Hilarie Burton will always be there for longtime friend Sophia Bush.
The 41-year-old actress is making it crystal clear that she will always have her former One Tree Hill co-star’s back. In a new interview with Entertainment Tonight, Hilarie spoke about always protecting Sophia following Sophia’s divorce from Grant Hughes and amid rumors that she is now in a new romance with Ashlyn Harris.
Hilarie said of Sophia:
‘She’s just not afraid to throw herself in front of the line of fire.
She’s done it for me so many times and so, I want to protect her at all costs.”
Hilarie shared more about her friend:
“Everybody’s had an internet scuffle or two and Sophia is the first person that will rush in and that is why my husband loves her so much because he’s like, ‘You know, other than me – the person who comes to your defense and the person who will fight for your honor is Sophia’ and so I love that she’s unafraid.”
She added:
“Sometimes with people whoa re so strong and unafraid, they hide their soft inside and so it’s my job as her best friend to protect her as well because she really is the most wonderful human and, yeah, we’ll still be working together when we’re in out eighties.”
Though she did not directly address the rumors about Sophia’s love life, she did say:
“I think being able to celebrate every chapter of a loved one’s life is so important and that even means like the chapters that are awkward or the chapters that maybe didn’t work in the past.
We were together last night and being able to just be together and hold each other and be like, ‘Whatever is coming next, like, I’m here for it’ and that’s exciting ‘cause she’s held me in some dark chapters and so, for her, I wanna celebrate the wins and I wanna again, like, protect her at all costs. That’s a good woman.”
And Hilarie is nothing but true to her word. She’s come to Sophia’s defense in light of the allegation made by Erin Forster that Chad Michael Murray cheated on her back in the day with Sophia. If you can recall, Sophia and Chad met and fell in love on the set of One Tree Hill. Erin is accusing Sophia of being the other woman when Erin was with Chad.
On Friday (October 20), Hilarie responded to the rumors on her Instagram Story, writing:
“Ooof. Cringe. I got off my red eye flight home and multiple people had sent me this headline. As the person who had a front row seat then? This wasn’t it.”
She said that those on the set of One Tree Hill saw the situation in a different light back then:
“We were all told you’d broken up which is why our guy was pursuing her.
Now this is being spun to make my sister look like a brazen harlot. And if she’s anyone’s harlot, it’s mine.”
She said she was “happy to discuss” the situation with Erin.
Hilarie also said this regarding additional rumors about Sophia, particularly with regards to Ashlyn. Ashlyn recently divorced her wife Ali Krieger, and people are speculating that Ashly may have cheated on Ali with Sophia. Hilarie stated:
“There are so many unnamed sources making claims about the woman I love, so f-ck it. I’ll be a named source. Lotta internet voices being nasty, and as the person who knows the real timeline? It would be laughable if it wasn’t so hurtful.”
Hilarie has likewise directly defended Sophia from the cheating allegations regarding Ashlyn and Ali, commenting:
“What you are witnessing is a lot of toxic, mean girl behavior. Would you want to be married to someone who encourages the entire internet to drag you?
Really take a long hard look t who is trying to remain tasteful and who is resorting to mean middle school rumor mill sh**. I have dated text messages. There was zero cheating.”
