Hollywood Survivors: Bethany Joy Lenz, Glenn Close and More Reveal Their Cult Escape Stories
Hollywood stars are pulling back the curtain on the tight‑knit communities that shaped — and sometimes controlled — their lives. From a bible-based group that consumed a decade to a fundamentalist upbringing that launched a hit reality show, they say those worlds felt cult-like — and they’re finally telling all.
Every so often, a celebrity interview drops a detail that makes you stop scrolling. Lately, a surprising number of actors, athletes, and reality stars have been unpacking their pasts in groups they now describe as controlling, cult-like, or flat-out cults. Different places, different rules, same vibe: strict obedience, isolation, and leaders who did not keep it chill.
Bethany Joy Lenz: A decade inside The Big House Family
The One Tree Hill alum went public on her 'Drama Queens' podcast in July 2023: she spent 10 years in a 'bible-based' group called The Big House Family. She joined a year or two after landing Haley James Scott back in 2003 and even married the leader's son. Filming in North Carolina gave her literal distance from the group, which she says eventually helped her get out. She laid out the whole story in her October 2024 memoir, Dinner for Vampires, and later talked through the decision to leave on 'Call Her Daddy.'
'I was in a cult for 10 years.'
Noah Lyles: Track star, very strict church kid
Right after winning gold in the 100m (and bronze in the 200m) at the 2024 Paris Olympics, Noah Lyles sat down on the 'Everybody Wants to Be Us' podcast and pulled back the curtain on his childhood in a tight, rule-heavy religious community.
'All the moms had to be homeschooling their kids and the father was the head of the household, and the church told you who you could date, who you couldn't date.'
His family later moved to North Carolina, only to run into a different church trying to exert the same level of control. Not the usual post-race interview material, but it explains a lot about the discipline you see on the track.
Christine Brown: Calling out the system behind Sister Wives
In her 2025 book, Sister Wife: A Memoir of Faith, Family and Finding Freedom, Christine Brown doesn't mince words about her fundamentalist polygamist Mormon upbringing or the family she built with ex Kody Brown.
'I believe I grew up in a cult. I believe I raised my children in a cult.'
The lightbulb moment came when her daughter Gwendlyn reported that the girls at church camp weren't talking about college at all — just getting pregnant. Christine left Kody in November 2020 and is now married to David Woolley in a happily monogamous setup.
India Oxenberg: Life after NXIVM
After escaping NXIVM in 2018, India Oxenberg told Us Weekly in 2024 that she feels 'additional pressure' parenting a daughter because of what she endured. She was groomed inside the secret subgroup DOS by founder Keith Raniere, who was sentenced in 2020 to 120 years in prison for charges including sex trafficking, racketeering conspiracy, and forced labor conspiracy. Oxenberg documented her exit and recovery in the 2020 memoir Still Learning and the docuseries Seduced: Inside the NXIVM Cult.
Joaquin Phoenix: Born into Children of God, then out
Joaquin Phoenix grew up on the move after his parents joined Children of God in the 1970s, traveling with River and the rest of the family across Central and South America. He told Playboy in 2014 that the group didn't exactly advertise what it was.
'Cults rarely advertise themselves as such. I think the moment my parents realized there was something more to it, they got out.'
He called his family's involvement 'really innocent' — especially compared to Rose McGowan's much darker experience after the organization changed course in the 1980s.
Emily Watson, Glenn Close, Caleb Simpson: Different groups, similar scars
Dune: Prophecy star Emily Watson grew up in the School of Economic Science (SES), a global outfit that pitches 'non-academic' philosophy courses. She told Vulture in 2024 that fear, not mindfulness, did the teaching — and that SES expelled her at 29 after she made 1996's Breaking the Waves.
'I learned to concentrate out of fear.'
Glenn Close spent ages 7 to 22 in Moral Re-Armament, founded by Frank N.D. Buchman, which pushes four 'absolutes': honesty, purity, unselfishness, and love. In 2014, she told The Hollywood Reporter the rules were suffocating and their impact long-lasting.
'You basically weren't allowed to do anything, or you were made to feel guilty about any unnatural desire.'
On a more personal note, TikTok real estate creator Caleb Simpson said in an April 2026 video that his father built a cult-like environment at home.
'Me and my siblings joke around that we were involved in a cult with no followers because my dad believed that he was chosen by God.'
Amanda Frances: The RHOBH newbie with a past her castmates dug up
Real Housewives of Beverly Hills season 15 addition Amanda Frances told Us Weekly she spent two years 'very highly involved in a church that I consider to be a cult.' That history became on-camera fodder after Dorit Kemsley surfaced Amanda's October 2015 blog post about leaving.
'It fits all the criteria for a cult. It fits all the criteria for religious abuse.'
Different eras, different systems, same red flags: control, shame, isolation, and rules that swallow your life. The part that sticks with me is how many of them only broke the spell when some real-world distance — a film shoot, a move, a kid asking a sharp question — gave them room to see it clearly.