Hilarie Burton is opening up about how Chad Michael Murray stood up for her when she was assaulted by One Tree Hill creator Mark Schwahn.
On the latest episode of the Drama Queens podcast she hosts with former co-stars Sophia Bush and Bethany Joy Lenz, the 40-year-old actress went into detail about what happened.
The ladies were talking about the season 4 episode “It Gets Worse At Night” during the new episode of their rewatch podcast, and Hilarie shared that the assault took place while filming this particular episode. At the time, the cast had traveled to Texas to film at a local high school that won a contest for the series to be filmed at the location.
Hilarie recounted:
“The flight back from that is when he assaulted me. He assaulted me again in the car on the drive from Raleigh to Wilmington, He went straight to set and he told Danneel [Ackles] that he and I made out the whole time, and it was fun, and he was trying to make her jealous.
So, she confronted me about it and was like, ‘What are you doing?’ And I’m like, ‘What are you talking about?’ So, then we had to go on this trip with him. And this was really, like, the last three months where my blood was boiling. I didn’t know how to process it anymore and you can see it in the episode. You can see that I’m not there… I look like shit, I’m not connecting in anyway.”
Bethany asked Hilarie why she did not report the assault back then, to which Hilarie stated that she did – and that Chad, who starred on the show as lead character Lucas Scot, confronted Mark when he found out:
“Oh, I did. I told all sorts of people. Honey, I told everybody.
Chad [Michael Murray] walked up and goes, ‘What are you doing?’ He said that to our boss in the bar. He watched our boss grab me in front of a lot of people, and you know, Chad didn’t have anything to lose because he knew our boss hated him anyway. A lot of people had a lot to lose, so you don’t speak up when you have a lot to lose. But [our boss] felt so comfortable that that was not something that he had a problem with. [He thought], ‘I can do whatever I want to her in public with her boyfriend standing there.’”
Sophia, who was married to Chad from 2005 to 2006, commented on what her ex did for Hilarie:
“He had the most power, so he could come up and shove our boss off you and get in a fight. And I’m glad that he did. I want everybody to follow that lead.
Thank God, Hilarie, that you had that moment with Chad, who was already so at odds with our boss.”
