One Tree Hill’s Tyler Hilton Talks Living with Chad Michael Murray While Filming: 'We Had Nothing but Each Other' (Exclusive)

Mar. 15, 2025

Tyler Hilton and Bethany Joy Lenz.Photo:Tim Mosenfelder/Corbis via Getty

Tim Mosenfelder/Corbis via Getty

Tyler Hiltonis looking back on the bonds he built onOne Tree Hill.

The singer-songwriter, 41, who appeared on the show between 2004 and 2012, tells PEOPLE that after being introduced on season 2, he and his costars “totally clicked.”

Though on screen his character Chris Keller was hard to root for, in real life, Hilton was creating life-long bonds with his fellow actors and even lived with one of the show’s stars.

“Chad [Michael Murray]and I got really close and ended up moving in together,” he recalls more than a decade later.

James Lafferty, Bethany Joy Lenz, Hilarie Burton, Chad Michael Murray, Tyler Hilton, Lee Norris, Sophia Bush and Antwon Tanner in 2003.Fred Norris/THE CW /courtesy everett collection

Fred Norris/THE CW /courtesy everett collection

“I was like 19,” he explains.  “It was that age where your friends matter more than relationships or parents. It’s that weird college age and we were all young and everything was happening for us fast and we were filming in a small town in North Carolina and we had nothing but each other. No distractions, no L.A., no New York.”

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One of the relationships he built off camera even ended up translating onto the screen.

“Bethany Joy Lenz, she was a singer, and so she and I started jamming off set even before they started writing our characters singing together,” he recalls of Lenz, who starred as Haley James Scott.

More recently, Hilton has opened up more about the depth of his relationship with Lenz. Though they “started to catch feelings for real,” hesaid at a recent concert, Lenz’s involvement with an alleged cult ultimately stood between them.

Tyler Hilton and Bethany Joy Lenz on ‘One Tree Hill’ in 2003.Warner Bros./Courtesy: Everett Collection

Warner Bros./Courtesy: Everett Collection

“Every once and a while I would get cult vibes,” he said on stage in Portland in November. “So I was really into her though and I was like, ‘Dude, I’m down with cult, I don’t care about that s—. Yeah, that’s no big deal, I’ve dated tons of girls [in cults].' ”

Tyler Hilton in 2024, Bethany Joy Lenz in 2022.Getty(2)

Getty(2)

Lenz talks about her time in the group — and her budding relationship with Hilton — in her memoirDinner for Vampires.

“Tyler and I took up together like two kids in a potato sack race,” she wrote. “Even though he didn’t share my faith (or my Family), I was developing a big crush on him.”

The two are still friends today and inan Instagram post promotingDinner for Vampires, Hilton shared that his voice is featured in the audiobook as well.

“Super honored to be a part of this. I am so stoked for my friend Joy,” he said. “Joy, congratulations, this is huge. I’m really proud of you.”

source: people.com