Sophia Bush is reflecting on an "aha" moment about her sexuality that occurred after her most recent breakup.
The "One Tree Hill" actor came out as queer in an essay she wrote for Glamour magazine in April 2024, and throughout Pride Month, she's reflected on that decision and why it was all "worth it."
Now, she says it was an honest comment from a friend that led her to look back on her relationship with her sexual identity.
“After my last breakup, one of my best friends looked at me and was like, ‘I got to say, that was just painful to watch, and I’m so glad you’re getting out of it. But, like, I don’t just think — he was not the right person for you — but also, I don’t actually think you like men,’” Bush said on the June 27 episode of her podcast "Work in Progress."
Bush is currently dating 38-year-old former member of the United States women’s national soccer team Ashlyn Harris. She married entrepreneur Grant Hughes in 2022 before the actor filed for divorce in August 2023.
Her friend's comment, post-breakup, led to an "aha moment," and Bush looked back on her past feelings differently.
"I was like, ‘Oh, maybe the drama when I fell in love with this beautiful French exchange student when I was 16 wasn’t about her being a girl, it was that she lived in France and my parents were like, ‘This feels irrational and really like a setup for heartbreak for you,''" she said.
She also recalled identifying as bisexual until she was 25 years old — and why she stopped. She said friends, who she believes "meant well," told her, "You've mostly dated men. You can't say you're bi."
At the time, she felt like she had to "get out of the way" in the LGBTQ+ community. But after her friend's comment, she realized, "Maybe I just get to like who I like."
Bush kicked off Pride Month with a post on June 2.
“You are perfect. No matter how long it might take, you’ll find your people,” her post reads. “They will help you find more and more of yourself. It’s worth it. You’re worth it.”
In her essay for Glamour, Bush reflected on the idea of "coming out."
“I sort of hate the notion of having to come out in 2024,” she wrote at the time. “But I’m deeply aware that we are having this conversation in a year when we’re seeing the most aggressive attacks on the LGBTQIA+ community in modern history.”
The 41-year-old actor went on to share her feeling of “safety, respect and love” in the queer community before adding that she felt as if she’d always been aware that her “sexuality exists on a spectrum.”
“Right now, I think the word that best defines it is queer,” she added. “I can’t say it without smiling, actually. And that feels pretty great.”
In the essay, she also spoke about her relationship with the goalkeeper.
“It really took 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,” Bush wrote. “When you’re so in the trenches of hardship — plus you have the added weight of having to go through it on a public stage — it can be hard to see anything but what’s right in front of you.”
The couple have since been photographed alongside one another at various events, including Elton John’s Oscars party in March and the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner in April.
This article was originally published on TODAY.com
