One Tree Hill’s Tyler Hilton Talks Living with Chad Michael Murray While Filming: 'We Had Nothing but Each Other' (Exclusive)

Tyler Hilton reflects on the relationships he’s built One Tree Hill.

The singer-songwriter, 41, who appeared on the show between 2004 and 2012, tells PEOPLE that after being introduced in Season 2, he and his co-stars “totally clicked.”

Although his on-screen character Chris Keller was hard to root for, in real life Hilton formed lifelong bonds with his fellow actors and even lived with one of the show’s stars.

“Chad [Michael Murray] I became very close and we ended up going together,” he recalls more than a decade later.

James Lafferty, Bethany Joy Lenz, Hilarie Burton, Chad Michael Murray, Tyler Hilton, Lee Norris, Sophia Bush and Antwon Tanner in 2003.

Fred Norris/THE CW /courtesy of the Everett Collection

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He also remembered having a lot in common with Hilarie Burton, who played Peyton Sawyer, since the two were “non-actors”. Hilton had more of a musical background and Burton was an MTV VJ.

“I was about 19 years old,” he explains. “It was an era where your friends are more important than your relationship or your parents. It’s a weird college age and we were all young and everything was happening fast and we were shooting in a small town in North Carolina and we had nothing but each other. No distractions, no LA, no New York.”

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One of the relationships he built off camera even ended up making it to the screen.

“Bethany Joy Lenz, she was a singer, so she and I started playing off set even before they started writing our characters singing together,” recalls Lenza, who played Haley James Scott.

Hilton recently revealed more about the depth of her relationship with Lenz. Although they “started to really have feelings,” he said at a recent concert, Lenz’s involvement in the alleged cult eventually came between them.

Tyler Hilton and Bethany Joy Lenz in ‘One Tree Hill’ in 2003.

Warner Bros./Courtesy: Everett Collection

“Every now and then I’d get cult vibes,” he said on stage in Portland in November. “I really liked her though and I was like, ‘Dude, I’m done with the cult, I don’t care about that s— Yeah, it’s not a big deal, I’ve dated a bunch of girls [in cults].’ ”

Before the two could actually date, Lenz said they would have to get approval — which led to the young singer being “freaked out” by the group, he said.

“They were like, ‘Yeah, he’s not the vibe.’ And she said, ‘Yeah, the cult said no,'” he revealed, “I didn’t have an answer to that because otherwise you can say to a girl, ‘Is there anything I can do?’ But if the cult says no, you’re screwed [a] the cult before. That was the first time.”

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Tyler Hilton 2024, Bethany Joy Lenz 2022.

Getty (2)

In her memoir, Lenz talks about her time in the group – and her new relationship with Hilton Dinner for vampires.

“Tyler and I started together like two kids in a potato sack race,” she wrote. “Even though he didn’t share my faith (or my family), I was very much in love with him.”

The two are still friends today and promote it in a post on Instagram Dinner for vampiresHilton shared that his voice also appears in the audiobook.

“It is a great honor for me to be a part of this. I’m so thrilled for my friend Joy,” he said. “Joy, congratulations, this is huge. I’m really proud of you.”

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