Mischa Barton doesn’t think back on her romance with Ben McKenzie with fondness. For one, it produced tension at work, as she was 17 and McKenzie was 25 when Season 1 came out. “I remember they were like, ‘Mischa’s disappeared with Ben and like, she’s only 17-and-a-half, 18,” she said on the “Call Her Daddy” podcast. And they actually went to great lengths in their efforts to prevent the relationship from happening. “The producers went to my parents … It was kind of a whole ordeal,” Barton told host Alex Cooper.
But Barton also suggested the split from McKenzie caused issues between them, which were hard to navigate considering it happened really early on. “There was a lot of jabs behind the scenes and off-camera,” she said. “I felt like that kind of ostracized me.” In fact, that may have played a part in Barton’s exit from “The O.C.”
In 2021, she hinted that her relationship with her co-stars influenced her decision to leave the show after Season 3. “It just felt like it was the best thing for me and my health and just in terms of not really feeling protected by my cast and crew at that point,” she told E! News. While creator Josh Schwartz denied Barton wanted to leave the show, he confirmed the relationship between her and the others played a role. “It was a complicated chemistry with the cast,” he told The Daily Beast in 2013.
