‘One Tree Hill’ actress among celebrities lured in by cult ‘predators’ despite fame and success
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“One Tree Hill” star Bethany Joy Lenz is still grappling with leaving the cult that controlled 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 told Cosmopolitan in a recent interview.
Lenz, who is releasing a memoir about her experiences titled “Dinner for Vampires: Life on a Cult TV Show,” was part of the Big House Family, a commune-like community 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 author of “A Dose of Positivity,” told Fox News Digital. “These cults look to offer celebrities the protection they need from the public eye and that can be alluring.”
While starring on “One Tree Hill” as Haley, Lenz’s affiliation with The Big House Family led her to speak out about things she didn’t like on the show, like risqué wardrobe options 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 said.
Her time on the show helped her breakthrough the “despair and depression” she was feeling while under the influence of the cult.
“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 explained.
“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.
“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 expert Julie Mangus explained to Fox News Digital previously, “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 said. “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.”
Content retrieved from: https://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/one-tree-hill-actress-among-celebrities-lured-cult-predators-despite-fame-success.
