Ashlyn Harris is reflecting on her ongoing divorce from ex Ali Krieger amid her new romance with Sophia Bush.
The former U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team (USWNT) player, 38, opened up about “one of the hardest seasons” of her life in a new interview with Women’s Health published on Wednesday, July 17.
“I’m navigating a divorce that’s been really hard,” Harris told the outlet. “I’m just riding the waves and realizing I can only control what’s in my controllables. I can’t control everyone else’s reaction. I can’t control everyone else’s opinions of me. I have to own myself and my body and be present and be human.”
Noting that she is trying to maintain a sense of normalcy for her and Krieger’s two children – daughter Sloane, 3, and son Ocean, 2 – Harris told the outlet that her “storm doesn’t haven’t to be theirs.”
She continued, “It’s one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to go through — dealing with a divorce with two very young children and not letting them see or feel my storm and rain. It’s a really big test.”
The duo first met in 2010 while competing on the USWNT, got engaged in 2019 and married that same year. Harris filed for divorce from the two-time World Cup champ in September 2023, and Krieger submitted her own filing in December that year.
In November 2023, Harris felt compelled to speak out about the online hate she was receiving after her and Krieger’s split. At the time, rumors of a romance with Bush, 42, were prevalent, but both parties have maintained that they were out of their respective relationships before getting together romantically. (Bush split from ex Grant Hughes after a little more than one year of marriage. The former spouses wed in June 2022 and went their separate ways in August 2023.)
“The online hate that has happened since has been one of the most personally devastating experiences of my life,” Harris wrote in part via Instagram. “Words matter. The cheering on abuse, the people clamoring to encourage me to commit suicide, and the cruel words spoken about my children, and who I am as a mother? Those words matter.”
Bush confirmed her relationship with Harris in April after coming out as queer in an essay for Glamour.
“As I came into myself, I already felt it was my home. I think I’ve always known that my sexuality exists on a spectrum,” she wrote in the magazine’s cover story. “Right now I think the word that best defines it is queer. I can’t say it without smiling, actually. And that feels pretty great.”
