Bethany Joy Lenz Reveals the UnexpectedOne Tree HillCostar She 'Developed a Crush on' During Filming

Mar. 15, 2025

Bethany Joy Lenz on One Tree Hill in 2003.Photo:Fred Norris/Warner Bros./Everett

Fred Norris/Warner Bros./Everett

Bethany Joy Lenzis revealing new details about her on-set dynamics with herOne Tree Hillcostars, including an unexpected crush she had on one of her costars.

As she recounts their previous acting roles, she notes that Sheffer had a “rugged vibe” that “worked for himverywell,” before admitting she had a bit of a crush on him throughout the series.

“I developed a crush on him, too, which Paul would later taunt me about endlessly,” she explained, referencing her longtime friendship with Johansson.

“The first thing Craig said to me, after doing a double take under the room’s harsh fluorescent lights, was ‘Whoah, you look like a monster!’ Which is always nice for a young woman to hear,” she said of their first interaction.

Lenz later reveals that Sheffer wasn’t the only costar she developed a crush on during filming. Though she notes that many of her male costars were in other relationships at the time, she eventually developed a close bond withTyler Hilton, who played her fleeting love interest, Chris Keller.

“Tyler and I took up together like two kids in a potato sack race,” she explains, adding they became fast friends as they sang and recorded in Wilmington, N.C., where they show filmed, and later went on tour together.

“Even though he didn’t share my faith (or my Family), I was developing a big crush on him,” she says. However, she says things took a turn when Hilton suspected she was part of a religious cult.

“As the tour continued on, Tyler seemed to want more space away from me,” she recalls. “I didn’t understand why until he called me in my hotel room one night.”

Bethany Joy Lenz, Tyler Hilton on One Tree Hill in 2003.Warner Bros./Everett

Warner Bros./Everett

After Hilton’s tour manager caught wind of a potential story about Lenz’s association with a religious cult, she says Hilton addressed her directly about the situation as his name was attached to the story because they had been “hanging out so much.”

Though Lenz denied she was in a religious cult at the time, she says her relationship with Hilton was not quite the same after.

“Tyler always treated me normally from then forward, but I hated having it hang over me. He had become a good friend, crush or no crush, and it hurt to have people keep distancing themselves from me.”

In an interview for a new cover story with PEOPLE, Lenz recalls that Sheffer was one of the firstcostars to address her potentially being in a cult.

“We were sitting at the bleachers filming a basketball scene at Laney High School, and he started asking me questions about my family,” says Lenz.

“Eventually Craig goes, ‘You know you’re in a cult, right?' " Lenz writes.

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It would take her eight more years beforeshe left for the sake of her daughter, though Lenz says her castmates were certainly cognizant of her ties to the religious group.

“I could see it on their faces,” she says of herOne Tree Hillcostars, about what they knew and thought about it.

“But I’d justify it, like, ‘I couldn’t possibly be in a cult,’ " Lenz explains. “It’s just that I’ve got access to a relationship with God and people in a way that everybody else really wants, but they don’t know how to get it.”

source: people.com