Sophia Bush says patience has been essential to her friendships with Hilarie Burton and Bethany Joy Lenz. “One thing I really value is that no matter what anyone’s going through, we wait for each other,” she said.
The 44-year-old discussed those relationships in an October 29 interview with PEOPLE. She extended her affection beyond her two former costars to the wider group of women who worked on the series.
Bush played Brooke Davis opposite Burton’s Peyton Sawyer and Lenz’s Haley James on One Tree Hill, which ran from 2003 to 2012. Their characters’ friendships became central to the drama, while the actresses were navigating their own relationships away from the cameras.
Bush’s first book, And I Will Tell You Mine: Notes from a Life in Progress, was published October 27 by Flatiron Books. Alongside her career and romantic relationships, the memoir examines the friendships she formed during those years.
Bush and Lenz Have Kept Talking Through Their Differences
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In memoir passages reproduced by Entertainment Weekly, Bush recalls missing Burton after she left the show in 2009. Working alongside Lenz was more complicated. They cared about each other but often struggled to understand one another’s beliefs.
Lenz was involved in a Christian group she later described as a cult in her 2024 memoir, Dinner for Vampires. Bush writes that some of the beliefs Lenz repeated hurt her, while acknowledging that her costar had difficulty understanding her perspective, too. As they grew older, conversations about those differences stretched across years. They sometimes took breaks, but also made time for dinners, beach walks and plays.
Lenz offered her own account during an October 16, 2024, appearance on Call Her Daddy. She recalled wanting to connect with Bush without knowing how to overcome the distance between them. Looking back, she said Bush had been more willing to listen to her perspective than she had been willing to listen in return.
Burton Described Protecting Bush as Part of Their Friendship
Burton spoke about Bush’s loyalty in a 2023 interview with Entertainment Tonight. She described Bush as someone willing to defend her publicly and said she wanted to offer the same protection. Burton imagined their professional relationship continuing for decades: “we’ll still be working together when we’re in our eighties.”
Bush’s memoir revisits an earlier period of distance. Burton had warned her about dating their costar Chad Michael Murray, but Bush continued the relationship. They married in 2005 and divorced in 2006. When her friendship with Burton cooled, Bush initially believed Burton disapproved of her decision.
She later came to believe more had been involved. In the passages quoted by EW, Bush alleges that creator Mark Schwahn spread false stories among cast members to discourage them from becoming close.
‘Drama Queens’ Reunited the Actresses Before Its 2025 Farewell
Bush, Burton and Lenz launched Drama Queens in June 2021, returning to the episodes they had filmed years earlier. The podcast gave them a regular setting to discuss the work, revisit scenes and compare what they remembered about making the show.
Burton stepped away in July 2024, and fellow One Tree Hill actor Robert Buckley joined Bush and Lenz as a cohost. Lenz addressed speculation about her relationship with Burton during her Call Her Daddy interview later that year. She said she still loved Burton and hoped they could resolve misunderstandings between them.
The podcast’s November 20, 2025, farewell, “Always and Forever,” was recorded live in Wilmington, North Carolina. Bush, Lenz and Buckley were joined by former castmates Jana Kramer, Austin Nichols and Tyler Hilton for the closing conversation.
Bush and Lenz Are Reading Each Other’s New Books
The two actresses promoted their latest books together in a September video, each holding the other’s title. Lenz’s novel, The Betrayal of Cora Wexford, arrived October 20, a week before Bush’s memoir.
In separate interviews published by USA TODAY on October 28, both discussed the other’s writing. Lenz, who had read the opening chapters of Bush’s book in late September, praised a lyrical quality she thought readers might not expect. “She is a very, very good writer, and she’s very poetic,” she said.
Bush remembered Lenz writing musicals while they filmed in Wilmington. Hearing that her former costar was publishing fiction did not surprise her; she associated Lenz’s songwriting with the imagination needed to build a novel’s world. “This is the best fit ever for someone,” Bush said.