It’s a characteristically warm summer morning in Los Angeles, but that doesn’t stop Chad Michael Murray from setting up camp under the lush foliage outside the home he shares with his wife of 11 years, actress Sarah Roemer, and their three children.
“We’ve been gone for six months,” Murray says while casually sipping from a coffee mug. Clad in a white tank top, pink pants and a matching pink hair tie keeping his long blonde locks off his face, he adds of his ensemble, “I have two little baby girls, so I’m always wearing pink. I can’t help it. … [It] puts me in a good mood. I love it. And the girls like it. So now we can match.”
It’s hard to imagine Murray, 44, radiating more positive energy than he already does, but talking about his family takes it to the next level. The actor—who stars in Disney’s Freakier Friday—is beaming when he tells Parade about his and Roemer’s son, born 2015, and older daughter, born 2017, watching Freaky Friday for the first time. (The couple also share a second daughter, whom they welcomed in 2023, and keep their children’s names private.)
“We watched the first one right before I started filming, so I could say, ‘Hey guys, this is what Daddy’s going to do. This is a story that I’m going to go tell,’” he explains. “And I just remembered them laughing so hard at the movie and saying, ‘Daddy, what are you doing? Why are you doing that? Why are you doing this?’”
The Sullivan’s Crossing star, who reprises his role as Jake in the highly anticipated family comedy, says reuniting with OG cast members Lindsay Lohan, Jamie Lee Curtis and Mark Harmon for another chapter in the Freaky Friday franchise wasn’t exactly on his bingo card until recently.
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Chad Michael Murray Matthew Leifheit
“It wasn’t something [when filming the original 2003 film] that you were setting up to be a sequel, but then here you are,” he says. “We’re in different places in our lives, and the story made so much sense to be made now, which is pretty cool.”
Though more than 20 years had passed since the cast was on set together, Murray tells Parade that it “felt like no time” went by at all.
“It’s so trippy, for lack of a better word. There’s this Twilight Zone aspect that you left that dimension and you came back 23 years later. You’ve had entire lives in between, yet here we are, and everything just still feels the same, and the chemistry is still the way it was, and it’s pretty incredible.”
As for what fans can expect from Freakier Friday, Murray says there’s “no question it’s going to resonate with the audience,” whether they’re 8 or 80 years old.
“We cover all the generations. So there’s that aspect of it,” he explains. “Parenthood is a trial-and-error thing. So if you’re a parent, boom. And if you grew up watching this, I think the nostalgia hit is going to be out of this world [and] incredibly surreal. What a beautiful thing to be able to make for everybody.”
Reuniting with Lindsay Lohan for the Disney film was ‘pretty incredible,’ Murray exclusively tells Parade.Disney
At its core, the premise for the movie is similar to the original: Spells are cast, bodies are switched, hilarious chaos combined with heartwarming lessons ensue. Though Murray’s character remains himself in both installments, the New York native has an idea of what he’d do if he ever found himself in the situation Curtis and Lohan’s Tess and Anna Coleman do.
“For sure there would be [eating] ice cream in there,” he says of what’s on his bucket list if he was back in his teenage body. Gushing about local Buffalo establishment Green Acres, Murray adds: “There’s too much to choose from where you’re just on overload. They have these dips where you take the ice cream, and you dip it in, and then it kind of makes a hard shell on the top. They have chocolate, cherry, birthday cake, blue raspberry, all these different [flavors], and they’re so good. I would go to town on that a time or 10.”
While an ice cream binge is high on his list, there’s one thing Murray would do in a heartbeat. “I’d have a pickup game with my son. How cool would that be?” he wonders. “That’d be so much fun to play football with my boy — as a peer instead of as a dad.”
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‘There’s this “Twilight Zone” aspect that you left that dimension and you came back 23 years later,’ Murray says of revisiting the world of ‘Freaky Friday’ for the highly anticipated sequel.Matthew Leifheit
It shouldn’t come as a surprise that Murray’s unwavering love of being a dad has paved a new pathway in his decades-long career. With notable roles in early aughts favorites like Gilmore Girls, Dawson’s Creek and of course, Freaky Friday, the actor solidified his status as a teen heartthrob early on.
A starring role as Lucas Scott on the beloved drama One Tree Hill, however, was a driving force in catapulting him to A-list status. Over the course of his career, Murray went on to star in numerous productions that strayed away from the soapy teen drama tropes he was tied to, including House of Wax, Fruitvale Station, The Haunting in Connecticut 2, Riverdale, Agent Carter and more.
It took a much bigger toll on him than he ever could have imagined.
“Energetically, when I do dark work, it comes home with me,” he explains. “I am like an all-or-nothing kind of guy. That’s how I’ve always been. When I’m working, I really like to just go all in. And a lot of times if you’re doing work that is a little bit darker or the content is a little messy, it can come home with you, and you’re carrying that energy with you.”
