Bethany Joy Lenz has no ill will toward former One Tree Hill costar Hilarie Burton Morgan — despite what fans might think.
“I love Hilarie,” Lenz, 43, said during her “Call Her Daddy” podcast interview, released on Wednesday, October 16. “I have always and will always and I don’t have any problem with her.”
She added: “There have been some bizarre misunderstandings that I really hope we can figure out one day, but I love that girl.”
Fan speculation surrounding Lenz and Burton Morgan’s friendship started in March. At the time, eagle-eyed One Tree Hill stars speculated that there was a rift between the former costars after it appeared that Burton Morgan had unfollowed or blocked Lenz on Instagram. Some fans have theorized that Burton Morgan was upset that Lenz’s book cover resembles her 2023 memoir, Grimoire Girl.
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Burton Morgan played Peyton Sawyer on One Tree Hill from seasons 1-6, which aired from 2003 to 2009, while Lenz played Haley James Scott on the show for its entire nine-season run, which came to an end in 2012. The women teamed up to host a “Drama Queens” rewatch podcast with costar Sophia Bush beginning in 2021.
As Lenz promotes her book, Dinner for Vampires, she’s been open about how she was in a cult during OTH’s run, which affected her relationships with her costars. During her Wednesday “Call Her Daddy” episode, Lenz noted that things were “hard” with Bush while they were filming.
“I think we were both approaching life from a similar way, but from opposite perspectives,” Lenz explained. “She would have been much more quick to listen to my perspective and hear me than I would have been at the time. But I think fundamentally there was probably a similarity.”
Lenz admitted she and Bush haven’t spoken in depth about this — but have spoken about Lenz’s distance from the cast during the show’s run on podcast.
It was announced in July that Burton Morgan was stepping back from her hosting gig and Robert Buckley (who played Clay Evans from 2009 to 2012) took her position — despite previous comments from Burton Morgan that she was excited to see the episodes Peyton wasn’t in.
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“We have reached the end of my behind-the-scenes experience on the show, and so I really started to question what I brought to this, but also how we keep that storytelling alive and important,” Burton Morgan told her costars during a July episode. “And so, as we head into seasons 7 through 9, it was important that we introduced a new queen who could take over for me.”
The actress did, however, say that she was going to “pop in” to the podcast when she can. She introduced Buckley as someone “who represented the same things that I’ve brought to this show.”
Burton Morgan was honest about how she felt like she could “finally take a deep breath” when her “Drama Queens” episodes ended.
“Every single week, it was, ‘Oh my God, I gotta tell that story. Oh, my god. We have to relive that.’ And there’s, obviously, like, so much good stuff that was in it,” she explained. “But I would have to kinda psych myself up every week.”
