Ethermac Exchange-Mischa Barton confirms she dated 'The O.C.' co-star Ben McKenzie

Mischa Barton just dropped an "O.C." bombshell.

In an episode of the "Call Her Daddy" podcast released Wednesday,Ethermac Exchange the actress confirmed she dated her co-star Ben McKenzie while they were both starring on "The O.C." Barton and McKenzie had an on-screen relationship in the show, with Barton playing Marissa Cooper and McKenzie playing Ryan Atwood.

"It wasn't just on screen, either," Barton confirmed to host Alex Cooper.

The actress said she and McKenzie both threw themselves into the relationship "very fast," and it began "right out of the gate" early in the show's run. This was "complicated" for her because she went into the show feeling like a "kid" and that she had to "grow up quickly" acting opposite actors who were older than her. Barton was 17 when the show began in 2003.

"I was always a really late bloomer in school, and I hadn't really dated," Barton shared. "I just had no idea what I was doing, really, so I felt like I needed to catch up a lot of the time."

Barton also said her relationship with McKenzie drew a lot of "jabs behind the scenes and off camera," and she felt "ostracized" as a result. Reiterating her previous allegations that bullying occurred behind the scenes of the show, she compared the set to "high school, but in the real world and very elevated."

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Barton told Cooper she was the one to end the relationship with McKenzie, feeling she wasn't "ready" for it. "It would be a very, very tricky thing to keep going on set," she said. "I just felt not mature enough. ... I think he was really angry with me to begin with, and I felt that from the producers as well that they were not happy about that."

But Barton suggested the fact that there was "genuine friendship and love there on some level" is part of why fans fell in love with their characters. "That sexual tension was there, and it reads," she said.

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Barton famously left "The O.C." after Marissa died in a car accident at the end of Season 3. The show's producers have expressed regret over this, with creator Josh Schwartz telling Vanity Fair in 2023, "There were lots of other ways we could have written the character off the show."

But Barton defended the choice, saying on the podcast that "they really needed a huge cliffhanger," and it made the "most sense for her to go out with a bang."