“One Tree Hill’s ”Barbara Alyn Woods Slid Into Boyfriend Mark Anderson's DMs While He Was Still on “The Golden Bachelorette”

Dropping by a recent episode of the Drama Queens podcast, Barbara Alyn Woods looked the "happiest" the hosts have ever seen her, they noted. And the actress credited that glow to one person: her boyfriend, Mark Anderson.

On the One Tree Hill rewatch podcast, hosted by Woods' former costars Sophia Bush, Bethany Joy Lenz and Robert Buckley, Woods talked about her new relationship Mark Anderson, a former contestant on The Golden Bachelorette. 

After talking about getting her daughters settled, Woods, 63, talked about how she was ready to shift the focus to herself.

She described her boyfriend as "the nicest, warmest, most loving, giving person I've ever met in my life. He gets recognized way more than I do. Like, because of his presence."

Woods then went on to discuss the unconventional way they got together.

"His daughter was on The Bachelor. Her name's Kelsey. She's beautiful, she's wonderful, all of his kids are. At the end of The Bachelor, they go to their hometown. They take the Bachelor home to meet their family. And Mark was there being all cute and dimply and sweet and like, 'Who's that guy?' "

Related: One Tree Hill’s Barbara Alyn Woods Sparks Dating Rumors with Golden Bachelorette’s Mark: 'Cinderella and Prince Charming'

So she looked Anderson up on Instagram and DM'd him.

"I guess I wasn't the only one who noticed his dimples," she said. "He was at the final episode of her show. He was in the audience and I'm watching with [my daughter] and like, 'Oh, there's my boyfriend.' "

Woods revealed that Anderson hadn't responded to her DM, and then they announced on The Bachelor finale that Anderson, 58, would be on The Golden Bachelorette as a contestant.

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"They're taking my boyfriend away from me," Woods recalled thinking. "Then I DM him again. I don't know what I said. It was so corny, whatever I said. Like, 'You have a cute smile. You're gonna go a long way in life,' or something stupid. He still didn't respond, but then I realized he's not responding because he's already on the show because they take your phones away."

So then, she said, "I'm watching every week to see if my boyfriend's gonna get kicked off the show."

Watching, Woods and her daughters began to feel like they knew Anderson. And the actress, in part, actually did.

"By the time he got kicked off, he had already responded to me. We started talking through social media," she shared. "Then you go to the next step, texting, and then you go the next step and you talk. We started talking, and it's been nonstop."

"They love him, and they love seeing me happy. They love seeing me being treated correctly," Woods said of her children. Her daughters overwhelmingly approve of her relationship with The Golden Bachelorette alumnus, she added. "He's just so soft-spoken, but when he speaks, it just means something."

The couple dressed up as Cinderella and Prince Charming for Halloween last year, and Anderson recently joined Woods for a One Tree Hill reunion event in North Carolina in March.

Related: Inside the One Tree Hill Cast's Weekend Reunion, from a Scott Brothers Teamup to Sophia Bush's Special Surprise (Exclusive)

On The Golden Bachelorette, Anderson opened up about his final days with his late wife Denise, who died from cancer several years ago. The army veteran and father of four went on a one-on-one date ahead of being sent home in episode 5.

Woods and her husband, John Lind, filed for divorce in May, 2024 after more than two decades together. Though Woods had been married to Lind since 1999, the couple had been separated since November 2021, according to a divorce petition obtained by PEOPLE.

Woods and Lind share three children: Natalie, 24, Emily, 22, and Alyvia, 17.

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