Murray points to one specific role — a “dark and twisted” cowboy named Henry in Outlaws and Angels — that made him think twice about the type of environment he immerses himself in as an actor dedicated to his craft, telling Parade that it took “about a month to shake” the headspace it had put him in.
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“I just remember it not feeling great,” he recalls. “And at that point I was like, ‘This is not what I want to be around my kids for right now.’
“There’s a lot of responsibility when you get these characters, for me, anyway. I have three little babies, and I want to keep them as protected as I can. That’s my first priority,” he continues. “So right now, I think for me, it’s like the idea of doing something in the Sonic the Hedgehog world [of] movies, Harold and the Purple Crayon or something about the Easter Bunny or Santa Claus for right now. Stuff where, who knows? My kids will watch it and be like, ‘OK, Dad’s kind of cool.’”
Not to worry, though — they already think so. On a family trip to Puerto Rico, Murray’s oldest child, his son, felt the need to brag.
“This is so silly,” Murray prefaces, beginning to laugh. “He’d see a group of people that he would assume were probably fans, and he would be like, ‘Just so you know, my dad’s Chad Michael Murray.’ And we’re like, ‘Oh, dude! Don’t do that. No, no, no, no!’ They got excited, and we took photos, which was fine, but [I explained to him], ‘That’s not how we do things. We just walk through life, and we treat everybody with love and respect. We just have a different job. But we’re all on this earth spinning around.’
“I’m blessed to do my job. I love my job, just like other people love their jobs,” he continues. “It just happens to be a more visible job, that’s all.”
‘When Sarah and I got together, we made a little pact that we would keep The Pack together no matter what,’ Murray tells Parade of his beloved family.Courtesy of Chad Michael Murray/Instagram
Behind the scenes, Murray is actually very “low key,” he says, and spends his free time with the kids on the football field. A longtime player and Buffalo Bills superfan, it’s no secret that he’s never shied away from the gridiron.
As his kids have expressed interest in the sport, he’s found himself in a position that means the world to him: coach. In fact, Coach Murray’s flag football team in Buffalo, where he and his family reside part of the year and on which his son and daughter play, recently took home the championship.
“I just was so happy to see [the whole team] celebrate after all the work we put in, and I’m proud of ’em all.” Watching his son and daughter (the only girl on the team) excel, he says, “fills your heart.”
Murray, one of five kids raised by his single dad, tells Parade his “superhero” father, Rex Murray, influenced the way he parents his children and the type of father he strives to be.
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“I wouldn’t have the life and the kids I have right now if it weren’t for my dad. He gave us the opportunity to have a chance in life, to go get a job, to live out our dreams, and I’m so grateful for that,” Murray says. “He’s just got such a big selfless heart.”
When the Los Angeles wildfires were burning through the Pacific Palisades earlier this year and inching closer toward Murray’s home, Rex, now 71, didn’t hesitate to check in. “He just popped in out of the blue, and he sat down, and he poured a bourbon. We had some Basil Hayden, and we sat and he said, ‘I thought you could use some company,’” Murray recalls. “I want to be that for the kids. I want to always be that loving, nurturing parent.”
While Murray has undoubtedly followed in his dad’s footsteps as a father, the One Tree Hill alum already has an idea of which of his kids are destined to be in the world of entertainment like their famous parents.
“[The] boy, probably not. I don’t foresee it, but I could be way off. Who knows? Our middle daughter? Yes, no question,” he says. “She’s just a natural. That girl’s got more talent in her pinky than I do in my entire [body]. She’s unreal. She’s next level, and I’m super proud of her, and she’s going to crush it. And the youngest is 1. She’s currently keeping us on our toes.”
Murray, now a father of three, lovingly refers to his family as The Pack. ‘We weren’t going to have a third child unless everyone was on board,’ he reveals, ‘including the kids.’ Courtesy of Chad Michael Murray/Instagram
Murray has long been open about traveling with his entire family when either he or his wife are working in different locations. He tells Parade that although their somewhat nomadic lifestyle is a little unconventional, the “camaraderie between everybody is incredible,” and “The Pack” — what he lovingly calls his family — wouldn’t have it any other way.
“When Sarah and I got together, we made a little pact that we would keep The Pack together no matter what we are going to do. If she wants to go to work, great, I’ll take off, and I’ll travel, and I’ll watch the kids and vice versa. That was the deal that we made,” he explains. “We didn’t want to spend time apart because I wanted to have kids, and I wanted to be a father. I wanted to be Dad. I wanted to be right there. I didn’t want kids to then just miss six months of their life.”
Though it presents its own unique set of challenges, the lesson is in the bigger picture.
“The one thing that is always there is the family,” Murray says. “No matter where we are.”
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This story was originally published by Parade on Jan 6, 2026, where it first appeared in the Celebs section. Add Parade as a Preferred Source by clicking here.