Actress Mischa Barton revealed that she had an off-screen romance with her older love interest on “The O.C.” when she was “17 ½-18 years old” and he was 25.
During the 38-year-old actress’ appearance on the “Call Her Daddy” podcast, Barton opened up for the first time that her known difficult times on the show were because she became romantically involved with her co-star Ben McKenzie.
“It wasn’t just onscreen,” Mischa told the host. “It was kind of complicated for me because I went into that like a virgin, like a kid. Like really feeling like I needed to grow up quickly to feel like I could portray acting with people older than me.”
“It was a bit like, ‘Oh wow, they know what they’re doing. There’s gonna be relationships on this show, and you’re gonna need to play that part,” she added. “And I didn’t feel really ready for that because I was always a really late bloomer in school, and I hadn’t really dated. I just had no idea what I was doing, so I felt like I needed to catch up a lot of the time.”
Mischa Barton admits she and ‘The O.C.’ co-star Ben McKenzie secretly dated https://t.co/bvLbaRKhzW pic.twitter.com/MU4tFkwkLV
— Page Six (@PageSix) February 22, 2024
“That was my first—I had no idea what I was doing,” Barton continued. “And I think that kind of set things off on the wrong foot, too … because we threw ourselves all into it very fast, and then, you know, when you break up, and things don’t work and they see you dating other people, notoriously there was a lot of inter-dating on that show.”
Later, she admitted she lost her virginity on the show, though she didn’t say to whom.
Barton said from the very start of her “first relationship,” she “felt overwhelmed and not ready” for any of it.
“[Show staff] were like, you know, ‘Mischa’s disappeared with Ben and she’s only 17 and a half, 18, and the producers went to my parents,” the “Notting Hill” star said. “It was kind of a whole ordeal. And so that’s in the very beginning of the show before we’re even like halfway through a season. So, there was a lot going on there, that show. Just so much happened in three seasons…”
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In an interview in October with The Times, Barton talked about the trauma of experiencing such a huge level of fame at an early age, E! News noted.
“You can go to therapy every day for the rest of your life, but there’s just a certain amount of trauma [from] all that I went through, particularly in my early 20s, that just doesn’t go away overnight,” the actress shared.
“I don’t think I was fully prepared for that level of fame,” she confessed. “Because it has never been something that I have sought out. I really would much rather be anonymous.”
“The O.C” ran from 2003 to 2007 on Fox with Barton and McKenzie playing star-crossed lovers Marissa Cooper and Ryan Atwood.
