‘One Tree Hill’ Star Bethany Joy Lenz Names Cult She Was in for 10 Years in New Memoir

By Emma Chance | Celebrity | March 2, 2024 |

By Emma Chance | Celebrity | March 2, 2024 |

Last summer, Bethany Joy Lenz of One Tree Hill revealed that she was in a cult for 10 years, including the time she was on the show.

“I was beginning to feel like I was hiding something because it was such an integral part of my personal journey while I was on One Tree Hill,” she said at the time. While she didn’t name the cult, she described it as religious.

“I grew up in a Christian home where Wednesday night Bible studies were very common,” she explained. “I moved to a new state, moved to a new city, and I went to another Wednesday night Bible study and that’s all it was to me.”

At first, anyway, but over time the man in charge took on a personality similar to that of Keith Raniere of NXIVM, in her words, and she became isolated from friends and family, who were referred to in terms similar to the “suppressive persons” of Scientology.

Now she’s written a memoir, Dinner for Vampires: Life On a Cult TV Show (While Also in an Actual Cult!), in which she finally names the cult: The Big House Family.

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“This isn’t the first book I thought I’d write, publicly, but as difficult as this subject matter is to untangle, I’m grateful I get to share my story, my way. It’s a story of forgiveness and a roadmap to how manipulation works, with heartache and humor along the way. We all make mistakes and I hope Dinner for Vampires reminds you that, no matter what weird roads you’ve gone down, you’re not alone,” she wrote on Instagram.

“An only child who often had to fend for herself and always wanted a place to belong, Lenz found the safe haven she’d been searching for in a Bible study group with other Hollywood creatives,” reads the publisher’s description. “However, the group soon morphed into something more sinister—a slowly woven web of manipulation, abuse and fear under the guise of a church covenant called The Big House Family. Piece by piece, Lenz began to give away her autonomy, ultimately relocating to the Family’s Pacific Northwest compound, overseen by a domineering minister who would convince Lenz to marry one of his sons and steadily drained millions of her TV income without her knowledge…Only when she became a mother did Lenz find the courage to leave and spare her child from a similar fate.”

“I was a smart person. I was a good actor. You can’t be a good actor without being smart. You can’t dissect a script without being able to assess things,” Lenz said on Southern Living’s “Biscuits & Jam” podcast. “But I had a big blind spot in my life—and everybody does—and mine was something that I was going to have to work out on my own.”

Dinner for Vampires is out October 22nd.