splitting up in 2014. Bush was devastated when Freidinburg later lost his life in an avalanche on Mt. Everest. “Losing one of my best friends a few months ago shattered me,” she told Health magazine.
She also dated her former Chicago PD co-star Jesse Lee Soffer, but they broke up in 2015, and Bush left the NBC show.
Bush is, as of now, single and forging ahead with her career. She made a guest appearance on the Zach Braff show Alex, Inc. and you'll hear her voice in the upcoming The Incredibles 2 as a superhero named Voyd.
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Have any other crazy facts about Chad Michael Murray and Sophia Bush you'd like to add? Let us know in the comments!