Revisit Sophia Bush and Chad Michael Murray’s Relationship Timeline

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Revisit Sophia Bush and Chad Michael Murray's Relationship Timeline

An up-and-down romance. Sophia Bush and Chad Michael Murray fell quickly for one another after meeting in 2003 on the set of The CW's One Tree Hill. "She's wonderful, she's kind, she's intelligent, and she makes me happy," the Cinderella Story actor said during an interview with MTV about Bush. The duo, who married in 2005 after a whirlwind romance, didn't get to celebrate their love for long, as he almost immediately began doing press for House of Wax. "Trust me, I do not want to be spending my honeymoon on a junket," he told The Buffalo News during the junket for the movie, which took place six days after the pair tied the knot. "This is the last place I want to be, but we'll find our time together. Right now, we've got some work to get done." The New York native also gushed over his then-wife. "All I'll say is that it was the best day of my life. It was absolutely phenomenal. She was gorgeous. It was perfect," he said of their California wedding. "She's it. She makes me a better man." [jwplayer Afu3CVkz] Unfortunately, the actors' romance fizzled out rather quickly, and the twosome split up just five months after tying the knot. They continued to work together for years on One Tree Hill — something that wasn't an easy task. "At the end of the day, we're grownups," the Hitcher star said during a 2014 episode of What Happens Live With Andy Cohen. "I actually think it's interesting that when people split in a way that's unpleasant, they usually just go on quite literally hating each other — or the person in my situation hates the other person, whatever — but when you have to work with somebody for another half a decade, you kind of have to deal with it. Because for me, at the end of the day, my job is my priority. ... So I think at the end of it, it really let me just let go of it." It also wasn't easy to continue on the show in that atmosphere, as Bush later detailed on Dax Shepard's "Armchair Expert" podcast. The Love, Victor star noted that producers were "really deeply inappropriate" to both of the actors after their split. “There was no space to self-reflect. … They ran, like, TV ads about it, it was really ugly. They made a practice of taking advantage of people’s personal lives,” the False Positive star said in 2018. “Not just for me and for my ex, for other actors on the show who would share — as you do when you get close to people — deeply personal things that were happening in their lives, and they would wind up in story lines. It wasn’t OK.” Scroll down for their full relationship timeline: [podcast_block]

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2003

The pair met when they both arrived in Wilmington, North Carolina, to film One Tree Hill. The show premiered in the fall of 2003.

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2004

The Agent Carter alum proposed to Bush in Australia in spring 2004 while he was filming House of Wax. "I woke up one day and I said, ‘This is the woman I want to spend the rest of my life with,’" he told MTV at the time. He decorated his penthouse with hundreds of candles and spelled out "I love u" with lights on the tennis court of the building.

"That was probably the most nerve-wracking thing I've ever done in my life," he told MTV. "I thought to myself, ‘If she says no, I've got 18 floors to jump.’"

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2005

The duo tied the knot in April 2005 in Santa Monica, California.

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2005

Five months later, the pair announced their split. “This is a difficult and unfortunate situation,” the John Tucker Must Die star said in September 2005. “I am glad this is being resolved sooner rather than later.” Murray added, "I am saddened to announce that Sophia and I are separating. This is a very difficult time for me.”

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2006

In April 2006, news broke that the Dawson's Creek alum was engaged to Kenzie Dalton, a high school senior who starred as an extra on One Tree Hill. (They called off their engagement in 2013.)

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2006

After rumors swirled that Paris Hilton came between Bush and the former Gilmore Girls star, Nick Carter spoke out about the claims. In October 2006, the Backstreet Boys singer alleged on Ryan Seacrest's KIIS FM that the heiress cheated on him with the Riverdale alum while he was still with Bush.

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2006

The Chicago P.D. alum attempted to get the marriage annulled and cited "fraud" in a February 2006 filing. The request was denied and the pair were granted a divorce in December 2006.

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2007-2009

The exes remained friends on the set of the teen drama, still starring in many scenes together. Murray exited the show in 2009 at the end of season 6.

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2014

The Incredible 2 actress was asked about working with Murray following their divorce during a 2014 episode of What Happens Live With Andy Cohen. "At the end of the day, we're grownups," she shared at the time. "I actually think it's interesting that when people split in a way that's unpleasant, they usually just go on quite literally hating each other — or the person in my situation hates the other person, whatever — but when you have to work with somebody for another half a decade, you kind of have to deal with it. Because for me, at the end of the day, my job is my priority. ... So I think at the end of it, it really let me just let go of it."

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2018

Four years later, Bush was put on the spot again during WWHL, admitting that she never really wanted to marry Murray, but did so to appease others. "How do you let everybody down, and how do you — what’s the fight?" she asked at the time. "And when you have bosses telling you that you’re the only person who gets a person to work on time, and 200 people either get to see their kids at night or they don’t because our days start on time.”

Shortly after, Murray's rep slammed her "ludacrous" comments, adding, "Chad conducts himself in a completely professional manner and would never marry for any reason but love. Thirteen years since his divorce from Sophia, he has a very happy family life with his wife and children. He has completely moved on and doesn’t feel the need to engage in this type of behavior.”

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2021

During an August 2021 podcast, the activist shared that she's "not allowed to talk about" the Freaky Friday star because of the reactions she's received in the past.

"I’ve tried to poke fun at being a dumb kid and whenever I’ve done that, it gets twisted into I’m talking s–t about somebody who I don’t even know anymore, who’s clearly a grown-up,” she said on the "Inside of You With Michael Rosenbaum" podcast. “I think you have to, like, laugh at who you used to be, but when people ask me about history that involves someone else … it’s not worth my time. It’s not a place where I harbor ill will or anything.”

Bush added, “I’ve tried to, like, you know, do the thing where when I get stuck live on the air — which has happened to me twice — getting asked about it where I give a little, like, jazz hands quip and move on, it just doesn't work, so I'm not going to. ... I was a very naïve 21-year-old kid, and that's all there is to it."