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Bethany Joy Lenz’s new memoir details her experience in a cult.
In Dinner for Vampires: Life on a Cult TV Show (While Also in an Actual Cult!), which is out now, the One Tree Hill actress writes that when she first moved to Los Angeles in the early 2000s, she sought community by attending a Bible study with other actors. Soon, “Les” — a “domineering minister” swooped in, luring her and others into a small, new ultra-Christian group called the «Big House Family,” Lenz wrote. She claimed he controlled her finances, career and life.
Lenz married Les’s son, who she claimed was controlling. She was bilked out of more than $2 million by the cult. She left the group and divorced her husband in 2012.
Lenz’s memoir details how she became involved with the group, lost millions and broke free
After finding success on TV’s Guiding Light as a teen, Lenz left the New York-based soap opera to pursue a primetime career in L.A. An only child whose evangelical Christian parents had split, the 20-year-old felt very much on her own, disconnected from her parents, not knowing many other people and insecure about her career.
Lenz joined her roommate “Mina” for a Bible study led by a young TV actor “Harker Van Hewitt” and his brother, “Abe,” who were also in a band. (Lenz used pseudonyms for some of the people mentioned in the book.) Soon an older family friend of the brothers arrived — Les — and she later realized she was the perfect mark for him.
Les persuaded the Bible study members to move to Idaho with his family, living together in a commune-type situation, according to the book. He described the group as a “bio-family,” saying that God “brought us together for a purpose. We’re on this ship, and we commit to never letting each other go. And that’s gonna ruffle some feathers … ’cause it’s not the way the world does it! But we’re not here to please man. We’re here to please God.’”
On Lenz’s first trip to Idaho — which she said was sold to her as a “God spa” to visit and rejuvenate from pounding the pavement in Hollywood — she was given cough medicine by a member of the group named “Kurt” that knocked her out for 36 hours. When she woke up, she learned it was prescription hydrocodone, a semisynthetic opioid medication.
Lenz wrote that after leaving the cult, a woman named “Alice” accused Kurt of once knocking her out with cough medicine and when she awoke, she was naked in a bathtub with Kurt over her. Lenz wrote that she’s “pretty confident” that Kurt didn’t assault her years earlier when she thinks she was drugged because she had two female roommates at the time.
Once she was living in the Pacific Northwest, Lenz claimed that Les further disconnected her from her family and guided her career decisions — like when she turned down a dream role of Belle in Beauty and the Beast on Broadway. Les told her the role was a “tactic of the enemy” to keep her from God and her family in Idaho, Lenz claimed.
When Lenz landed One Tree Hill in 2003, she was encouraged to live separately from the rest of the cast in North Carolina, getting a house away from co-stars Sophia Bush, Chad Michael Murray and James Lafferty. Lenz said co-star Tyler Hilton once asked her if she was in a religious cult, saying he heard that Us Weekly was going to run a story claiming she was. She denied it, not realizing she was even in one at the time. The story never ran.
Lenz was one of the only uncoupled members of the Big House Family and convinced herself she had feelings for Les’s son “Quiet Boy” or “QB.” They started dating and after Les saw them exiting her bedroom after a kissing session, he was “angry.” She said the next day, QB proposed to her and a wedding date was set for eight weeks later.
During that time, Lenz said she was “depressed” over the engagement, and her friends noticed. Harker and Mina, who later married, told her she didn’t have to go through with it. Les found out and held a meeting, telling the Big House Family that they were “forbidden” from advising Lenz against marrying his son.
Lenz’s feelings for QB didn’t grow, but she was told God would make her marriage work. When the couple had sex for the first time, Lenz, who was a virgin, said it felt so “sad.” Lenz claims Les later told her she had to “schedule sex as a duty” to her husband.
QB started to travel with Lenz to North Carolina when she filmed One Tree Hill. She said he was controlling and monitored her friendships, outfits and career. She said she tried to be a dutiful wife to her “spiritual authority” husband, adding him to all her bank accounts and credit cards. She moved her financial investment accounts to Trinity Redemption Investment and Asset Directors (TRIAD), a business Les started.
During the nine years she was on One Tree Hill, the millions Lenz made “supported not just us but the Family’s various endeavors, including a motel, a restaurant and, most importantly, a ministry,” she wrote.
She said all the businesses were money pits, and the Big House they all lived in was filthy and falling apart. When she would ask about her investment account balance, Les would scrawl a number on a piece of paper and hand it to her. A member of the family, who was in charge of TRIAD’s bookkeeping, admitted to gambling with a portion of Lenz’s money.
