One Tree Hill Star Bethany Joy Lenz speaks out on ‘shame’ of living in a cult for a decade of her life

If you were a fan of the early 2000s, you’ll know exactly who Bethany Joy Lenz is. Her harrowing story of being involved in a cult may not be common knowledge to you.

The actress, who is best known for starring in the hit teen show One Tree Hill alongside Sophia Bush, Chad Michael Murray and Hilarie Burton has opened up in an exclusive interview with People.

She shared the story of how she was involved with a cult for a decade, and didn’t even know that was the situation she was in until it was far too late.

Bethany 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.

Bethany Joy Lenz entered a cult at 20 (Warner Bros)

She recounted that she ‘could see it on their faces’ but she would ‘justify it, like, “I couldn't possibly be in a cult. It's just that I've got access to a relationship with God and people in a way that everybody else wants, but they don't know how to get it”'.

She even said her co-star Craig Sheffer was candid about the cult.

"I was like, 'No, no, no. Cults are weird. Cults are people in robes chanting crazy things and drinking Kool-Aid,’" she told him.

She added that she said it’s ‘not what we do!’

In her tell-all memoir, titled Dinner for Vampires, the actress, singer-songwriter penned her lift of ‘spiritual abuse’.

The 42-year-old explained how she needed ‘lots of therapy’ to help her deal with the events that transpired.

After meeting the pastor called ‘Les’ in Idaho, her and the group moved to a communal living compound, where she would go on to spend her years living, marrying, and even having a child there.

However, her career, life choices and bank account were all controlled.

"It still looked normal," Bethany said. "And then it just morphed. But by the time it started morphing, I was too far into the relationships to notice.

Bethany realised she was in a cult when it was too late (Rodin Eckenroth/Getty Images)

"Plus, I was so young."

According to her book, she believed she had found a safe space in a Bible study group until it ‘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’.

Sharing: "I think of it as important. Living silently in the suffering I experienced, I don't know if that helps anyone.

"I think of this more as the right thing to do."

Ultimately, she realised what was going on.

After she had been talked into marrying a member of the ‘family’ in 2012 and following the birth of her daughter Rosie, she realised it was a cult.

It took her a lot of strength to leave, and when she did, she had suffered millions in financial losses.

"The stakes were so high," she said.

"They were my only friends. I was married into this group. I had built my entire life around it. If I admitted that I was wrong ... everything else would come crumbling down."