- - Chad Michael Murray Says He Likely Would Have ‘Destroyed' Himself If He Hadn't Been ‘Humbled a Bit’ After 2000s Fame

Meredith WilshereJanuary 12, 2026 at 1:00 AM

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Chad Michael Murray in July 2025. -

Chad Michael Murray was "that guy" during the early 2000s

The actor, 44, joined Pat Spinosa's Like A Farmer podcast on Jan. 7 to talk about his career

While he has some regrets about his career, there's a lot he's "grateful" for

Chad Michael Murray had quite the career in the early aughts.

The One Tree Hill actor, 44, recently went on the Like A Farmer podcast to talk about some of his past projects, noting that he is "grateful" for all the hard lessons he had to learn over the last two decades.

At one point during the conversation, host Pat Spinosa mentioned that Murray was "that guy” in the early 2000s, starring in Gossip Girl, Dawson's Creek, A Cinderella Story, and more, establishing himself as one of the biggest heartthrobs at the time.

On the topic of experiencing such success at an early age, Murray admitted, “You'll never know when you're in it. And I think if you do, it's a problem. If you know that you are the guy and you're in the moment, it's probably a problem because you're getting your ego inflated to a certain degree, right?"

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Chad Michael Murray, Bethany Joy Lenz, 'One Tree Hill'

"If I had to do it all over again, I wouldn't change a thing, you know, and the only reason I say that is because I wouldn't have my wife and kids. I wouldn't be where I am," he continued on the Jan. 7 episode. "I probably wouldn't have refound the Lord. I probably wouldn't have been, like, as grateful as I am to go to work on a daily basis."

Murray, who shares three children with wife Sarah Roemer, said he was still “fresh off the boat from Buffalo” when he found success in Hollywood. The actor moved to Los Angeles in 1999 and was signed with Warner Bros by January 2000. Months later, he was cast in Gilmore Girls, and he noted that "there was no book" on how to handle his sudden rise to fame in the years that followed.

“I grabbed the bull by the horns and was like, ‘Let's go. Let's go have some fun.’ And we did. We had a lot of fun," he said.

However, he admitted that the excitement may have clouded his judgement at times — and he's glad smartphones weren't around to capture it all.

"And do I look back and have a lot of regret? Of course. Like, what a crazy time," he added. "Like, I'm so grateful there were no camera phones around."

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Alexis Bledel and Chad Michael Murray in 'Gilmore Girls.'

Murray explained that he “learned more from what I screwed up" than he would have if his career had continued to skyrocket.

"Because if I would have continued to keep winning, I think I probably would have destroyed myself," he said. "I don't think winning was the answer at that time. I think God was like, 'All right, let's back off. Let's back the trolley down. Like, you need to be humbled just a bit.' I'm grateful for it, man.”

After leaving One Tree Hill in 2009, Murray's career slowed down a bit, previously telling Interview that after finding initial success in Hollywood at a young age, he “didn’t understand the power that the industry can have, the respect that you must give it and give everyone and every moment.”

He noted that it was difficult dealing with "so many eyeballs on you" all the time, with all his highs and lows on full display.

“There was a moment where I was quitting. I was done. I just couldn’t do it anymore,” he told the outlet. “It was because, when you’re 18 to 25, these formidable years where you’re really cutting your teeth on life experiences and your brain isn’t fully developed, you make mistakes. I mean, gosh, we still screw up when we’re grown-ups. But I think it’s hard for me to see past those moments when you’re not adult enough to understand the scenarios that you’re in.”

Despite stepping back a bit in the 2010s, Murray has been back in the spotlight in recent years, appearing in two Netflix films in 2024: Mother of the Bride and The Merry Gentlemen. He also reprised his Freaky Friday role opposite Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan in 2025's Freakier Friday and has been in Sullivan's Crossing since 2023.

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Source: “AOL Entertainment”