Mischa Barton reveals she dated The O.C. costar Ben McKenzie when she was 17 and he was 25: ‘It was variety of intricate for me’

Mischa Barton states an early romance with actor Ben McKenzie, who she costarred with on The O.C., paved a ‘complicated’ route for her early on in her time on the common Fox teen drama.

The 38-calendar year-previous actress claims she was 17 when she dated a 25-12 months-old McKenzie, as their respective figures, Marissa Cooper and Ryan Atwood, ended up joined romantically in the storyline of the sequence.

The romance wasn’t ‘just on display screen,’ Barton claimed Wednesday in an visual appearance on the podcast Phone Her Daddy, adding ‘It was kind of intricate for me.’

Barton instructed podcast host Alex Cooper her ‘first’ romance was with McKenzie, including, ‘I experienced no strategy what I was performing.

‘I think that form of set issues off on the mistaken foot, also, simply because it was like – you know men and women hook up on these shows and whatsoever, these matters come about, but it was – we threw ourselves all into it incredibly quick.’

Barton appeared on 76 episodes of the collection from 2003-2006, whilst McKenzie appeared on 92 episodes of the exhibit from 2003-2007. Other series regulars included Rachel Bilson, Melinda Clarke, Kelly Rowan, Peter Gallagher and Adam Brody.

Barton reported that she was inexperienced in many aspects of existence on starting on the sequence.

‘I went into that a virgin, a child, seriously emotion like I necessary to expand up speedily,’ Barton explained, noting that she was the youngest member of the ensemble solid at the time, which made a dynamic that ‘was a bit tricky for anyone.’

She claimed: ‘Acting with people older than me was a little bit like, “Oh wow. They know what they are doing.”

‘And you can find gonna be relationships on this show and you are gonna want to play that portion, and I didn’t really feel really completely ready for that, trigger I was always a genuinely late bloomer in college and I hadn’t definitely dated.’

Barton claimed she felt like she ‘needed to catch up’ to her elders in conditions of activities.

‘I was encountering all my firsts and I was so young and my mother would be on established and … I just necessary a ton a lot more interest in that sense,’ Barton stated on the podcast. ‘It was a ton of my firsts, let’s set it like that. 

‘And that kind of actually divided me, a tiny, from them, in the feeling that I wasn’t out there dwelling on my own in L.A. however.’

Barton explained that issues ended up further sophisticated just after she and McKenzie broke up, as they had started courting ‘right out of the gate’ from when the present commenced.

She recalled of the timeframe: ‘I felt overcome and not ready for any of that. I don’t forget they had been like, “Mischa’s disappeared with Ben and she’s only 17 and-a-50 percent, 18,” and the producers went to my parents and were like – it was type of a entire ordeal.’

She continued: ‘That’s in the really beginning of the display ahead of we’re even halfway through a season, so there was a large amount going on there. That present … so much occurred in a few seasons.’

McKenzie and wife Morena Baccarin, 44 – who he satisfied doing work on the collection Gotham – exchanged vows in June of 2017. 

They are mom and dad to two small children – daughter Frances Laiz, seven, and son Arthur, two. Baccarin is also mom to son Julius, 10, from her prior relationship to director Austin Chick.

Barton has earlier been essential of the atmosphere on the set of the Fox series, telling E! News in a Might 2021 job interview that she confronted a ‘sort of common bullying from some of the gentlemen on set’ amid her time on the show.

‘It’s a bit complex,’ Barton advised the outlet. ‘It begun quite early on for the reason that it experienced a great deal to do with them incorporating Rachel in very last minute as, right after the 1st season, a sequence common and night out everybody’s fork out – and type of basic bullying from some of the males on set that form of felt seriously s***ty.

‘But, you know, I also loved the display and experienced to develop up my own partitions and approaches of acquiring about working with that and the fame that was thrust specifically at me. Just dealing with like the total of invasion I was having in my personal daily life, I just felt very unprotected, I guess is the best way to set it.’

Dailymail.com has achieved out to McKenzie’s reps for remark on this tale.