Sophia Bush Slams Her Chicago P.D. Co-Star For ‘Rebranding’ His Assault on Her as ‘Anger Management Issues’

What happened to Erin Lindsay? After four seasons on the popular One Chicago crime drama, why did Sophia Bush leave Chicago P.D. so suddenly? Keep reading to learn the reasoning behind the actress’ exit and the words she had for her former costar accused of sexual misconduct.

Chicago P.D. is NBC’s drama series following the personal and professional lives of patrol officers and Intelligence Unit detectives at the Intelligence Unit of Chicago Police Department’s fictional 21st District. The crime procedural is the first spinoff of Chicago Fire and precedes Chicago Med and Chicago Justice, which exist in the same universe. Chicago P.D. is currently in its 10th season and was recently renewed for Season 11, our sister site Variety reported in April 2023.

Sophia Bush starred as Detective Erin Lindsay, a member of the CPD Intelligence Unit. Her character partnered with Detective Jay Halstead (Jesse Lee Soffer) and had a close relationship with Sergeant Henry “Hank” Voight (Jason Beghe), her foster father who took her in as a teenager when she was addicted to drugs. Bush was a core cast member from the pilot episode until her exit in Season 4. In an interview with The Huffington Post in January 2014, Bush opened up about what it was like working on a show like Chicago P.D. “It’s such a wild ride. This isn’t your dad’s average procedural. We’re making a TV show for a major network that can support cinema-quality action sequences, but we’re making it with a grit of a cable show,” she explained. “Like I said, it’s a really surreal experience. It’s something that I’m so grateful for … If you’ve ever loved any of the different shows, (if) you’ve ever loved good suspense then this is the show for you.”

Bush also touched on how Lindsay differed from her character Brooke Davis on One Tree Hill, a role she played for nine seasons. “It’s a completely different experience, but that’s also my job as an actor,” the actress described. “I think that I was incredibly fortunate to work on my last show for so long and to play such a wonderful character, but it’s apples and oranges. That’s why I really made such a concerted effort to work through the majority of the hiatus breaks that we took during the filming of One Tree Hill because my job to play different people and my job is to be a chameleon.”

Keep reading to learn about why Sophia Bush left Chicago P.D., the allegations against her former coworker and what happened to Erin Lindsay on the show.

Why did Sophia Bush leave Chicago P.D.?

Why did Sophia Bush leave Chicago P.D.? Sophia Bush left Chicago P.D. on her own accord but later said that she experienced abuse in the workplace. “I quit because, what I’ve learned is I’ve been so programmed to be a good girl and to be a work horse and be a tug boat that I have always prioritized tugging the ship for the crew, for the show, for the group, ahead of my own health. The reality was that my body was, like, falling apart, because I was really, really unhappy,” she said on Dax Shepard’s Armchair Expert podcast in December 2018. She expanded on the abuse she experienced on set. “When someone assaults you in a roomful of people, and every one literally looks away… and you’re the one woman in the room, and every man who’s twice your size doesn’t do something, you go, ‘Oh, that wasn’t worth defending? I’m not worth defending?’” she added.

Her costar, Jason Beghe, was investigated for “inappropriate behavior” and sexual harassment by NBC and Wolf Entertainment in 2016. The actor faced several complaints from members of the cast and crew, according to Deadline. “When it was brought to our attention that there were concerns about inappropriate behavior on set, we promptly began an investigation in partnership with Human Resources and all parties involved,” said the network, Universal Television and Wolf Entertainment, in a statement to Deadline.  “As a result of the investigation, we have already taken action, and it is a situation we continue to monitor very closely to ensure all of our employees feel safe and supported.”

Beghe issued his own statement on November 21, 2017, stating: “I am deeply sorry for my behavior, which I know has been hurtful to my friends and colleagues. I have struggled with anger issues for some time, and over the past year, I have been working with a coach to help me learn how to mitigate my temper. It’s an ongoing process, and it has been a humbling one.”

In April 2023, on her podcast Drama Queens with her OTH costars Hilarie Burton and Bethany Joy Lenz, she talked about the allegations of sexual harassment against One Tree Hill creator Mark Schwahn, as well as the abuse she experienced on Chicago P.D. She shared that her rep at the time told her she couldn’t talk about both experiences when #MeToo first broke. “My rep said to me, ‘You’re going to have to pick. You can either tell the story about your first boss, or you can tell the story about your coworker, but you can’t tell both because then it looks like it’s your fault.’ That was professional advice,” Bush revealed on the podcast, according to TV Insider. “When people on that other job say, ‘Why won’t you stop talking about it?’ or ‘Why did you need to bring it up?’ I’m like, ‘You have no idea what I’ve withheld that’s benefitted you,’” Bush continued.

She also said that she wants more accountability. “I don’t know what I’m supposed to do that my next employers rebranded sexual assault with witnesses as ‘anger management issues’ in the press,” she shared, referring to Beghe’s 2017 statement. After NBC’s investigation concluded, Deadline reported that the network provided Beghe with a coach to “address his anger issues.” Additionally, a note of reprimand was placed in the actor’s personal file and there were other consequences on Beghe that were not publicized, Deadline said.

What happened to Erin Lindsay on Chicago P.D.?

What happened to Erin Lindsay on Chicago P.D.? On the show, writers approached Bush’s exit by writing off Lindsay without killing her character off. In Season 4, Episode 22, the Detective was investigating a case trying to find a young boy before he died. She took the investigation one step too far when she put her gun in the suspect’s mouth in the interrogation room. This ultimately led to an Internal Affairs investigation, and as a result, Voight got Lindsay a job at the FBI in New York. Also at the time, her mother was a suspect in the murder of her boyfriend. Voight found evidence that Lindsay’s mother was responsible (her mother, on numerous occasions, has tried make her daughter’s life miserable). So, Lindsay moving to New York away from her mom’s murder investigation would also lean in her character’s favor.

Since Bush’s exit, she’s appeared in numerous TV shows, including Jane the Virgin, This Is Us, Love, Victor and Good Sam.

Chicago P.D. airs on Wednesdays at 10 p.m. on NBC.

For more on the One Chicago franchise, check out our photo gallery of Chicago Fire stars and their real-life loves.