Bethany Joy Lenz Announces Memoir About Her Cult Experience Titled ‘Dinner for Vampires’
Bethany Joy Lenz is ready to tell her story.
The One Tree Hill alum, 42, announced her upcoming memoir, Dinner for Vampires, via Instagram on Thursday, February 29, noting that the tell-all is “about the decade [she] spent in an abusive, high-demand group (aka, cult).”
She continued: “Being a writer has been a great, private joy in my life since I was about 12. This isn’t the first book I thought I’d write, publicly, but as difficult as this subject matter could be to untangle, I’m grateful I get to share my story, my way. It’s a story of forgiveness and a roadmap to how manipulation works, with a heartache and humor along the way. We all make mistakes and I hope Dinner for Vampires reminds you that, no matter what weird roads you’ve gone down, you’re not alone ?????.”
Lenz also shared a photo of the book’s cover, which features the subtitle, “Life on a Cult TV Show While Also in an Actual Cult!” In the photo, pills bearing words including “victimhood,” “self-loathing” and “submission” can be seen behind the book’s cover.
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A description of the memoir on Simon & Schuster’s website details Lenz’s double life in the early 2000s as both a cast member on One Tree Hill and a member of a Bible study group that “morphed into something more sinister” called The Big House Family. The website also states that the book is due out on October 22.
Lenz first opened up about her experience with the group during a July 2023 episode of her “Drama Queens” podcast.
“I was in a cult for 10 years,” she said while discussing potential memoirs with cohosts Sophia Bush and Hilarie Burton Morgan. “That would be a really valuable experience to write about, and the recovery — 10 years of recovery after that. So, there’s a lot to tell.”
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One month later, she got candid about the “breaking point” that made her leave the cult during an interview with E! News.
“There’s a lot of highs and lots of lows and at some point, you just are like, ‘Can I get off this ride, please? What’s wrong with me? Why am I so up and down all the time?’” she recalled, noting that she had “wild, vivid dreams” one month before her exit. “Sometimes it just takes a few people at the right moment saying, ‘It might not be anything wrong with you.’ And that can be a relief.”
Lenz shed more light on the type of treatment she faced within the group during an August 2023 interview with the Daily Mail. She recalled “weeping” after the leaders pushed her to turn down one of her “dream” roles.
“I was actually offered [the part of] Belle in Beauty and the Beast on Broadway, the role I had been auditioning for on and off since I was about 16,” she said. “They said that I should turn it down because, ‘You can’t out-give God.’ That was the idea.”
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Despite her heartbreak over turning down the role, Lenz acknowledged that doing the musical would’ve changed the trajectory of her life.
“The truth is, my daughter wouldn’t exist if I did take that [part],” she said, referring to 13-year-old Maria Rose, whom she shares with ex-husband Michael Galeotti. The former couple divorced in 2012 after six years of marriage.
