The Truth About Chad Michael Murray's Short Marriage To Sophia Bush
When One Tree Hill premiered on the WB in September 2003 (a mere two months after The O.C., another teen drama with a not dissimilar premise), tweens, teens, and even maybe some adults found themselves transfixed by the inner workings of Tree Hill, a small town in North Carolina (via Vulture). The show followed Lucas Scott (Chad Michael Murray) as he struggled to break free from his father's shadow, as well as the lives of his friends Haley James, love interests Brooke Davis and Peyton Sawyer, and his brother and sometimes friend, sometimes enemy, Nathan Scott. While much of the cast was unknown at that point, fans of WB dramas likely recognized star Murray from his various roles on Gilmore Girls and Dawson's Creek.
The show lasted from 2003 to 2012, at which point the One Tree Hill cast's various off-screen romances had caused almost as much speculation and interest as their on-screen love triangles (of which there were many).
Take for example Chad Michael Murray and Sophia Bush, whose onscreen characters of Lucas and Brooke were on-again and off-again throughout the show's run, but, for a time, were very much on.
A professional-then-personal-then-professional relationship
Murray and Bush first met on the set of One Tree Hill and began dating in 2003, a few years after the show first aired. They then wed in April 2005, in a oceanfront ceremony in Santa Monica, California (via People). However, their marital bliss was short-lived. A mere five months later the two separated, with Bush eventually filing for an annulment on the grounds of fraud. At the time, with the show still on the air, a friend of Bush's told People, "She's moved on. They have a professional relationship."
At the time, and for another 10 years, Bush often didn't publicly address the relationship. However, in 2017, she penned an essay for Cosmopolitan, wherein she opened up about the pressure young women often feel to find "the one." "And thus, I came to appreciate that relationships often serve a specific purpose at a certain point in time, for myriad reasons. 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," she wrote.
Eventually, Bush also opened up to Andy Cohen on his SiriusXM radio show, telling him she felt "pressured" to marry Murray, which Murray's rep then slammed as "ludicrous" (via People).
Where are they now?
In the years since their acrimonious split, both Murray and Bush have moved on. In fact, prior to the finalization of his divorce with Bush, in 2006 Murray announced his engagement to One Tree Hill cheerleading extra (and then senior in high school), Kenzie Dalton (via PopSugar). Although they never married, the two were together for seven years before eventually parting ways. In 2015, Murray then announced that he'd secretly married his Chosen co-star, Sarah Roemer. Today, Murray and Roemer share two children, a boy born in 2015 and a girl born in 2017 (via Country Living).
Following the birth of his daughter, Murray told Entertainment Tonight, "For me, it was the greatest thing that's ever happened to me. Having kids is a game changer and 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."
For her part, Bush has continued to date co-stars and non-co-stars alike. Following her split with Murray, she was linked to One Tree Hill co-stars James Lafferty and Austin Nichols, as well as Chicago P.D. co-star Jesse Lee Soffer. Bush also dated Google program manager Dan Fredinburg for 10 months, who sadly later passed away during an avalanche on Mount Everest (via Us Weekly). Currently, Bush is believed to be dating Grant Hughes, cofounder of FocusMotion Health, a "data-driven orthopedic recovery solutions" for surgery patients" (via Us Weekly).
So while Bush and Murray's separation appears to be for the best, at least One Tree Hill fans will always have Brooke and Lucas (and Peyton).