Actress Bethany Joy Lenz is best known for her role as Haley James Scott in iconic noughties TV show One Tree Hill.
Yet she's also quickly becoming known for her wild revelation of living in a 'cult' for part of her life, and the extent it controlled her life, career and finances.
Bethany, who starred alongside Sophia Bush, Chad Michael Murray and Hilarie Burton in the show, previously explained how she became devoted to a small Christian group with when she was 20, ignoring the looks of her co-stars who told her what she was in, was indeed a 'cult'.
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Whilst others urged her to leave it, it appears that the group also vetoed a potential romance before later choosing her husband for her.
In her tell-all memoir, titled Dinner for Vampires, the actress penned her lift of ‘spiritual abuse’ and she also spoke about how the group controlled her.
Actor Tyler Hilton has revealed that he and Bethany got close whilst filming on One Tree Hill together, but their relationship was shut down before it could go anywhere.
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Speaking at one of his recent concerts, he explained about Bethany's recent memoir as he told fans: "The book talked a lot about personal stuff and I went through a lot of that with her.
"But it was crazy, cause if you guys watched the show, what you may not know is that our characters … Bethany and I weren’t really supposed to be hanging together on the show but off set we became really good friends and started becoming close."
He added: "We really fell for each other, we started to catch feelings for real.
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"We were hanging out together all the time and the producers on the show were like, 'We should write this into the show'. So they started having our characters sing together on the show and stuff."
Tyler revealed he was driven to open up about their connection after Bethany had been so frank about her time on the show and her experience of being controlled by a 'cult'.
He also told fans that Bethany had told him about the group she was part of as he told fans: "We had so many beautiful, deep conversations about religion and stuff. And every once and a while I would get cult vibes.
"So I was really into her though and I was like, ‘Dude I’m down with cult, I don’t care about that s**t’. Yeah, that’s no big deal, I’ve dated tons of girls [in cults]."
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Yet whilst Tyler was keen to pursue things with Bethany, it seems the group she was part of weren't keen after meeting him.
Tyler revealed they came to see him at a concert as he told fans: "They came out to [our] show in Portland and they sussed me out. And they were like, 'Yeah, he’s not the vibe'. And she was like, 'Yeah the cult said no'.
"I didn’t have an answer for that one cause normally you can tell a girl is there something I can do? But if the cult says no, you’re f**ked. I’d never been broken up with by [a] cult before. That was the first time."
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Despite the par never getting to date, Tyler revealed he and Bethany still remain close.
Tyler did go on to find love, though, as he has been married to wife Megan since 2015, and they share daughter Winnie and son Bennett.
Bethany eventually got a love interest signed off by the cult, and she married musician Michael Galeotti in 2005. However, the couple later divorced after six years of marriage in 2012, but they share daughter Rosie together.
Topics: Celebrity, TV And Film
Niamh Spence