Lenz said things with QB, with whom she welcomed her daughter in 2011, never improved. She claimed he had fits of rage and would punch holes in walls and doors at their home. When One Tree Hill ended, Lenz was allowed to go to L.A. to try to land a new job and she started seeing a therapist, who helped her find clarity about her situation. She soon saw the bigger picture and left to protect herself and her daughter.
Lenz said it took three years, approximately 20 trips to Idaho and $360,000 in legal fees, but she was eventually granted custody of her daughter, with QB getting visitation rights.
Lenz wrote that she felt “gullible and naive” being pulled into a cult. While most people would say, “I would never be so stupid to fall for something so crazy,” she now knows “that cults can come in multiple guises.”
Who are ‘Les,’ ‘QB,’ ‘Harker’ and the others referenced in the book?
Lenz wrote that she changed the names of the people involved, but there’s a pretty clear path to the people she wrote about.
To start, she was married just once — to Michael Galeotti, from 2005 to 2012. He was formerly a member of the band Enation. They share one daughter, Rosie.
Michael’s father is Mike Galeotti Sr. of Wild Branch Ministries. Father and son ran the Galeotti’s Restaurant in Battle Ground, Wash., until 2012. Lenz, also a singer, would sometimes perform there. The restaurant abruptly closed in 2012 with Mike Galeotti telling the local paper that it was because of his son’s divorce from Lenz. Mike Galeotti has since opened Galeotti’s Wine Cellar in the same city with wife Sheila.
Mike reacted to his ex-daughter-in-law’s book, telling the Daily Mail, “Everybody sees things a little differently and she’s going to cling to the fame. Good for her. She’s going to make a name for herself. But it’s not the way it went down.”
Lenz’s ex-husband, Michael Galeotti Jr., told the same outlet, “I don’t know what to make of this memoir after all this time.” He also said, “I have a daughter who’s really important to me. I don’t want it to affect her. It’s too much. I don’t really want to cause any problems for her.”
Yahoo Entertainment reached out to the Galeottis for comment but did not immediately receive responses.
Daily Mail also unearthed Lenz’s 2012 divorce papers, which detail many of the claims in her book. In her petition, she said she wanted to keep her daughter away from her husband’s family, who resides in a “misogynistic exclusive ‘community’ environment, lorded over by the petitioner’s father.” She described the home as “unsanitary, having caused me difficulty breathing from the vomit, feces, urine, and mold and the resulting foul odors.” She claimed a male resident of the house has a “history of drugging and raping young women.”
Meanwhile, the descriptions of Harker and wife Mina in the book are consistent with General Hospital stars Jonathan Jackson and his wife Lisa Vultaggio
In the book, brothers Harker and Abe start the Bible study. Harker is a rising actor and the brothers are in an indie rock band. Lenz’s roommate, Mina, introduces her to them. Mina, 30, later marries Harker, 20, who is 10 years her junior. When they moved with Les to the Pacific Northwest, the house they lived in was owned by Harker and Abe’s parents. Harker became disillusioned by Les around the time Lenz did.
Jackson is a five-time Daytime Emmy winner for General Hospital. He and his brother, Richard Lee, started a Bible study group. The brothers also founded the band Enation, which Lenz’s ex-husband was once in. Vultaggio was Lenz’s roommate when she moved to L.A. Jackson married Vultaggio, who was 10 years his senior. Around the time Lenz left the Big Family, so did Jackson and Vultaggio, who converted to Orthodox Christianity in 2012.
An article in the Columbian deep-dives into how Lenz, her ex-husband, Jackson and Vultaggio lived in Battle Ground, Wash. The story said that “they’ve helped each other meet their spouses, are in business together, worship together and live within a few miles of each other.”
The article talks about Jackson hearing “Pastor Mike Galeotti’s sermon tapes and [being] drawn to his message and delivery.” The pastor was invited to the Burbank Bible study at Jackson’s request, “which is how Michael, the pastor’s son, and Bethany … met.”
The article notes that “Battle Ground’s celebrity circle started with the Jackson family,” who were longtime residents. Once Jackson and Vultaggio were married, they relocated from California to Battle Ground and it “created a ripple effect among their Burbank Bible study group,” who moved there too. It details many business adventures together and their faith.
A representative for Jackson, who recently returned to General Hospital, has not responded to Yahoo’s request for comment about the book or his past association with the Galeotti family and ministries.
Lenz’s book press tour
Lenz has done a series of interviews for her book.
She appeared on the Call Her Daddy podcast on Oct. 16 and talked about how her ex-husband “hated” that her job as an actress involved kissing other men. On Good Morning America, she talked about how her daughter inspired her to leave the cult.
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Dinner for Vampires: Life on a Cult TV Show (While Also in an Actual Cult!) is on sale now.
