Hilarie Burton, who played Peyton Sawyer in the hit CW series One Tree Hill (OTH) from 2003 to 2009, has praised her former costar Chad Michael Murray for standing up for her when she was allegedly sexually assaulted by their boss.

Speaking on her Drama Queens podcast, Burton, who is one of 18 women who accused OTH showrunner Mark Schwahn of sexual assault and harassment in a 2017 Variety report, claimed that her boss assaulted her during a 2007 trip to Honey Grove, Texas.

She also alleged that he assaulted her again during the car ride back from Raleigh to Wilmington.

Burton didn’t name her alleged abuser on the podcast, referring to him only as her “boss.”

She went on to recall another instance when her boss allegedly grabbed her in front of a lot of people while the cast was out at a bar.

In response, Murray confronted their boss, saying, “What are you doing?” Burton said.

“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,” Burton alleged.

“A lot of people had a lot to lose, so you don’t speak up when you have a lot to lose,” she went on.

“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.’”

Burton admitted that she didn’t expect anyone to come to her defense at the time because she knew that her costars and crew members couldn’t afford to risk losing their jobs.

Sophia Bush, who was briefly married to Murray, heavily praised him for sticking up for Burton.

She also noted that Murray was in a “rare position” where he “couldn’t easily be fired” because he had “the most power.”

“Thank God, Hilarie, that you had that moment with Chad, who was already so at odds with our boss,” Bush said.

“He was protected as the No. 1 on the call sheet. 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,” she added.

This revelation came a year and a half after Burton admitted that she was left feeling uncomfortable by one OTH scene in particular early in her career.

In August 2021, Burton told Bush and Bethany Joy Lenz, her fellow Drama Queens cohosts and former OTH stars, that she wasn’t keen to shoot an intimate scene that involved her kissing Murray’s chest and removing his belt.

Burton said that she felt the scene was “inappropriate” and unnecessary to the script, though she went along with it because she felt she “couldn’t question” things at the time.

“Chad was cool to leave a white tank top on underneath his button-up shirt so I wasn’t just kissing his bare body,” she recalled.

“Because that’s weird. We’d all known each other for a couple of months, a couple of weeks?” Burton went on to say that she was crying in her trailer and that she felt like a prostitute.

“It was the first moment that I was, like, ‘I’m kissing someone for money. I’m getting paid to do this.’

“There’s a morality thing where you’re like, ‘Am I a sex worker in a way? Is this OnlyFans in 2003?’”

In 2017, Burton and 17 other women accused Schwahn of sexual misconduct.

After their accusations were made public, 25 cast and crew members of The Royals, another series created by Schwahn, shared similar allegations of “repeated unwanted sexual harassment” against him.

As a result, Schwahn was suspended from both OTH and The Royals, although he has never publicly addressed the allegations.

In the Drama Queens episode, Burton expressed her frustration over the lack of accountability for those in power in the entertainment industry.

“It’s like the bad people just keep going, and the good people have to keep working and taking care of their families and putting food on the table,” she said.

“The people who make the biggest, horriblest mistakes get to just move on and continue to make things.”

Bush agreed with Burton, saying that the industry has a history of protecting abusers.

“The fact that the people who have hurt us continue to be employed and lauded and given awards and celebrated is, I think, a really difficult pill to swallow,” she said.

Lenz added that she was proud of Burton for speaking out, despite the potential consequences.

“I’m really grateful for you, Hilarie, for saying these things because it’s scary to speak up,” she said.

“And it’s hard to speak up, and I just want you to know that I love you, and I’m proud of you.”

After the episode was released, Murray took to Twitter to express his support for Burton. “I stand with Hilarie Burton,” he wrote.

“Always have, always will.”

In response, Burton thanked Murray for his support, calling him “a real gentleman.”

“I know for a fact that my story is just a fraction of what the women in this industry, and women in general, are forced to endure,” she wrote.

“Our sisterhood is strong, and we will continue to speak out in unity. Thank you, Chad, for your support and solidarity.”

The OTH cast has been vocal in recent years about the alleged abuse they suffered during the show’s production.

In 2017, they released a joint statement in support of Burton and the other women who accused Schwahn of misconduct.

“Many of us were, to varying degrees, manipulated psychologically and emotionally,” the statement read.

“More than one of us is still in treatment for post-traumatic stress.”

The cast has also been supportive of the #MeToo movement, which began in 2017 and encouraged women to speak out about their experiences with sexual assault and harassment.

In a 2018 interview with The Daily Beast, Burton said that she was “incredibly proud” of the women who spoke out against Harvey Weinstein and other powerful men in the industry.

“I feel like I have more hope for the future than I ever have,” she said.

“I feel like we’re on the precipice of change. And the women who have been brave enough to come forward and share their stories, it’s a domino effect.”

Despite the progress made by the #MeToo movement, the entertainment industry still has a long way to go in terms of addressing and preventing sexual misconduct.

Burton hopes that by speaking out, she can help create a safer and more equitable workplace for women in the industry.

“I’m really grateful for the sisterhood that’s come out of all of this, and the fact that women are looking out for each other in a way that I don’t think we ever have before,” she said on the Drama Queens podcast.

“But we’ve still got a long way to go.”