Another CW Star Says They Were In A Cult
It’s been just one week since Smallville alum Allison Mack was released from prison early following her incarceration stemming from her involvement with the cult NXIVM and now, another CW star is speaking out about their involvement with another cult. As per Entertainment Tonight, during a recent episode of the Drama Queens podcast, Bethany Joy Lenz, who portrayed Haley James Scott on the series One Tree Hill admitted that she had been part of a cult for a full decade.
Bethany Joy Lenz, who portrayed Haley James Scott on One Tree Hill says she was in a cult, but didn’t divulge names.
As a co-host on the podcast alongside her One Tree Hill peers Hilarie Burton Morgan and Sophia Bush, the platform was the perfect safe space for Lenz to begin to divulge more about her time in the secret organization.
While she didn’t name names of who else was involved or even the cult’s title, Bethany Joy Lenz did say that she was planning on taking all of her painful experiences from those 10 years and turning them into a book.
“That would be a really valuable experience to write about,” she said, adding that on top of the years spent inside the confines of the toxic group there were also countless years of unlearning that came after. Speaking about what it was like on the inside, Lenz said that there was a lot of “pressure of getting it right” and making things perfect for those at the top.
While she wanted to give up more details to both her podcast co-hosts and listeners, Bethany Joy Lenz explained that at this time she wasn’t able to break things down further or give more details as there were still “legal things in place” that she was being cautious of.
But, one thing she can do is begin to pen her experiences, something that she sees as not only interesting for prospective readers but also therapeutic for herself to in turn help her process the intense trauma that she was living in for that decade and beyond.
Over nine seasons, One Tree Hill brought in teen viewers who tuned in weekly to catch the drama of a group of friends living in the fictional town of Tree Hill, North Carolina. Centering on the lives of two half-brothers played by Chad Michael Murray and James Lafferty, the show was a classic teen drama packed with challenging family dynamics and young romance with the main characters finding themselves caught in the whirlwinds of adolescence.
While she wanted to give up more details, Bethany Joy Lenz explained that she couldn’t break things down further or give more details as there were still “legal things in place”.
Along with Murray and Lafferty, the series also starred the aforementioned podcast hosts Bethany Joy Lenz, Sophia Bush, and Hilarie Burton Morgan as well as names such as Paul Johansson, Lee Norris, Barbara Alyn Woods, and Moira Kelly.
Allison Mack and NXIVM
While Bethany Joy Lenz may not be naming names any time soon, Allison Mack was known as a right-hand person to NXIVM’s leader, Keith Raniere. While she didn’t testify against Raniere in court, she worked alongside prosecutors in the trial and was prepared to take the stand should it come down to that.
Known as a marketing company that pushed developmental seminars onto its followers, NXIVM was discovered to be a sex trafficking cult that also received charges of forced labor and racketeering.
