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“One Tree Hill” star Bethany Joy Lenz remains to be grappling with leaving the cult that managed her life for a decade.
“There’s something really powerful in putting things out in the open and being an open book and being honest in the good, bad and the ugly,” Lenz informed Cosmopolitan in a latest interview.
Lenz, who’s releasing a memoir about her experiences titled “Dinner for Vampires: Life on a Cult TV Show,” was a part of the Big House Family, a commune-like group primarily based in Idaho.
“Most people would think a celebrity would never be attracted to a cult and that cults are completely ridiculous, but cults have very charismatic leaders who are incredibly luring and promise the community, connection, and a culture of secrecy, which most celebrities crave,” Mike Diamond, Certified Addiction Recovery Expert, Celebrity interventionist, and the creator of “A Dose of Positivity,” informed Fox News Digital. “These cults look to offer celebrities the protection they need from the public eye and that can be alluring.”
Bethany Joy Lenz stated opening up about her expertise in a cult in her new e-book has been “really powerful.” (Jamie McCarthy/WireImage/Getty Images)
HOLLYWOOD STAR WAS PUSHED TO QUIT ACTING AFTER MARRYING CULT LEADER’S SON
While starring on “One Tree Hill” as Haley, Lenz’s affiliation with The Big House Family led her to talk out about issues she didn’t like on the present, like risqué wardrobe choices for her character.
“Being part of this group, it felt like the responsibility was even bigger because I felt a sense of duty to my belief system. And so I was even more unbendable on set when it came to things that I was uncomfortable with or didn’t agree with,” she stated.
Her time on the present helped her breakthrough the “despair and depression” she was feeling whereas below the affect of the cult.
“These cults look to offer celebrities the protection they need from the public eye and that can be alluring.”
“Your body doesn’t know you’re acting. If you’re crying, you’re crying. And I was living a life nine months out of the year in a happy, loving, playful, romantic relationship that wasn’t real, but my body was living it. At the same time, I was experiencing despair and depression, no romance, a total lack of feeling seen or enjoyed. That was really difficult to reconcile,” she defined.
“But I’m so grateful that I did have those experiences in my body of feeling loved and enjoyed and seen and romantic and all of those things because it reminded me that that part of me was still alive. It wasn’t that I was broken or couldn’t experience those things,” Lenz added.
Lenz, third from left, along with her “One Tree Hill” castmates, from left to proper: Bryan Greenberg, James Lafferty, Hilarie Burton, Sophia Bush, Chad Michael Murray. (Lawrence Lucier/FilmMagic)
“In a way, I think that’s one of the contributing factors to why I think ‘One Tree Hill’ saved me, because I was consistently able to live in a place that reminded me of who I am.”
Licensed therapist and relationship coach and knowledgeable Julie Mangus defined to Fox News Digital beforehand, “When people are in a vulnerable state or feeling lost or overwhelmed with life, especially as new celebrities in the profession, all of a sudden having successes and not knowing what to do with that, success and new-found money and fame can be overwhelming,” Mangus stated. “And a situation like a cult might give someone a greater sense of purpose, clarity and grounding to how they fit back in the world.”
Lenz informed People Magazine this month that the group “looked so normal” initially with weekly Bible research. “And it was at first, and then it just morphed, but by the time it started morphing, I was too far into the relationships to really notice. And I was very young.”
“Nowadays, the ‘modern cult’ is less of the stalking lion and more of the proverbial snake lying wait in the tall grass,” Doug Eldridge of Achilles PR informed Fox News Digital.
Lenz stated “One Tree Hill” was one thing that “saved me, because I was consistently able to live in a place that reminded me of who I am.” (Phillip Faraone/FilmMagic)
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Eldridge cited “pay-for-play courses” from individuals who tout themselves as life coaches, spiritualists and extra, with guarantees to “heal your pain and transform your life.”
“Much like the more traditional, headline-grabbing cults, they play on common themes, like sympathy, empathy, shared experiences, and an amorphous promise of a brighter tomorrow. It’s in our nature as humans to look for ways to lighten the load in some way. Sadly, there are people out there willing to take advantage of that naiveté, that hurt, and that search for a better self,” he stated.
“I think that’s one of the contributing factors to why I think ‘One Tree Hill’ saved me, because I was consistently able to live in a place that reminded me of who I am.”
“If we’re talking about modern day cults—in the form of transformation architects and other self-proclaimed lifestyle gurus—their intention is monetary, their execution is imprecise, and their impact is pseudo-iatrogenic. Sadly, these predators are able to find the gazelle with the weak leg and separate them from the herd. Anyone who’s watched a nature documentary knows what happens next,” Eldridge added.
“Smallville” actress Allison Mack was a part of a gaggle that originally provided a self-help angle to its members, the now-infamous NXIVM group led by Keith Raniere and Nancy Salzman.
