Hilarie Burton Morgan remembers how she and OneTreeHill Co-Star Chad Michael Murray revealed that they would not be returning for season 7 of the long-running series – and fans are surprised by their candid admission.

In the Sunday, May 19 episode of her podcast “Drama Queens,” Burton Morgan, 41, told her co-hosts and former co-stars Sophia Bush And Bethany Joy Lenz the story of how she and 42-year-old Murray were allegedly not asked back when the show was renewed for another season.

Burton Morgan noted that for Season 6, Episode 21, they shot a flashback in a diner with their respective characters Peyton Sawyer and Lucas Scott and explained that their producer, Greg Prangeannounced that the series had been renewed for a seventh season.

“Chad looks at me and says, ‘Did you even get an offer?’ I said, ‘No,’ and he said, ‘I didn’t get an offer,'” she began. “And all around us, everyone is hugging and high-fiving each other. I mean, it felt like balloons were falling from the ceiling. Everyone was so damn excited. And he and I just sat there and knew it was coming.”

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She added: “And he and I were the highest-paid actors on the show, and we knew we were on the hit list.”

Later in the episode, Burton Morgan told Bush, 41, and Lenz, 43, that the decision not to let them return to the show was a blessing in disguise.

“I think this is the closure I needed because I always knew it was right to leave that situation behind me because it was awful – and my life is great because of that betrayal,” she said. “I met my husband (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), I had my children, I had to White collar with Willie Garson“My life is so much better because I was betrayed here. And that’s what I want to tell anyone who listens to this. It’s like the betrayal opened the door to all the great shit I have now.”

Fans were quick to comment on Burton Morgan’s side of the story, as many fans initially thought that the Grimoire Girl The author and Murray decided to leave the show on their own initiative.

“I always thought it was her decision to leave… now I’m mad they didn’t bring Peyton back later along with Lucas,” wrote one fan, referring to Murray’s return as a guest star for an episode in the ninth and final season.

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Another added: “Such a mistake not bringing back Chad and Hilarie. I was so upset and the show just felt different after they left.”

The series, created by Mark Schwahnwas broadcast for nine seasons from 2003 to 2012. The series was about the two half-brothers Lucas Scott (Murray) and Nathan Scott (James Lafferty) because they had trouble living together in the same city – in high school and on their basketball team.

Paul Johansson, Craig Sheffer, Moira Kelly, Anthony Tanner, Lee Norris And Barbara Alyn Woods were also part of the main cast when the series debuted.

After a five-year time jump between Season 4 and Season 5, fans saw the former high school students navigate their adult lives after returning to their (fictional) hometown of Tree Hill, North Carolina.

At a performance on Dax ShepardOn The 40 Years of the Year podcast Armchair Expert in 2018, Bush recalled how producers made a habit of exploiting “people’s personal lives” for their storylines.

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“It was not OK. It was opportunistic and ugly, and when you run a show you’re like a parent, you’re supposed to protect your flock, and this was the opposite of that,” she told the Parenthood Alumnus. “I think they kind of lived for the drama.”

Bush and the other women of OTH have previously spoken out about misconduct behind the scenes of the popular teen drama – including allegations of harassment against Schwahn. Along with many of her co-stars, Bush wrote a letter in 2017 detailing Schwahn’s misconduct. The former cast members remain open about the harassment allegations to this day.

“Until there’s change in our industry, I don’t know how we’re going to stop (speaking our minds),” Burton Morgan said on an April 2023 episode of “Drama Queens,” adding, “The only reason we made it through is because we had each other.”

New episodes of “Drama Queens” can be streamed every Sunday.