One Tree Hill star Bethany Joy Lenz has revealed how she became involved in a religious cult, which she remained a part of for 10 years.
The 43-year-old is about to publish a memoir called Dinner For Vampires, in which she alleges she experienced “manipulation, abuse and fear” at the hands of what she thought was a church covenant.
In the official description of his book, he said that he was under the control of The Big House Family’s “domineering minister” for a decade before he finally left.
She claimed the minister convinced her to marry his son and stole millions of dollars of her television income from One Tree Hill, which ran from 2003 to 2012.
Now, as her book hits shelves next week, she has told the story of how she was first convinced to join the organization to People.
One Tree Hill star Bethany Joy Lenz has revealed how she became involved in a religious cult, which she remained a part of for 10 years; in the photo 2022
Bethany always had an evangelical Christian background, but during her childhood she moved several times and “had always been looking for a place to belong.”
Her parents divorced when she was 16, a year before she got her big break on the soap opera Guiding Light after years as a child actress.
Amidst the instability of his upbringing, he was able to take root in his acting, as well as in the Bible study group where he met people who shared his worldview.
The Bible study sessions were “water in the desert” for Lenz, who talked about God, prayed and sang with the other members of his group.
‘We crave that kind of intimacy. The idea of someone saying, “No matter what you do or how badly you behave or what dumb decisions you make, I still love you and I’m here to help you,” he explained.
Soon, a pastor she refers to as ‘Les’ began showing up at Bible studies, taking over sessions and persuading attendees to move to his community ‘Big House’ in Idaho.
‘He still seemed normal. And then it just morphed,” he shared. ‘But when it started morphing, I was too deep into relationships to notice. Plus, I was really young.