“Smallville” actress Allison Mack was a part of the NXIVM group and was later charged with critical crimes like intercourse trafficking, identification theft, cash laundering and extortion earlier than pleading to lesser fees and serving two years in jail. (Jemal Countess)
FORMER NXIVM FOLLOWER RECALLS DATING LEADER KEITH RANIERE, MEETING ‘SMALLVILLE’ STAR ALLISON MACK
In 2017, some members got here ahead to say there was a secret group inside the group known as the Vow, a gaggle of ladies who have been branded and generally slept with Raniere. Some have been made to recruit “slaves” for the group.
Raniere, Mack and others have been arrested and charged with intercourse trafficking, identification theft, cash laundering and extortion, among different crimes. Mack pleaded responsible to racketeering and racketeering conspiracy fees, a transfer that freed her from the intercourse trafficking fees.
She was sentenced to a few years in jail and was launched in July 2023 after serving two years.
India Oxenberg, daughter of actress Catherine Oxenberg, defined to “The FOX True Crime Podcast” how she was pulled into NXIVM’s affect.
Actress India Oxenberg was a member of the NXIVM cult and stated she could not see “the red flags” on the time she joined. (Avalon Lennon)
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“I was feeling, like, young and intimidated and kind of just, like, maybe this is where I’m supposed to be,” she recalled. “So it was not like when I when I look back, obviously, you know, hindsight is 20/20. I can see red flags now, but at the time I did not.”
She escaped the group after seven years, struggling abuse and sexual assault whereas indoctrinated into the “cult within the cult” and later labored with the FBI to construct instances in opposition to Raniere and his co-conspirators.
“I’ve had to really, like, come to terms with, like, what’s loving for me, what works for me in my life,” she stated. “And that isn’t based on somebody else’s standards, it’s entirely based on mine. And a lot of it has to do with self-respect and also self-knowledge, which is something that I think you can either gain from a traumatic experience or hide from. Like, I’m motivated to speak about these things, but yeah, it still hurts.”
WATCH: NXIVM SURVIVOR INDIA OXENBERG DETAILS LIFE AFTER ESCAPING CULT
Lenz stated she felt immense disgrace from her experiences, however her religion helped pull her out of it after she left the cult.
“I found a much more authentic faith because I realized that I was not actually living my own life. I wasn’t having my own relationship with God. I was putting it off on other people to do it for me. When I finally got real and accepted that I couldn’t do enough to earn God’s love—I couldn’t do all the right things—the idea of shame became so much less scary,” she informed the outlet.
She continued, “The more authentic I got with God, the more I saw that He could handle me in all of my mess, my anger, my fear, and that I was going to be okay to make mistakes. Instead of spending my life trying to control everything so that I could be a perfect person, I felt free to be a mess, which is really what I was searching for in the group all along.”
Diamond stated, “What most people don’t realize is that being a celebrity can be extremely lonely. A lot of celebrities I know personally have to protect themselves from the public. We all want connection, community, and a sense of culture.”
Lenz stated her religion has helped her heal from her time in a cult. (Rodin Eckenroth/FilmMagic)
“I found a much more authentic faith because I realized that I was not actually living my own life.”
JOAQUIN PHOENIX, MICHELLE PFEIFFER, ROSE MCGOWAN AMONG HOLLYWOOD STARS LINKED TO CULTS
Magnus beforehand highlighted that many cults “usually provide a faith-based element or a way of bettering yourself towards a greater good or purpose or to carry out a religious agenda with a leader in charge.”
Brothers Joaquin and River Phoenix and actress Rose McGowan have been raised in the Children of God cult, began by David Berg, who needed to mix Christianity with the free love motion of the late ’60s.
Things initially started usually, however over time, folks started reporting youngster abuse, youngster marriage and separating youngsters from their dad and mom.
Joaquin Phoenix informed Playboy in 2014 that after his dad and mom realized what was occurring, they took him and his siblings, together with River, Rain, Liberty and Summer, out of the state of affairs.
Joaquin Phoenix stated his dad and mom left the Children of God cult after they discovered of its darker practices. (Jesse Grant/Variety through Getty Images)
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“I think my parents thought they’d found a community that shared their ideals. Cults rarely advertise themselves as such. It’s usually someone saying, ‘We’re like-minded people. This is a community,’ but I think the moment my parents realized there was something more to it, they got out” he informed the outlet.
McGowan’s father additionally took the household out of the cult when sexual relationships between adults and youngsters have been being pushed on members.
“As strong as I like to think I’ve always been, I’m sure I could have been broken,” McGowan informed People journal in 2011. “I know I got out by the skin of my teeth.”
Fox News Digital’s Caroline Thayer, Emily Trainham and Christina Coulter contributed to this report.
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