Sophia Bush Comes Out as Queer, Addresses Cheating and Affair Rumors

Sophia Bush knows who she is — and she's ready to tell the world.

In a powerful essay for Glamour, the One Tree Hill alum, 41, came out as queer, confirmed her relationship with Ashlyn Harris, and vehemently denied the endless speculation that she cheated on ex-husband Grant Hughes with the soccer star.

Bush began the piece by revealing how she nearly called off her 2022 wedding to Hughes, but instead "doubled down on being a model wife." That is, of course, until she realized — while going through difficult fertility procedures — that she and her then-husband spoke two different "emotional language[s]." Six months deep into her fertility journey, Bush revealed, she "knew deep down that I absolutely had made a mistake."

After separating from Hughes after less than a year of marriage, the actress found herself in a group of girlfriends who were going through similar "issues … in their own homes." One of those women was Harris, "who was in the process of figuring out her own split from her wife [Ali Krieger]."

Calling Harris "a kind ear for those of us who opened up about our problems," Bush explained it wasn't until "other people in our safe support bubble pointing out to me how we'd finish each other's sentences or be deeply affected by the same things" for her to realize there was something special between her and the former USWNT player.

"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," Bush continued, calling their 4.5-hour meal together "truly one of the most surreal experiences of my life thus far."

"In hindsight, maybe it all had to happen slowly and then suddenly all at once. Maybe it was all fated. Maybe it really is a version of invisible string theory. I don't really know," she penned. "But I do know that for a sparkly moment I felt like maybe the universe had been conspiring for me. And that feeling that I have in my bones is one I'll hold on to no matter where things go from here."

Then came the barrage of online hate. "There were blatant lies. Violent threats. There were accusations of being a home-wrecker," Bush wrote. "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!)."

The John Tucker Must Die star emphasized that she did not cheat on Hughes. "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? Rather than realizing I had to be the most vulnerable I've ever been, on a public stage, despite being terrified to my core? It feels brutal," she shared. (Harris, who shares two young children with Krieger, denied the cheating rumors amid her romance with Bush and slammed the online hatred in November 2023.)

While Bush noted that it's not her "place" to share "Ashlyn's circumstances or her children," she couldn't help but gush about her partner.

"I am absolutely in awe of her relentless integrity. The way she prioritizes and centers her kids, not only in her life but in the core of her being, is breathtaking to behold," Bush wrote. "Falling in love with her has sutured some of my own childhood wounds, and made me so much closer to my own mother. 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?"

As for how she defines her sexual identity, Bush has "always known that [her] sexuality exists on a spectrum" — and she is excited to come out.

"Right now I think the word that best defines it is queer. I can't say it without smiling, actually," she wrote. "And that feels pretty great."

"I finally feel like I can breathe," Bush added. "I don't think I can explain how profound that is. I feel like I was wearing a weighted vest for who knows how long. I hadn't realized how heavy it was until I finally just put it down."