Mark Schwahn has been suspended from E!’s The Royals amid sexual harassment allegations made by 18 members of the cast and crew of One Tree Hill.
“E!, Universal Cable Productions and Lionsgate Television take sexual harassment allegations very seriously, investigate them thoroughly and independently, and take appropriate action,” a statement from the studios to Us Weekly reads. “Lionsgate has suspended Mark Schwahn from The Royals as we continue our investigation.”
One Tree Hill actress Hilarie Burton reacted to the news on Twitter.
“I wonder what ours years together would have been like if we coulda made this happen,” Burton wrote, tagging costars Sophia Bush, Bethany Joy Lenz, Shantel van Staten, Danneel Harris, Kate Voegele and Daphne Zuniga.
I wonder what ours years together would have been like if we coulda made this happen. @SophiaBush @BethanyJoyLenz @TheRealShantel @DanneelHarris @katevoegele @DaphneZuniga #onetreehillwomen #fuckyoursorry #BurnItDownSis https://t.co/vehsWxQ5yj
— Hilarie Burton (@HilarieBurton) November 15, 2017
While E! Has not announced a premiere date for season 4 of The Royals, the series did already wrap filming its fourth season.
As previously reported, writer Audrey Wauchope recalled an experience she and her writing partner, Rachel Specter, went through with a showrunner — later identified as the One Tree Hill creator — during their first writing job on Saturday, November 11, via Twitter.
Burton, Bush, Lenz and more were quick to support Wauchope’s claims on social media. The three stars of the CW drama, which aired from 2003 to 2012, along with 15 other female cast and crew members, detailed their experiences working on the show in a letter published by Variety on Monday, November 13.
“Mark Schwahn’s behavior over the duration of the filming of One Tree Hill was something of an ‘open secret,’” the letter reads. “Many of us were, to varying degrees, manipulated psychologically and emotionally. More than one of us is still in treatment for post-traumatic stress. Many of us were put in uncomfortable positions and had to swiftly learn to fight back, sometimes physically, because it was made clear to us that the supervisors in the room were not the protectors they were supposed to be. Many of us were spoken to in ways that ran the spectrum from deeply upsetting, to traumatizing, to downright illegal. And a few of us were put in positions where we felt physically unsafe. More than one woman on our show had her career trajectory threatened.”
The actresses’ male costars, including James Lafferty and Chad Michael Murray, took to social media to show support after the letter was published.
