Why Sophia Bush Says She's "Not Allowed" to Talk About Ex Chad Michael Murray

Sophia Bush is done having her words twisted about her famous ex.

It's been more than a decade since the One Tree Hill alum and her former co-star Chad Michael Murray ended their brief 2005 marriage—and if you were expecting her to talk any more about him, you'll be waiting a while. "Oh, I'm not going to talk about him," the actress told Inside of You podcast host and Smallville alum Michael Rosenbaum. "I'm not allowed to because I've tried to poke fun at being a dumb kid and whenever I've done that, it gets twisted into I'm talking s--t about somebody who I don't even know anymore, who's clearly a grown-up."

"I think you have to laugh at who you used to be," she elaborated, "but when people ask me about history that involves someone else…it's not worth my time. It's not a place where I harbor ill will or anything."

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When Rosenbaum added that it also can't "come out right," Bush agreed. "It never does! And I've tried to like, you know, do the thing where when I get stuck live on the air—which has happened to me twice—getting asked about it where I give a little...like jazz hands quip and move on," she explained. "It just doesn't work, so I'm not going to."

In short, "I was a very naïve 21-year-old kid," she said, "and that's all there is to it."

The 39-year-old star even had science to back up her point. "I think lots of people do stupid s--t before their prefrontal cortexes are fully formed and they're not until they're 26," she said. "So you do the math on my timeline. I literally didn't have a whole brain."

Although she was officially divorced by the time she was 24, Bush said she still "largely" feels great about marriage—but there are caveats. "I think it depends on what people's motivations are and I want to make sure, whether it's myself or one of my best friends, that we're clear on what it is we're signing up for rather than thinking we're getting some Kate Hudson and Matt McConaughey rom-com life," she said. "This notion that you're going to meet your person and they're going to make you so happy that you're going to be fulfilled and you'll never be nervous again and you'll never ever think anyone else is hot—like what? It's such an absurd joke."

Instead, Bush, who has most recently been linked to businessman Grant Hughes, has a different set of tenets for a relationship. "What I am a fan of, what I am a believer in is real partnership, real intimacy that comes with radical honesty and with ground rules of always giving your partner the benefit of the doubt while asking questions, while being able to be vulnerable, admit when you're afraid, admit when you're being triggered by something else," she listed off. "You have to do a lot of work."