Supermodel Hoyt Richards on Escaping the Eternal Values Cult
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By all appearances, Hoyt Richards was living the high life in the 80s. As an internationally famous supermodel, he was raking in millions of dollars, jet-setting all over the world, and had become the poster boy for the decade’s New Age spiritual movement. But behind the scenes, Richards had fallen victim to the Eternal Values cult and its extremely charismatic leader Frederick von Mierers, who preyed on young models and professionals siphoning off their money, connections, and adoration, convincing them he was both a god and an alien. In the new HBO docuseries Bring Me the Beauties, Richards is finally sharing his harrowing story of brainwashing and abuse, and how he managed to come out the other side. Ahead of the series finale on Monday, Interview‘s Editor-in-Chief Mel Ottenberg checked in with the supermodel to dive deeper into this 20-year cultic relationship, the friends still trapped in Frederick’s web of lies, and whether or not we’ll ever see Richards grace another centerfold.
MEL OTTENBERG: How are you doing these days, Hoyt?
HOYT RICHARDS: Well, things are a little strange. This is like getting naked in front of the world with all your dirty laundry. I have to say, the response has been overwhelmingly positive. People I’ve known have come forward and said, “I always thought maybe I understood, but now I understand so much better after watching that first episode.” Too often these stories are told through the lens of what I would call the villain story. What’s the cult leader all about? What’s the carnage they create around them? That’s a pretty depressing story. I feel like the survivor story not only provides understanding, but it provides empathy and hopefully information that says, “Oh, I’ve actually had a relationship like this. Maybe not to this extreme, but I can relate to this experience.”
OTTENBERG: Right. It’s interesting what you’re saying. I was dating a guy five years ago, and I’m someone with a job, I am in my 40s. I’ve, like, totally got it together. But then I started being like, “This guy…He’s definitely playing mind tricks on me and I can’t tell if he knows what he’s doing or not.” Then, just like that, I snapped out of it and was like, “You’re dumped.” He was sending me flowers and gifts, but I wasn’t having it. But I’ve always thought about that. You reminded me of it because you’re not from a broken family environment or any of these things—
RICHARDS: I think that’s one of the most important things that I try to educate people about is that as long as you think it can’t happen to you, you’re in the most vulnerable spot. I held a lot of those same preconceptions of who I thought this would happen to, what kind of family they came from, and all of that is inaccurate. That’s why I feel like the best way to describe my experience is that I had a 20-year cultic relationship with this group. The word “cult” is so triggering. You get these extreme pictures of Jonestown, or the people that had the Nike suits and all took Kool-Aid. Remember them, the people in California? It’s a big hole to dig out of. But cultic relationships seem to be part of the human condition. You have to think of them as a spectrum. Every relationship, whether a one-on-one relationship or a group dynamic, is somewhere on that spectrum. I definitely lean more towards the extreme of it.
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Content retrieved from: https://www.interviewmagazine.com/culture/hoyt-richards-bring-me-the-beauties-hbo-documentary-eternal-values-cult.
