One Tree Hill star Bethany Joy Lenz said her co-stars tried to help her escape a cult (Picture: Axelle/ Bauer-Griffin/ FilmMagic)
One Tree Hill star Bethany Joy Lenz has said her co-stars tried to ‘rescue’ her after finding out she was living in a cult while filming the hit series.
The actress, 42, played Haley James Scott on the drama from 2003 until 2012, before going on to appear in other shows including Dexter, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D and Grey’s Anatomy.
Last month she revealed she’d spent a decade in a religious cult and has now shared more details about the experience.
Speaking about how those around her tried to intervene once they found out what was happening in her private life, Bethany said One Tree Hill cast and crew attempted to step in several times.
‘For a while, they were all trying to save me and rescue me, which is lovely and so amazing to be cared about in that way. But I was very stubborn,’ she admitted.
‘I was really committed to what I believed were the best choices I could make…the nature of a group like that is isolation; they have to make you distrust everyone around you so that the only people you trust are, first and foremost, the leadership.
The actress starred in the drama series from 2003 until 2012 (Picture: The CW)
‘Then, people within the group if the leadership approves of them, and isn’t in the middle of pitting you against each other, which happens all the time also,’ she added when speaking to Variety.
But she said that working on set away from those trying to control her made a difference.
She continued: ‘In a lot of ways, One Tree Hill saved my life, because I was there nine months out of the year in North Carolina.
‘I had a lot of flying back and forth, a lot of people visiting and things like that, but my life was really built in North Carolina.
‘And I think that spatial separation made a big difference when it was time for me to wake up.’
The actress’ involvement in the cult began when she was in her early 20s, ‘a year or two’ after she started working on the drama series.
She now hosts a podcast with former co-stars Hilarie Burton Morgan and Sophia Bush (Picture: Kevin Winter/Getty Images for iHeartRadio)
She didn’t escape the organisation until ‘shortly after’ the show ended nearly a decade later.
While Bethany has never publicly shared the name of the group, she said it was a ‘bible-based cult’.
Currently in the process of writing a memoir which details her experience, Bethany said she had worked hard to overcome the ‘shame’ associated with her past, but ultimately decided to open up as a way to also help others.
‘What good are our painful experiences if we just lock them away and pretend like everything’s perfect? That’s not doing anybody any good,’ she shared.
First revealing details of her time in a cult last month during an episode of the One Tree Hill rewatch podcast Drama Queens, which she cohosts with former co-stars Sophia Bush and Hilarie Burton Morgan, Bethany said there was ‘a lot to tell’.
However, she said she was unsure how much she could share as there were ‘still people and legal things in place that make it more complicated’.
One Tree Hill is streaming on Netflix.
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