Jess Hardiman
One Tree Hill star Hilarie Burton Morgan has said she’s ‘so much happier’ after embracing her grey hair, having spoken out about the pressures of becoming famous when you’re a teenager.
Hilarie, 41, rose to fame as Peyton in drama One Tree Hill, which ran for nine seasons between 2003 and 2012, later going on to star in other series including Grey’s Anatomy, Forever, White Collar and Lethal Weapon.
She’s also had a number of film roles in the likes of Our Very Own, Solstice and The List, and now fronts a podcast called Drama Queens alongside former One Tree Hill co-stars Sophia Bush and Bethany Joy Lenz.
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In a recent interview on The View, mum-of-two Hilarie – who is married to actor Jeffrey Dean Morgan – opened up about the pressures of growing older in the public eye, saying many people expect actors to stay young ‘forever’.
However, she’s decided not to hide some of those telltale signs of ageing, having embraced her grey hair after it started coming through relatively early.
Hilarie said it felt like a ‘relief’ to go grey so soon, with all the expectations people had for her after her teen stardom.
"It’s a weird thing when you were a teen drama actress, and the expectation to be 17 forever is out there," she said.
"And I didn’t necessarily like my younger years. I dealt with some dark stuff in my younger years. So this idea that you can level up and get to the place where you’re the salty one in the room was exciting to me.”
She added: “And my heroes were Bea Arthur and Ruth Gordon and Betty White.
“That’s who I wanted to be. So going gray early had been a relief.”
Presenter Joy Behar told Hilarie she was right ‘on trend’, saying ‘a lot of women are doing it’.
“Well good, yeah,” her guest replied.
“We’re going to take over the world.”
The actor previously told People that her greying hair had become a strangely popular topic online, saying it felt ‘weird’.
“I mean, look, I started doing TV literally the second I graduated high school,” she said.
“I have given the entirety of my youth to other people. And there's something really rewarding for me to just say, ‘f*** it,’ and let my hair grow gray.
“’Cause I wasn't necessarily respected as a kid, so why would I want to hang on to that?”