Bethany Pleasure Lenz Emily Assiran/Getty Photographs for That’s 4 Leisure
One Tree Hill alum Bethany Pleasure Lenz has been candid about her “restoration” after a decade in a cult.
“I used to be in a cult for 10 years,” Lenz mentioned throughout a July 2023 episode of her “Drama Queens” podcast, which she cohosts with fellow OTH stars Hilarie Burton Morgan and Sophia Bush. “That may be a very priceless expertise to put in writing about, and the restoration — 10 years of restoration after that. So there’s rather a lot to inform.”
In response to Lenz, she wished to put in writing about her expertise regardless of preliminary hesitations.
“I don’t know the way a lot I can say as a result of there are nonetheless individuals and authorized issues in place that make it extra sophisticated for the timing of that,” she added.
It’s laborious to look again at teen dramas with out remembering One Tree Hill, and a long time later followers are nonetheless speaking about its explosive solid. The collection, created by Mark Schwahn, aired for 9 seasons from 2003 to 2012. It premiered on The WB then moved over to The CW in 2006 when The WB was […]
Lenz in the end did report her ideas in a memoir, titled Dinner for Vampires, which hits bookstore cabinets in October 2024. The title of the cult that Lenz allegedly belonged to was revealed by way of the e book’s synopsis.
Bethany Pleasure Lenz Jamie McCarthy/WireImage
“An solely youngster who typically needed to fend for herself and all the time wished a spot to belong, Lenz discovered the protected haven she’d been trying to find in a Bible research group with different Hollywood creatives,” the abstract reads on writer Simon & Schuster’s web site. “Nevertheless, the group quickly morphed into one thing extra sinister — a slowly woven net of manipulation, abuse, and concern underneath the guise of a church covenant referred to as The Massive Home Household.” (Us Weekly has reached out for remark.)
Whereas few particulars are recognized concerning the group, the e book’s logline notes that Lenz was satisfied to marry one of many sons of a “domineering minister,” who allegedly “drained thousands and thousands of her TV earnings with out her data.” (Lenz was beforehand married to Michael Galeotti between 2005 and 2012. They share daughter Maria Rose.)
Maintain scrolling to seek out out what else Lenz has mentioned about her cult expertise and the way she left:
July 2023
“I believe the ADHD has made it actually tough through the years to — I’ve plenty of essays and plenty of chapters and issues,” Lenz mentioned on “Drama Queens” of her need to put in writing about her previous. “However to actually decide to placing all of it collectively, I might love to put in writing about my expertise.”
Lenz, who fronts the band Everly, famous that she additionally channeled her feelings on the topic into tune.
August 2023
Lenz first received concerned with the group one or two years after she landed the position of Haley James Scott on OTH, which premiered in September 2003. Her expertise within the Massive Home Household was widespread data to her costars.
Bethany Pleasure Lenz Jason Kempin/Getty Photographs for PEOPLE x IHG Lodges and Resorts
“For some time, they have been all attempting to avoid wasting me and rescue me, which is gorgeous and so wonderful to be cared about in that manner. However I used to be very cussed,” she recalled to Selection. “I used to be actually dedicated to what I believed have been the most effective selections I may make. … The character of a gaggle like that’s isolation; they should make you mistrust everybody round you in order that the one individuals you belief are, firstly, the management after which, individuals inside the group if the management approves of them, and isn’t in the course of pitting you towards one another, which occurs on a regular basis additionally.”
She additional informed Selection that filming OTH in North Carolina helped her achieve a “spatial separation” from the “bible-based cult” that helped her in the end determine to go away.
Typically all you want is one … podcast. From the second that Hilarie Burton, Bethany Pleasure Lenz and Sophia Bush launched the “Drama Queens” podcast, they began spilling One Tree Hill secrets and techniques. The actresses, who starred within the hit CW collection as Peyton, Haley and Brooke, respectively, launched the podcast in June 2021 to recap […]
September 2023
Earlier than leaving the Massive Home Household, Lenz reached her “breaking level.”
“There’s lots of highs and plenty of lows and in some unspecified time in the future, you simply are like, ‘Can I get off this experience, please? What’s mistaken with me? Why am I so up and down on a regular basis?’” she informed E! Information. “And generally it simply takes a couple of individuals on the proper second saying, ‘It won’t be something mistaken with you.’ And that may be a aid.”
Lenz continued, “I had misplaced lots of [my faith] alongside the way in which. And certainly one of my prayers was simply kind of like, ‘You need to simply meet me the place I’m as a result of I don’t even know if I do know who you’re anymore,’ and that’s how God simply saved displaying up for me regardless of the truth that I used to be thrusting a center finger up within the air and being like, ‘Screw you!’”
October 2023
Lenz revealed on The Tamron Corridor Present that she was first drawn to the group for a bible study-type environment.
“That simply felt pure and regular to me,” she mentioned. “I grew up stomping across the metropolis. I lived in Jersey and I used to be an solely youngster and my mother and father, fantastic individuals, had their very own issues happening and … I felt like I didn’t have an enormous connection to household or neighborhood.”
Lenz, consequently, sought a “place that felt protected” after transferring to Los Angeles from New York.
“It appeared actually beautiful on the prime,” she mentioned, earlier than noting that she finally felt remoted from her OTH costars and her mother and father. “[But,] I felt like I used to be being cherished. They begin to persuade you that you just’re wonderful, you’re fantastic after which they tear you down and begin selecting in any respect the little issues … till you’re feeling like nothing, after which they begin to construct you again up once more. It’s like, ‘These individuals love me regardless of the truth that I’m simply such a multitude.’”
February 2024
She introduced her memoir by way of Instagram, calling the cult “an abusive, high-demand group.”
“Being a author has been a terrific, non-public pleasure in my life since I used to be about 12. This isn’t the primary e book I believed I’d write, publicly, however as tough as this subject material is to untangle, I’m grateful I get to share my story my manner,” she added. “It’s a narrative of forgiveness and a roadmap to how manipulation works, with heartache and humor alongside the way in which. All of us make errors and I hope Dinner for Vampires reminds you that, it doesn’t matter what bizarre roads you’ve gone down, you’re not alone.”
