Sophia Bush Comes Out As Queer After Divorce: ‘I am so lucky to be here’

Sophia Bush has come out as queer nine months after filing for divorce from husband Grant Hughes, and described finding love with a woman as “so lucky”. 

The One Tree Hill actress penned an essay for Glamour’s April 2024 edition where she publicly came out as ‘queer’ and candidly discussed details of her new relationship with soccer star Ashlyn Harris. 

Last year, the actress made headlines after news broke of her filing for divorce from Hughes just a year after their wedding. Two months after Bush’s divorce filing was announced, PEOPLE reported that she had begun a relationship with former American soccer player Ashlyn Harris. Harris, who had also filed for divorce from her then-wife and fellow soccer professional Ali Krieger in September 2023 , became a subject of interest alongside the actress.

Reflecting on her unexpected journey to love, she reveals that she hadn’t anticipated finding such a connection while navigating the aftermath of her divorce from her former husband.

She expressed, “I don’t know how else to say it other than: I didn’t see it until I saw it. 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”. 

Bush Addresses Cheating and Affair Rumours

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.” However, during challenging fertility treatments, she came to the realisation that she and her then-husband communicated in different “emotional languages.” 

Six months into her fertility journey, Bush admitted, “I knew deep down that I absolutely had made a mistake. It would take my head and heart a while longer to understand what my bones already knew”. 

Bush detailed the gradual progression and “painful conversations” that occurred before she and Harris embarked on a relationship. She denied the speculation that she had cheated on her ex-husband with the former Gotham FC goalkeeper when the public viewed their love as an illicit affair.

“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 realising 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 said. 

During her struggles, she shared that she’d found solace within a supportive circle of women as she navigated her divorce throughout 2023. 

Within this close-knit community, she connected with Harris, whom she had initially met in 2019. Reflecting on their evolving relationship, she confessed, “I didn’t expect to find love in this support system”.

“Maybe it was all fated. Maybe it really is a version of invisible string theory. I don’t really know. 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”, she wrote. 

Sophia Bush’s connection to the queer community 

The John Tucker Must Die star revealed that she had always felt a sense of connection to the queer community. Bush shared her reluctance towards the idea of publicly coming out in 2024, while also acknowledging the importance of visibility during a time of heightened hostility towards the LGBTQI+ community. 

Bush highlighted the unprecedented onslaught of attacks on the LGBTQIA+ community, with over 500 anti-LGBTQIA+ bills proposed in state legislatures last year. 

She explained that due to this concerning trend, she wanted to approach the act of coming out with the respect and honour it deserves. 

“I’ve experienced so much safety, respect, and love in the queer community, as an ally all of my life, that, as I came into myself, I already felt it was my home. I think I’ve always known that my sexuality exists on a spectrum. Right now I think the word that best defines it is queer. I can’t say it without smiling, actually. And that feels pretty great”, she wrote.