Sophia Bush and Ashlyn Harris have been keeping a major milestone private for more than a year. They are already married. Bush reveals in her forthcoming memoir, And I Will Tell You Mine: Notes from a Life in Progress, that she and the former U.S. soccer star quietly tied the knot in upstate New York during the summer of 2025.
The small ceremony included Harris’s children, Sloane and Ocean, and a handful of people close to the couple. In an exclusive Vogue excerpt and interview, Bush and Harris described a backyard celebration built around family rather than a large celebrity production.
Bush wore an old black velvet dress threaded with gold flecks, Harris chose a tuxedo and cowboy hat, and Bush’s best friend Nia became ordained online so she could officiate. Sloane carried flowers picked from the property, and the family ended the evening roasting marshmallows together.
The couple deliberately waited to announce the marriage publicly, first traveling to tell friends and relatives themselves. Bush said the secrecy eventually became harder to maintain because referring to Harris as her “partner” no longer felt accurate. “You’re not my partner, you know? You’re my wife.”
The Wedding Came Together Around a Weekend They Had Already Planned
Bush writes that marriage had already become a recurring conversation between the two before they finally acted on it. After deciding they wanted to move forward, they went to city hall and then realized an upcoming family trip to upstate New York could become the setting for the ceremony.
Bush called her best friend and sent her a link to become ordained, according to the memoir excerpt, the process took only a few minutes. Bush almost forgot one practical detail, her own clothes.
After arranging outfits for the children, she searched through boxes in the basement and found a black velvet dress she had worn years earlier. Harris had packed a tuxedo, and Bush decided the old dress felt more appropriate than the work clothes available at the property.
Sloane and Ocean Were Part of the Day Rather Than Formal Guests
The children were woven into the ceremony instead of being expected to sit through a heavily structured wedding. Harris told Vogue that the kids spent the day running around the property and picking flowers, with Sloane holding the bouquet they gathered.
In a separate PEOPLE interview days before the marriage revelation, Harris described herself and Bush as “two moms” working to give Sloane and Ocean a better life and said home is wherever the four of them are together.
The wedding night followed the same family-first approach. Bush recalled roasting marshmallows instead of moving into a formal reception, while Harris said the lack of pressure allowed the children to enjoy the day instead of experiencing the exhaustion that can come with a traditional large wedding.
They Spent More Than a Year Telling Loved Ones in Person
They traveled around the country and told friends and family individually, giving the people closest to them a chance to hear the news directly.
In her 2024 Glamour essay, she wrote about how exhausting it had become to have private decisions interpreted publicly before she was ready to explain them herself.
Harris told Vogue that eventually sharing the marriage publicly also carried a visibility component for them. Both women have spoken about LGBTQ+ representation, and Harris said being visible could matter to young people who still do not feel represented even if that openness costs the couple some privacy.
Bush Writes That Two Divorces Did Not Make Her Give Up on Marriage
The memoir also addresses why Bush chose to marry again after two previous marriages ended. She writes that a friend asked how she could still believe in marriage knowing firsthand that relationships can change, but Bush said the possibility of another ending did not outweigh her desire to build a life with Harris.
Flatiron Books will publish And I Will Tell You Mine: Notes from a Life in Progress on October 27. The memoir covers Bush’s childhood, acting career, public relationships, marriages and divorces, and the process of reclaiming ownership over experiences that have often played out in public.