One Tree Hill alum Bethany Joy Lenz is opening up about leaving a group she describes as a “cult” in her new memoir, Dinner for Vampires: Life on a Cult TV Show (While also in an Actual Cult!).
Lenz, who played Haley James Scott on the iconic teen drama, described the group, known as The Big House Family, in an interview with Good Morning America that aired Tuesday.
“It was just a home group Bible study, and then it morphed with the entrance of a pastor from another state,” Lenz said. “I think he just saw a lot of young professionals and got dollar signs in his eyes and went, ‘Oh, I know what I can do here."”
Lenz said the pastor then began a “long-game con” and a “long-game manipulation.”
“After about a year I was totally entrenched in it,” she said.
Lenz married a fellow member of the group and split her time between the group’s home base in Idaho and the One Tree Hill sets in North Carolina.
Lenz said she eventually left the group and her marriage in search of a better life for her daughter.
These days, Lenz is reconnecting with old friends — her One Tree Hill castmates Sophia Bush and Hilarie Burton Morgan. The trio now host the podcast Drama Queens.
“We didn’t make those connective points when we were younger for various reasons — one of which being: I was in a cult, and so it was harder for me to make connections with people,” she said. “But yeah, I’m really grateful that the opportunity came back around.”
Dinner for Vampires: Life on a Cult TV Show (While also in an Actual Cult!) is out now.
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