Sophia Bush and Ashlyn Harris, From Group Chat to Backyard Vows

What she told Alex Cooper about the proposal

Nobody outside the family knew if there had been a real engagement. Bush cleared that up on the podcast, and she kept the best part for herself [1].

How did she do it? “That’s for me,” she said, adding only that it was “so sweet.” She also explained why the wedding stayed secret. Both women had done the big, photographed wedding before, and Bush said of those marriages, “we were not compatible” [1].

Her line about the new marriage is simpler. Harris, she said, is someone who “finishes my sentences” and makes her laugh when laughing feels impossible [1].

The Sophia Bush wedding, with a smoker and a velvet dress

The plan came together in days. In the memoir excerpt Vogue ran on September 30, Bush writes that the two of them first called city hall and went in a few days later. Then she phoned her best friend Nia, who got ordained online while still on the call [3] [4].

Batts texted back her time. Two minutes and thirty-six seconds. Bush’s reply was “Always my overachiever” [3].

What they wore

Harris had packed a tuxedo. Bush had packed clothes for every kid and forgot her own, so she dug through boxes in the basement. She found a black velvet dress with gold flecks that she had once worn to a party [3] [4].

Their handwritten vows were tucked inside a Mary Oliver book. They cried, laughed and swapped rings, with the children running around them [3].

The menu was whatever was on the smoker

Bush told Cooper about a weekend when her best friend was already visiting with her own child. They prepped food, put it on the smoker, married in the backyard and ate dinner. Harris told Vogue the kids picked flowers from the property, and the family roasted marshmallows that night [1] [3].

Afterward they flew around to tell friends and relatives face to face, before going public through Vogue. For another couple who kept things low key for decades, read our story on Jonathan Frakes and Genie Francis.

Who is Sophia Bush wife Ashlyn Harris?

Ashlyn Michelle Harris grew up in Satellite Beach, Florida, a few miles down the coast from Kennedy Space Center. Bush mentions that detail in her book because her wedding dress reminded her of the night sky [3] [8].

As a player, Harris was a goalkeeper. She won three NCAA titles with North Carolina, earned 25 caps for the US and was on the World Cup-winning rosters in 2015 and 2019 [8].

The NWSL named her Goalkeeper of the Year in 2016 with Orlando Pride. In August 2021 she broke the league’s career saves record. She retired in November 2022 after one season with Gotham FC [8].

Off the field, she has talked openly about mental health and works with To Write Love on Her Arms. Vogue reports that she and Bush both sit on the board of the Human Rights Campaign [3] [8].

The affair claims, and what the dates show

Since 2023, a lot of people online have said the two got together while still married. Bush says that version is wrong. Here are the dates in the public record, and you can judge for yourself [2] [6].

• Aug 4, 2023 Bush files for divorce from Grant Hughes [7]
• Sept 19, 2023 Harris files for divorce from Ali Krieger in Seminole County, Florida [8]
• Oct 2023 First date, according to Bush, and Page Six reports the romance that month [1] [2]

Bush’s own summary of that first dinner is blunt. When Cooper asked about any overlap, she said there wasn’t one [2] [6].

She did admit one regret. She was already flying through New York with comedy show tickets, so she took Harris out then. Looking back, she said she wishes that date had happened “six weeks later” [6].

She also said the talk hurt both their careers. “It became like a sport, and that was ugly,” she told Cooper. She doesn’t expect to change minds, either. “I’m never going to change anybody’s mind who made it up” [2].

Harris has spoken up too. PinkNews’ sister site The Pink Times quotes her saying she was “always faithful” in her marriage, even if it was not always happy [6].

Our take

The filings came before the date Bush gives for their first dinner. That is what the paperwork shows. Nobody outside a marriage can see when it really ended, so we won’t guess. We also found no statement from Grant Hughes or Ali Krieger in our sources on this point, and we won’t speak for them [1] [8].

How they met, from Instagram to a group chat

They go back further than most people think. Bush said they first connected on Instagram in 2015 and met face to face at an event in 2019 [1].

After their splits in 2023, both ended up in a group chat of friends going through breakups. In her Glamour essay, Bush wrote that she eventually asked Harris for a “non-friend-group hang.” It turned into a dinner that lasted hours [1].

She went public in April 2024 with that same Glamour essay, which was also where she came out as queer. That month, the couple walked their first red carpet together at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner [7] [8].

Her two marriages before Ashlyn

Chad Michael Murray

Bush and her One Tree Hill co-star got engaged in May 2004 and married on April 16, 2005, in Santa Monica. They announced a split about five months later [7].

She asked for an annulment in February 2006, citing fraud. A court turned that down, and the divorce was granted in December 2006. Years later she called them “two stupid kids” [7].

Grant Hughes

She began dating the businessman in 2020, and they got engaged in August 2021. The wedding took place on June 11, 2022, at the Philbrook Museum of Art in Tulsa, Oklahoma [7].

Bush filed for divorce on August 4, 2023, after 13 months of marriage. That makes Harris her third spouse, counting all three legal marriages [7].

Splits that play out in public tend to get messy online. We tracked another one, with dates and court filings, in our piece on Mia Goth and Shia LaBeouf.

Ashlyn’s first marriage to Ali Krieger, and the kids

Harris and defender Ali Krieger were together from 2010 and won both World Cups side by side. They got engaged in March 2019 and married in Miami on December 28 that year, with Megan Rapinoe as Harris’s maid of honor [2] [8].

The couple adopted a daughter, announced in February 2021, and a son, announced in August 2022. Both children are young, so we’re not naming them here [8].

If you searched for Sophia Bush kids, there are none of her own on the public record. Vogue describes her as a proud stepmother to the two kids, who were at the wedding [3] [7].

Sophia Bush and Ashlyn Harris timeline

• 2015 They connect on Instagram [1]
• 2019 First meeting in person, at an event [1]
• Aug to Sept 2023 Both file for divorce from their spouses [7] [8]
• Oct 2023 First date in New York [1] [6]
• Apr 2024 Glamour essay and first red carpet together [7] [8]
• Summer 2025 Backyard wedding upstate, after a proposal from Bush [1] [3]
• Sept 30, 2026 Marriage revealed through Vogue [4]
• Oct 21, 2026 Call Her Daddy interview [1]
• Oct 27, 2026 Memoir release from Flatiron Books [3]

One gap. Bush has not said exactly when she proposed, only that she did, so we’ve grouped it with the wedding [1].

Checked facts and loose ends

More family stories

Want more couples told through the record? Try Colin Morgan and Emily Compagno, both checked against interviews and filings.

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