Ashlyn Harris was not expecting Sophia Bush to ask her out amid her divorce.
The former professional soccer player told her now-girlfriend to “hold the phone” at the time, saying, “I always thought you were straight!”
The “One Tree Hill” alum, 42, told her “Work in Progress” podcast listeners Thursday that she replied, “I always thought you were happy [with ex-wife Ali Krieger]. But, like, we’re both single. What are we doing?”
When Bush and Harris, 38, went on their first date, they “cackle[d]” over the fact that they had not previously considered each other an “option.”
The actress noted that her now-partner was not the only queer woman in their friend group to make “an assumption” about her sexuality.
“[They] were, like, ‘Oh, we knew you were, like, an ally and we maybe wondered when we saw this TV show or this movie you’ve done or whatever: “That doesn’t really look like acting.” But, like, we didn’t really know,’” Bush explained.
Her pals were surprised when she pursued Harris as they “tried to set … up” the athlete.
“I was like, ‘If she’s ready to date, she’s going on a date with me,’” Bush recalled. “Like, ‘Sorry. Uh-uh. Like, no f–king way.’ People were like, ‘Wait, what?’”
Page Six confirmed the pair’s romance in October 2023, with Bush coming out as queer in a Glamour essay six months later.
The “Chicago P.D.” alum clarified in a June podcast episode that she fell “in love with” a “beautiful French exchange student” as a teenager.
Bush explained that she had recently reached the “revolutionary f–king idea” that she could come out and “like who [she] like[s]” despite primarily dating men.
She experienced an “aha moment” about her sexuality following her 2023 divorce from Grant Hughes after one year of marriage.
Bush, who was previously married to Chad Michael Murray from 2005 to 2006, was chatting with a friend about how Hughes, 42, had not been the “right person” for her.
The pal said, “One of of my best friends looked at me and was like, ‘I gotta say, that was just painful to watch, and I’m so glad you’re getting out of it. … Also, I don’t actually think you like men.’”
Bush told guest Nico Tortorella on Wednesday that she came out “firmly but gently” in order not to let the public “take away” her “self-discovery.”
