One Tree Hill star Bethany Joy Lenz has opened up about her experience as a former member of the Big House Family cult and her six-year marriage to the cult leader’s son.
While talking with Alex Cooper on the Call Her Daddy podcast, Lenz discussed her decade-long life living in the controversial Christian community, and her new book “Dinner for Vampires”.
The One Tree Hill star shared how her marriage “became this sort of arranged situation.”
While discussing details of her six-year marriage, who she describes as the cult leader’s son, Lenz expressed how the two “didn’t have a lot in common.”
“There wasn’t a lot of intellectual stimulation,” she said.
“But I had kinda run out of options,” she added.
“Like, I couldn’t date a non-Christian and I couldn’t really date anybody outside of the group – So it just became this sort of arranged situation.”
Despite sharing how she has a “crazy sex drive”, Lenz admits she never felt that sort of connection with her ex-partner.
“It felt like this promise that I had been given as a good evangelical was a big crock.”
“Like, what the heck? I thought if I save myself for marriage, then the promise is amazing sex and super deep intimacy, and nothing’s ever as good,” she explained.
She continued to explain how when having sex with her ex-husband, she would feel “sad” and often find herself feeling “farther away” as opposed to “more connected” to him.
“And then we have sex, and it’s like, ‘Why do I feel so sad? I don’t feel more connected to you. I feel farther away from you.’”
“And I don’t think that necessarily had anything to do with saving myself for marriage,” she added.
She continued: “It was just that I married the wrong person.”
Lenz went on to claim that “QB”, her ex, drafted up a “sex schedule” for the two to follow.
“Because I was so disinterested in sex, I was then asked to go on a schedule, basically, of, like, ‘You just have to do it. Just do it. This is your duty’,” she claimed.
“‘This is your job as a wife. Your emotions will fall in line.’”
“If you do it enough, then eventually, you will find a way to enjoy it.’”
“It was a routine that I had to participate in in order to keep the peace in my marriage,” she added.
When “QB” would return home after being out of town, Lenz claims to have an instantly nervous response to his return in knowing that the “schedule” would be back in play.
“My stomach dropped every single time,” she claimed.
“In fact, it really affected my relationships afterwards [with] other boyfriends when I had to go pick them up from the airport,” she added.
She continued: “I had so much PTSD from showing up at the airport to see him knowing that I was gonna have to start this sex schedule for the next, like, 2 weeks or 3 weeks or whatever.”
Lenz eventually left the group overall after giving birth to her daughter Rosie.
Nicole Kidman recently shared that she had to pause filming during her new movie Baby Girl because one of the scenes became too intense.
In the film, Kidman plays Romy, a successful CEO who starts an affair with her young intern, Samuel, played by Iron Claw actor Harris Dickinson.
The movie’s trailer teases plenty of steamy moments between the two characters.
You can watch the trailer below:
In a recent interview with Sun, Kidman opened up about the difficulties of filming such intimate scenes with Dickinson and her on-screen husband, played by Antonio Banderas.
She said, “There were times when we were shooting where I was like, ‘I don’t want to orgasm any more.’”
The constant intensity of the scenes led to her feeling emotionally drained, and she had to step away for a bit.
She explained that the role was challenging because of the focus on intimacy, which became overwhelming after a while.
Nicole added, “Don’t come near me. I hate doing this. I don’t care if I am never touched again in my life! I’m over it.
“It was so present all the time for me that it was almost like a burnout.”
Earlier, Kidman shared her experience of filming the explicit scenes in the upcoming erotic thriller.
She told Vanity Fair in a different interview, “I don’t want to do this anymore, but at the same time I was compelled to do it.”
“This is something you do and hide in your home videos. It is not a thing that normally is going to be seen by the world.”
Baby Girl, directed by Halina Reijn, tells the story of a woman stuck in a loveless marriage who starts an affair to rediscover her passion.
Reijn drew inspiration from a real-life story about a woman who had never experienced sexual satisfaction in her marriage.
