Sophia Bush Addresses Affair Rumors About Her Relationship With Ashlyn Harris

Actress Sophia Bush has spoken publicly about how her relationship with soccer player Ashlyn Harris began, rejecting claims that the two were involved while still married. In an episode of the podcast Call Her Daddy released on Wednesday, 21 October, Bush told host Alex Cooper that there was no overlap between her relationship with Harris and their previous marriages. The comments come ahead of the release of her memoir, And I Will Tell You Mine: Notes from a Life in Progress, which is due out on 27 October.

What Bush said about the timeline

Bush, 44, and Harris, 41, started dating in October 2023, after both had filed for divorce from their previous spouses. Bush was previously married to entrepreneur Grant Hughes, from June 2022 to August 2023. Harris was married to former national teammate Ali Krieger from December 2019 until she filed for divorce in September 2023.

When Cooper asked her to clarify the timeline, Bush described their first date as two people who had already filed for divorce and were living apart from their former partners having dinner. She said she wished she had waited longer before their first date, saying she would have preferred to ask Harris out about six weeks later. "I can't change it," she said.

Bush also said she had developed romantic feelings for Harris well before acting on them. She recalled first connecting with Harris on Instagram in 2015 and meeting her in person in 2019 at an event. She said she was nervous to tell Harris how she felt, and described the moment she asked her on a date as one of the least composed of her life.

Response to the rumors

Bush said the idea that the relationship began as an affair was not a casual assumption for her and was not true. In an April 2024 essay for Glamour, she wrote that she had left her marriage without any "hysterical rendezvous," and that public attention had overlooked the time and difficult conversations involved.

On the podcast, Bush said the speculation had affected people's jobs and reputations, and that the public discussion had become "like a sport." She said she did not intend to try to change the minds of people who had already formed an opinion. She also said the couple had found some relief from online attention during the 2023 strike period, which she described as a quiet time.

Wedding and what comes next

The couple married in an intimate ceremony in upstate New York in 2025. In an interview with Vogue, Bush said it "feels so amazing" to call Harris her wife. People.com reported that Bush also said she proposed to Harris, and described the wedding as the "best, most perfect day," with guests prepping food and dinner held at home in the backyard.

Both Bush and Harris serve on the board of the Human Rights Campaign and have been active supporters of LGBTQ+ causes. Bush's memoir is scheduled for release on 27 October and is available for preorder. Her comments on the relationship are likely to draw further attention as the book reaches readers.

What we know so far: Bush has publicly denied that her relationship with Harris overlapped with their previous marriages. The couple began dating after both had filed for divorce, and they married in 2025. The memoir's release on 27 October is the next public milestone.