Sophia Bush found herself just as surprised by her burgeoning romance with Ashlyn Harris as the rest of the world.
In an essay for Glamour magazine, released on Thursday, the former One Tree Hill star candidly details her new relationship with the soccer star. She admits she “didn’t expect to find love” while mourning her divorce from now-ex-husband Grant Hughes, to whom she had been married for only one year.
“I don’t know how else to say it other than: I didn’t see it until I saw it,” she writes, per Page Six. “And I think it’s very easy not to see something that’s been in front of your face for a long time when you’d never looked at it as an option and you had never been looked at as an option.”
While Bush, 41, was navigating her high-profile divorce, the retired US women’s national soccer team player had been dealing with her own split from wife Ali Krieger.
The now-couple, who initially met in 2019 and became friends, ultimately bonded over their mutual hardships while attending the Cannes Lions Festival in France last year.
When news of their relationship broke, the Chicago P.D. actress (who now identifies as queer) and her athlete girlfriend immediately faced allegations of cheating, which Harris has vehemently denied.
Bush also reveals they each faced “violent threats” and “blatant lies.”
“The idea that I left my marriage based on some hysterical rendezvous — that, to be crystal-clear, never happened — rather than having taken over a year to do the most soul crushing work of my life?” she asked, hypothetically. “It feels brutal.”
The actress, who declines to weigh in on Harris’ divorce and the custody battle over her and Krieger’s two children, wrote that the soccer star’s devotion to her kids “is breathtaking to behold.”
“Falling in love with her has sutured some of my own childhood wounds, and made me so much closer to my own mother,” Bush writes.
“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?”
Although Page Six confirmed in October 2023 that the Drama Queens podcast host and Harris were dating, the pair didn’t make their first public appearance as a couple until March when they attended Elton John’s annual Oscars bash together.
This story originally appeared in Page Six and was reproduced with permission.