Actress Sophia Bush says she finally feels she can “breathe” after coming out as queer. As she mentions in an interview with Glamor she found love with the American soccer star Ashlyn Harris.
The One Tree Hill star came out publicly as queer in a candid personal essay for Glamor titled “I Finally Feel Like I Can Breathe.”
The magazine’s April cover star writes that coming out at 41, with her girlfriend by her side, makes it feel like her “first birthday” all over again.
“I don’t think I can explain how profound this is,” he writes. “I feel like I’ve been wearing a heavy vest for who knows how long. I didn’t realize how heavy it was until I finally put it down. This may sound crazy – but I think other people in trauma recovery will understand – I’m taking deep breaths again. I can feel my legs. I can feel my feet in my shoes right now. It makes me want to cry and laugh at the same time.”
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The actress’ revelation comes after she filed for divorce from businessman Grant Hughes in August 2023 after a year of marriage. Harris, who played on the US national soccer teams that won the World Cup in 2015 and 2019, filed for divorce from wife Ali Krieger in September.
“We didn’t cheat our partners”
Contrary to speculation that the actress and former soccer player had an extramarital affair and then ended their marriage, the actress emphasizes in her essay that neither of them cheated.
She explains that she and Harris, who met in 2019, grew closer after their splits last year and helped each other heal as friends. Then one day, Bush says, he asked Harris out on a “friendless night out” — and it was one of the “most surreal experiences” of her life. “Maybe it was all fate. Maybe it really is a version of invisible string theory. I really don’t know,” writes the actress. “But I do know that for a brief moment I felt like maybe the universe was conspiring against me. And that feeling in my bones is what I’m going to hold on to no matter where things go from here.”
