‘One Tree Hill’ Star Bethany Joy Lenz Was in a Cult

By Emma Chance | Celebrity | August 14, 2023 |

By Emma Chance | Celebrity | August 14, 2023 |

Bethany Joy Lenz of One Tree Hill fame is writing a memoir about her experience of being in a cult for 10 years. She first made the admission on the Drama Queens podcast that she makes with OTH costars Hilarie Burton and Sophia Bush.

“Maybe six or seven months ago, I mentioned it for the first time. And it was sort of a soft drop in. I didn’t really want it to be a headline,” Lenz told Variety. “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 that she’d been afraid of revealing this about herself because of how it might affect her getting acting jobs.

“The other huge fear was that I’d be seen publicly or by casting directors as ‘that girl who was in a cult.’ I’m an actor—my whole job is to be able to disappear into a role. If everyone saw me as a victim of some kind, I’d lose my effectiveness in doing what I deeply love to do: act.”

But she was in the cult when she was at the height of her acting career, and it did have a negative effect. “The irony is, I squandered so many opportunities because I prioritized this group…I said no to all of it so I could go live with this remote, small group of people, convinced I was making a noble, spiritual sacrifice.”

“I grew up in a Christian home where Wednesday night Bible studies were very common,” she said. So, when she moved to California to film OTH, she found a Bible group. “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.” But somewhere along the way, things took a more cult-y turn. She compared the man who took on an authority position in the group to NXIVM’s Keith Raniere.

She became isolated from friends and family, saying the way the members talked about outsiders was similar to Scientology’s “suppressive persons.” As for her cast mates, she knew they were talking about her behind her back. “For a while, they were all trying to save me and rescue me…But I was very stubborn.” She said that stubbornness “built a deep wedge of distrust between me and my cast and crew.”

No word yet on when the book will be out, but in the meantime, you can subscribe to Lenz’s “Modern Vintage” newspaper, or listen to her upcoming single, “Strawberries.”