'I am so lucky to be here now': Powerful reason Sophia Bush has opened up like never before in raw personal essay

When actor Sophia Bush filed for divorce from Grant Hughes in August, it came as a surprise to those on the outside looking in.

The One Tree Hill alum had, after all, publicly shared a tribute to her husband celebrating their one-year wedding anniversary just weeks earlier, where she called their marriage the "best decision of my life".

Unbeknownst to her 4.5 million Instagram followers, however, the second she hit post, she walked to her bathroom and threw up.

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In a raw cover essay for Glamour magazine published overnight, Bush has laid bare everything that has been going on since before her June 2022 wedding to Hughes – including the fact that she almost called it off that April, but decided to "[double] down on being a model wife" instead.

She also confirmed her long-rumoured relationship with 38-year-old United States soccer champion Ashlyn Harris.

It's a move that Bush has been preparing for 41 years to make, and a journey – marred with the "heartbreak of the fertility process" and other health issues – she says has made her "finally feel like [she] can breathe".

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"I am so lucky to be here, now. I have real joy," Bush wrote in her essay. "I feel like I was wearing a weighted vest for who knows how long. I hadn't realised how heavy it was until I finally just put it down."

While Bush did open up about her new relationship with Harris, including the circumstances of how they got together after both of their former marriages' ended, she also made a point of the fact that she "sort of [hates] the notion of having to come out in 2024".

Her publicly 'coming out', however, is something Bush made clear was done with the feeling of responsibility for the LGBTQIA+ community and representation in mind.

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"I'm deeply aware that we are having this conversation in a year when we're seeing the most aggressive attacks on the LGBTQIA+ community in modern history," Bush wrote.

"There were more than 500 anti-LGBTQIA+ bills proposed in state legislatures in 2023, so for that reason I want to give the act of coming out the respect and honour it deserves," she continued.

"I've experienced so much safety, respect, and love in the queer community, as an ally all of my life, that, as I came into myself, I already felt it was my home.

"I think I've always known that my sexuality exists on a spectrum. Right now I think the word that best defines it is queer. I can't say it without smiling, actually. And that feels pretty great."

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