Mischa Barton Admits She & ‘The O.C.’ Co-Star Ben McKenzie Secretly Dated

Mischa Barton, 38, is dishing on her past romance with Ben McKenzie!

It turns out life imitated art for the stars during their time on the hit show “The O.C.”

On the latest episode of “Call Her Daddy,” Barton looks back at their time together.

While their characters Marissa and Ryan had chemistry in the show, Mischa told Alex, “It wasn’t just on-screen. That was my first — I had no idea what I was doing.”

The romance happened right away, and Barton recalled, “I think that kind of set things off on the wrong foot, too, because we threw ourselves all into it very fast and then, you know, when you break up, and things don’t work and they see you dating different people — notoriously, there was a lot of inter-dating on that show — it was definitely tricky that it happened, like, right out of the gate.”

They also had a bit of an age difference, with Barton being only 17 or 18 at the time, and Ben being 25.

The star recalled, “[Show staff] were like, you know, ‘Mischa’s disappeared with Ben and she’s only 17 and a half, 18,’ and the producers went to my parents. It was kind of a whole ordeal.”

She added, “And that’s in the very beginning of the show, before we’re even, like, halfway through a season. There was a lot going on there, that show. Just so much happened.”

Alex asked, “Did you end the relationship?”

Mischa said, “Yeah… I think it is one of those things you are so young and you realize, ‘I’m not ready for this… I have no idea what I’m doing.’”

She went on to call it “overwhelming” and “too close to home,” saying, “It would be a very tricky thing to keep going on set.”

As the youngest of the main cast, Barton said she felt “not mature enough,” adding, “I had not dated before.”

Speaking of McKenzie, she recalled, “I think he was very angry with me to begin with, and I felt the punishment of that and I felt that from the producers as well, that they weren’t happy about that.”

Mischa and Ben weren’t the only ones with an off-screen romance. Their co-stars Adam Brody and Rachel Bilson also dated.

Barton said, “There was so much chemistry between the characters and I think people did fall in love with them because there was some genuine friendship and love there on some level.”

She went on, “That sexual tenson was there, and it reads even when you are looking at the scenes on the Ferris wheel… I think we kind of hated each other at that point, but there was still that intense tension there.”

Cooper asked Barton if she lost her virginity while she was working on “The O.C.”

The actress confirmed, “Yeah, I had no idea about relationships at all or sex, so it was kind of a whole learning curve for me.”

At another point in the interview, she talked about being so young, saying, “It was kind of complicated for me because I went into that, like, a virgin, like, a kid, really feeling like I needed to grow up quickly to feel like I could portray acting with people older than me.”

“It was a bit like, ‘Oh, wow, they know what they’re doing. There’s gonna be relationships on this show, and you’re gonna need to play that part,’” she added. “And I didn’t feel really ready for that because I was always a really late bloomer in school, and I hadn’t really dated. I just had no idea what I was doing, so I felt like I needed to catch up.”