‘One Tree Hill’ Star Bethany Joy Lenz Opens Up About Escaping a “Cult” She Spent 10 Years In: “There’s A Lot To Tell”

Bethany Joy Lenz, who is best known for playing Haley James Scott on One Tree Hill, is coming clean about her past. According to the actress, she spent a decade of her life involved in a “cult” before finally escaping.

Lenz made the admission on the latest episode of her Drama Queens podcast — which she shares with her former One Tree Hill co-stars Sophia Bush and Hilarie Burton Morgan. The conversation began when guest host Michaela McManus, who played Lucas Scott’s (Chad Michael Murray) book editor and fiancé on the early aughts teen drama, asked the group if they would ever consider penning their own book.

“I would love to write about my experience — you know, I was in a cult for 10 years,” Lenz confessed. “That would be a really valuable experience to write about. And the recovery that, you know, 10 years of recovery after that.”

The musician told listeners that her “ADHD has made it really difficult” to write a full book — though she has many “essays” and “chapters” that she would need to “really commit” to putting together. While she said there’s “a lot to tell,” she worries about the “pressure of getting it right,” especially considering the other people involved in her story.

“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,” Lenz said. “But I do write. I mean, I write all the time.”

When Burton Morgan — whose second book, Grimoire Girl, is set to release in October — suggested that she write everything “in code” via song, the former Everly frontwoman replied, “And I have.”

Although Lenz didn’t say which “cult” she was a part of, she previously spoke out against the Mosaic Church — which she attended “on and off” for two years.

“The hierarchy in this ‘church,’ the level of abuse that I’ve consistently heard goes on behind the scenes and how everything centers around the Leader is textbook 101 of cults,” she wrote in a lengthy Instagram post. “And usually, unless you’re in the inner circle, it’s much harder to spot.”

Lenz rose to fame in 2003 on One Tree Hill for her role as Haley — the musically-inclined, smart and quirky best friend to Lucas and wife to Nathan Scott (James Lafferty). Unlike Murray and Burton Morgan — who departed the show in 2009 — Lenz remained on the series alongside Bush until it ended in 2012.

One Tree Hill is currently available to stream on Max and Hulu.