Chad Michael Murray details crippling anxiety at the peak of One Tree Hill fame

Chad Michael Murray has opened up about the debilitating anxiety he experienced at the height of his career.

The One Tree Hill actor, 42, played the lead role of Lucas Scott in the high school drama, which aired from 2003 until 2012. He also starred alongside Lindsay Lohan in Freaky Friday (2003) and Cinderella Story with Hilary Duff in 2004.

Murray revealed he began having panic attacks and started to experience agoraphobia two years after taking on his One Tree Hill role and other job opportunities came piling in.

Speaking to The Cut, Murray said he was “far more fragile than I ever put on” and recalled “walking around with a really pained heart” at the peak of his career.

“I was around 23 and I had an event in Miami, but I couldn’t leave my hotel room,” he said. “The world felt like it was closing in; I was having anxiety attacks.”

Murray’s panic attacks began around the time of his divorce from his One Tree Hill co-star Sophia Bush. Their marriage only lasted for five months – from April to September 2005.

The actor admitted that by the time he turned 25 he felt “unsettled” in his career and “didn’t like the direction” his life was going in.

“I went to church, and I got a tattoo of a cross on my left wrist, and I was like, I’m going to move myself in faith,” he said.

Murray also made a rare comment about his short marriage to Bush. After their relationship ended, Bush filed an annulment request claiming fraud, The Cut reports. Her request was denied.

“I was a baby. I didn’t know up, down, left, right,” Murray said. “You move out there, and you go, ‘Well, what am I supposed to do now? Get married? That’s exciting!’”

Currently, Murray has been married to Sarah Roemer since 2015, and the two share three children.

Bush has also spoken out about her relationship with Murray. Back in 2018, she told Andy Cohen on Radio Andy that “Everyone’s been 22 and stupid.”

The actress wasn’t even happy about so many people bringing up that relationship of hers, wishing it would stop.

“People won’t let it go,” she told Cohen. “Can you imagine if the idiot you dated when you were a senior in high school – if people still would not stop talking to you about?”