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On Saturday, Sophia Bush and her girlfriend Ashlyn Harris made their red-carpet debut at the 2024 White House Correspondents’ Dinner.
For the special night, the couple opted for black Harbison looks and Briony Raymond jewels.
Last week, Sophia set the record straight on her romance with Ashlyn, with whom she was linked after her failed marriage to Grant Hughes.
In an essay for Glamour, Bush addressed the false rumors about them, saying, “There was a lot that quickly turned ugly. People looking in from the outside weren’t privy to just how much time it took, how many painful conversations were had. What felt like seconds after I started to see what was in front of me, the online rumor mill began to spit in the ugliest ways.”
Lauren Dukoff/Glamour
Calling the cheating rumors “blatant lies,” she added, “There were accusations of being a home-wrecker. The ones who said I’d left my ex because I suddenly realized I wanted to be with women — my partners have known what I’m into for as long as I have (so that’s not it, y’all, sorry!).”
“The idea that I left my marriage based on some hysterical rendezvous — that, to be crystal-clear, never happened — rather than having taken over a year to do the most soul crushing work of my life? It feels brutal,”
Bush emphasized. “Just because I didn’t want to process my realizations in real time on social media and spell them out for the world doesn’t mean the journey wasn’t long and thoughtful and exhaustive.”
While Sophia admitted it was “painful” to be “picked apart by clueless strangers,” she noted, “Everyone that matters to me knows what’s true and what isn’t. But even still there’s a part of me that’s a ferocious defender, who wants to correct the record piece by piece.”
Lauren Dukoff/Glamour
Despite the chatter about their relationship, Bush is feeling like she “can breathe” after coming out as queer.
She shared, “I am so lucky to be here, now. I have real joy. It took me 41 years to get here.”
“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,” she went on.
Of their relationship, Bush wrote, “Falling in love with her has sutured some of my own childhood wounds and made me so much closer to my own mother. Seeing Ashlyn choose to not simply survive but thrive for her babies has been the most beautiful thing I’ve ever witnessed a friend do. And now I get to love her. How lucky am I?”
Lauren Dukoff/Glamour
In a video for Glamour, Sophia admitted, “To be outed is also wild, and in a way, I’m like, ‘Well, why do we even have to talk about it? This feels stupid.'”
“I think what was hard for me was the being thrust into something without my consent,” Bush explained. “I’ve been in the media for 20 years. If I had something to hide from you, I would’ve hidden it.”
Sophia and Ashlyn are looking forward to the future.
Bush said, “The thing that has been revealed to me is who I am and where my joy comes from. All I’m making space for is joy…I would’ve loved for a lot of things to have happened a little differently, but at the end of the day, I have nothing to apologize for. The bonus of this whole journey is that I spend every day around a person that being close to is getting shone on by the sun.”
News broke of Sophia and Ashlyn’s romance in October of 2023.