Revealed by her role as Haley James Scott in The Scott Brothers, Bethany Joy Lenz had a very different experience behind the cameras. For ten years, she was under the influence of a Christian community called Big House Family, where she met her ex-husband, the son of the cult leader. The actress, who married him, soon realized that their relationship was not working. “There wasn’t a lot of intellectual stimulation. But I was running out of options. I couldn’t date a non-Christian or anyone outside the group…So it became kind of a situation arranged”, she explains in the podcast.
A relationship to live in intimacy for Bethany Joy Lenz forced into a “sexual program” established by her ex-husband, whom she describes as the son of the leader of the sect. Faced with the young woman who did not seem to feel any pleasure, he explained to her: “You just have to do it. Do it. It’s your duty. It’s your job as a wife. Your emotions will follow. If you do it enough, eventually you’ll find a way to enjoy it.” The actress reveals: “We were making love, and I’m like, ‘Why do I feel so sad? I don’t feel more connected to you. I feel more distant from you.’ And I don’t think it necessarily has anything to do with saving myself for marriage, it’s just that I married the wrong person.”.
Bethany Joy Lenz warned about cult by Scott Brothers actor
Thus each return from her husband’s trip aroused anxiety in the woman forced to comply with this “sex program” which marked his intimacy after his departure from the sect. A difficult decision, but one she managed to make in 2012, after the birth of her daughter Rosie: “The stakes were high. My whole world revolved around this group. If I admitted I was wrong, everything would fall apart.” However, when she joined this sect, Bethany Joy Lenz felt accepted, after growing up as an only child in an evangelical Christian environment.“It was like finding water in the desert. I had never felt this kind of connection before”she explains to the magazine People.
While she does not perceive the sectarian nature of the community, her colleagues in the series The Scott Brothers, notably Craig Sheffer (aka Keith Scott), tried to warn her. “He told me clearly that I was in a cult, but I didn’t want to believe him”she admits. And for good reason. Little by little, the group “ended up interfering in every aspect of my life, including my career and my finances.” In her forthcoming memoir, she details her experience with Big House Family, her meeting with the pastor at a Bible study in Los Angeles, and the insidious influence he had over her and the other members of the group. “I want my story to serve as a warning. We can find ourselves trapped without realizing it, especially when we are desperate for a sense of belonging,” she concludes.
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