Bethany Joy Lenz Details The Range Of Emotions She Felt After Living In A Cult
By Taylor Hodgkins on October 15, 2024 at 6:45 PM EDT
Actress Bethany Joy Lenz took a gigantic leap in processing a harrowing period in her life.
The "One Tree Hill" alumna is beginning to reveal the details of the life she experienced while living in a cult, by promoting her memoir "Dinner for Vampires" out next week. Sharing the intimate details for the first time may very well be a form of recovery for the actress.
Bethany Joy Lenz is getting honest with her feelings and sharing them with the world before next Tuesday's release of the memoir about her time as a member of a cult.
Bethany Joy Lenz Chronicles A Dark Period With A Colorful Memoir
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Lenz's fans and followers will finally be able to read her memoir, which has been a work in progress for a few years.
The actress was extremely open with her "One Tree Hill" best friends, Sophia Bush and Hilarie Burton-Morgan on their "Drama Queens" "OTH" rewatch podcast last year. She revealed to her former co-stars she had been a member of a cult for a decade but did not reveal its name.
Trying to process the ten years she was a cult member has been an ongoing process for Lenz, as she has explained over the past year.
The New Author Is Making Peace With Her Past
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Transitioning into a peaceful headspace required Lenz to put pen to paper, an activity she regularly turned to process the tough moments.
In a conversation with her "Drama Queens" co-hosts, she acknowledged her experience would be a "very valuable one to write about," as well as the additional decade it took her to recover from what she went through, as The Blast previously reported.
"...and the recovery, 10 years of recovery after that, so there is a lot to tell," the "Dinner with Vampires" author acknowledged.
Bethany Joy Lenz Wanted To Make Sure Her Experience Was Accurate
Accuracy was incredibly important for Lenz to master when detailing her story on paper.
"The pressure of getting it right and everything having to be exactly real and all the people that are involved," she revealed made her nervous to recall the story seriously, she recalled at the time of the interview a year ago.
At that time, she did not have any plans to write about her experience in any serious manner but she told Bush and Burton-Morgan she had been writing about it privately for processing.
Lenz also said of the writing process, "Also, I don't know how much I can say because there are still people and legal things in place that make it more complicated for the timing of that. But I do write. I write all the time."
'Haley James-Scott' Craved Community While Growing Up
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Opening up to People ahead of her memoir's release, the actress discussed the relatable aspect of desiring a like-minded group of people to share their lives. Lenz shared with the publication that she was one of those people.
"We crave that kind of intimacy," Lenz explained. "The idea that someone out there says, 'No matter what you do or how badly you might behave or what dumb choices you make, I still love you, and I'm here for you.'' She had found that community in church in her early years.
An outsider began coming to her bible study who soon began promoting the idea of the attendees living in a "commune-like environment," the publication reported. Lenz initially was not bothered by the experience and was not struck by the nature of the conversation.
"It still looked normal," Lenz stressed of the environment. "And then it just morphed. But by the time it started morphing, I was too far into the relationships to notice.” She adds.
Bethany Joy Lenz Details The Range Of Emotions She Regularly Feels
Processing a gigantic life event can inspire a range of feelings and insight into difficult memories. The "Dexter" actress was honest in expressing the feelings she still deals with on a regular basis in her healing.
"I have wished that it didn't happen," Lenz admits. "I've had many angry, questioning God moments. The further away I get from it, the more of a blessing I see in it," she says. "The more good things I see, the more good things I see walking through that," the actress added.
"Dinner with Vampires" will be released on October 22nd.