Chad Michael Murray has opened up about a near-death experience he had at the age of 15 that almost meant he didn’t make it to Hollywood.
Murray explained his intestines ‘twisted’
The 43-year-old actor, who had his big break as heartthrob Lucas Scott in One Tree Hill, explained that he had a horrifying health scare as a teenager that almost took his life when he was 15.
Murray explained that his intestines ‘had twisted’.
He explained it on Friday
The Freakier Friday actor told the Great Company podcast on Friday, August 8, “I was hospitalized for two and a half months. It was a lot.”
“We had surgery. I had internal bleeding, [and] I lost 50 percent of my blood. I was on my deathbed,” Murray explained.
Murray doesn’t have many memories from it
The actor explained that he was ‘in and out of consciousness’ so much that he doesn’t have many memories from the time.
“I just remember seeing my father, the weakest I’d ever seen him, and a priest at the end of my bed,” he said. “They’re talking about last rites and all that stuff, and [the nurse] gave me a blood transfusion to save my life. It saved my life.”
But it still took him time to recover
“Regardless, you’re in there for two months and, you know, my organs shut down because you have blood all coagulated around them, and they had to wait till everything. So, anyway, I had to have a second surgery to clean everything up,” the actor shared.
His nurses inspired him to be an actor
Murray also shared that his two nurses, Sandy and Alana, encouraged him to pursue his dreams as a Hollywood actor.
“Alana says to me, ‘Oh gosh, you should model,’” he recalled.
RELATED STORIES
He recalled what it was like
Murray reminisced,“I was like, ‘I don’t want to model. I want to be an actor. Like, I love film and television. I want to give this gift to other people.’”
“She’s like, ‘Well, you can segue from modeling into acting. Look, when you get out, I’m hooking you up with a modeling company I know.’ And she meant it.”
He hardly recognized himself afterwards
The actor got candid about the aftermath of the horrifying health scare, sharing that he could hardly recognize himself afterwards.
“I got out. I went from, like, 180 to 118 pounds. I was a skeleton when I got out,” he said of being discharged after months in the hospital.
It was a scary time for Murray
“It was the scariest thing ever. I remember looking in the mirror the first time going, ‘Who is that?’ I cried [and] I couldn’t believe that I was looking back at that guy,” Murray shared.
Despite the difficult experience, it helped him bond with his father.
It strengthened his relationship with his father
“I started my relationship with God, and my relationship with my father became really close,” Murray shared.
“My dad [was] raising five kids on his own [and] came to the hospital every single day, and he spent countless nights with me when he had four more kids at home.”
Murray went on to be a Hollywood star
“The man is tough as nails, and he did that for us. I’m overly, like, beyond grateful. That’s when our relationship really bonded,” he explained.
Murray went on to be a star in Hollywood. He starred in One Tree Hill, Freaky Friday, and a plethora of other movies and TV shows, most recently, Freakier Friday, which is in theaters now.
