Sophia Bush reflects on coming out as queer, encourages those on their 'journey'

"One Tree Hill" actress Sophia Bush opened up on Instagram about her experience coming out as queer last week and revealing her new relationship with Ashlyn Harris.

"This week I got to share my own words, that I wrote down from the bottom of my ever-evolving heart. When I uttered 'I really love who I am, at this age, and in this moment' I sort of couldn't believe it. It just fell out of me. Simple. But profound," Bush wrote in her Instagram caption on Sunday, April 28.

Bush made the announcement as part of an essay she wrote for a cover story in Glamour last week.

"I feel like last summer I had my very first birthday. My own," Bush began her post.

Bush quoted poet Maggie Smith explaining that Smith's words helped her find meaning in the life changes she was experiencing last summer. Bush filed for divorce from her husband Grant Hughes on Aug. 4, 2023.

"She said: 'How I picture it: We are all nesting dolls, carrying the earlier iterations of ourselves inside. We carry the past inside us. We take ourselves— all of our selves —wherever we go,'" wrote Bush, sharing Smith's writing. "Inside forty-something me is the woman I was in my thirties, the woman I was in my twenties, the teenager I was, the child I was…I still carry these versions of myself. It's a kind of reincarnation without death: all these different lives we get to live in this one body, as ourselves,'" Smith finished the excerpt.

Bush concluded her post with a message for any of her followers on their "own journey." "To any of who on your own journey, and to the countless number of you who've shared your hearts, kindness, hidden truths, and stunning responses to my essay.. I see you. I do. ," she wrote.

Bush and Harris made their red carpet debut as a couple at the White House Correspondents' Dinner this weekend after Bush revealed their love connection in her essay.