Hard Things Are Meant to Be Shared'

THE ONE TREE HILL STAR OPENS UP ABOUT HER REVEALING NEW SINGLE AND HER PAINFUL PAST

- J P M A N G A L I N D A N

When Bethany Joy Lenz moved to Nashville last summer, the actress and singer-songwriter was instantly inspired. She wrote the lively track “Strawberries”—in which she ponders her insecurities and the unpredictability of life and love— in just two hours. “It felt like the perfect way to introduce myself, my sound and my playful energy to the music scene there,” she says.

New music isn’t the only thing keeping Lenz, 42, busy lately. She has a 12-year-old daughter, Maria Rose, with ex-husband Michael Galeotti, and she hosts the podcast Drama Queens alongside One Tree Hill costars Sophia Bush and Hilarie Burton. Lenz is also creating a newspaper for women, Modern Vintage News, which launches in September. And she’s working on a memoir that will detail her life’s ups and downs—including her years in a cult. “There’s a lot to tell,” she says.