Hilarie Burton Says Chad Michael Murray Confronted ‘One Tree Hill’ Creator After He Saw Him Assault Her

Hilarie Burton is opening up about allegedly being assaulted by One Tree Hill creator Mark Schwahn and how her co-star Chad Michael Murray stepped in after he saw it happen.

The 40-year-old actress talked about the experience on the latest episode of the Drama Queens podcast, which she hosts with former co-stars Sophia Bush and Bethany Joy Lenz.

The trio talked about season four episode “It Gets Worse at Night” during the new episode and Hilarie says the alleged assault happened while filming this episode. The cast traveled to Texas to film at a local high school that won a contest to have the show filmed there.

Hilarie said, “The flight back from that is when he assaulted me. He assaulted me again in the car on the drive from Raleigh to Wilmington, He went straight to set and he told Danneel [Ackles] that he and I made out the whole time, and it was fun, and he was trying to make her jealous. So, she confronted me about it and was like, ‘What are you doing?’ And I’m like, ‘What are you talking about?’ So, then we had to go on this trip with him. And this was really, like, the last three months where my blood was boiling. I didn’t know how to process it anymore and you can see it in the episode. You can see that I’m not there… I look like shit, I’m not connecting in anyway.”

Bethany asked Hilarie why she didn’t report the assault at the time.

“Oh, I did. I told all sorts of people. Honey, I told everybody,” she said. “Chad [Michael Murray] walked up and goes, ‘What are you doing?’ He said that to our boss in the bar. He watched our boss grab me in front of a lot of people, and you know, Chad didn’t have anything to lose because he knew our boss hated him anyway. A lot of people had a lot to lose, so you don’t speak up when you have a lot to lose. But [our boss] felt so comfortable that that was not something that he had a problem with. [He thought], ‘I can do whatever I want to her in public with her boyfriend standing there.’”

Sophia, who was married to Chad from 2005 to 2006, said, “He had the most power, so he could come up and shove our boss off you and get in a fight. And I’m glad that he did. I want everybody to follow that lead. Thank God, Hilarie, that you had that moment with Chad, who was already so at odds with our boss.”

Mark Schwahn was not named in the podcast, but outlets like People and Variety have listed his name. He is pictured below with Sophia.

Back in 2017, Hilarie and Sophia both spoke out in support of women who claimed they were sexually harassed by Mark.