Celebrities Linked To Alleged Cults & Communes!

What do you think of when you hear the word “cult?” If it isn’t a celebrity, think again.

Some of the most notable celebs have allegedly been involved in a cult or commune-living situation at one point or another, and more recently than you might think! Read on for all the odd and fascinating details:

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1 Rose McGowan
2 Winona Ryder
3 Joaquin Phoenix
4 David Arquette
5 Allison Mack
6 Glenn Close

Rose McGowan

Rose McGowan‘s father, Daniel McGowan, ran an Italian chapter of the Children of God — now known as the Family International, which still exists today — at the time of her birth in 1973, which the family were members of until 1978.

In 2011 while speaking to People, the Charmed star explained what her early years were like:

“He [Daniel] became really passionate about Jesus and fell into this group [the Children of God]. I guess it strangely made sense to them. I was born right outside of Florence. We were living on this duke’s property-they needed a place where they could house 50 to 60 hippies. The children were kept very separate from the parents. … The group encouraged you to have a lot of kids as fast as you could. Then if you made plans to leave, they would lean on you. You know … maybe your kids would disappear.”

The group was initially founded in 1968 by David Berg as a Christian Ministry for teens, and expanded over the years to have a presence globally. A 1974 report from the New York Attorney General’s office attested that child rape was common within the group, through rationale of the “Laws of Love” philosophy of teen and child sexuality.

She continued, explaining more about what life was like without outside access:

“Like in most cults, you were cut off from your [outside] family. There were no newspapers, no television. You were kept in the dark so you would obey. It was not a wealthy existence. I remember being very angry when an adult [in the group] had taken all of my lira that I had earned singing Jesus songs with my banjo.”

McGowan added:

“You weren’t allowed to have imperfections. I had a little wart on my thumb, and I remember walking down this hallway-a door opened and some adult grabbed me and just cut it off with a razor blade and stuck me back out in the hallway with it still bleeding.”

Winona Ryder

While not a cult, Winona Ryder‘s childhood was anything but conventional. When she was 7, she and her family relocated to the Rainbow commune near Elk, California in Mendocino County. They lived on a 300-acre plot of land with seven other families, with no electricity or television, and without much access to the “outside” world, she became an avid reader.

In 2019, she denounced any comparison to a real “cult”while speaking with Parade:

“The place we lived was, like, 380 acres of redwoods. It was beautiful.”

However, she does recall having a “difficult” childhood after being raised without television and likely other modern comforts, though it did foster her creativity:

“I definitely had a difficult time—like, socially. I was an outsider.”

Joaquin Phoenix

Like McGowan, Joaquin Phoenix‘s family was also involved in the Children Of God. The award-winning actor is typically reclusive, but has spoken about his experience of being born into the cult. In 2014, he told Playboy that he doesn’t place blame on his parents John Lee and Arlyn for their involvement:

“When people bring up Children of God, there’s always something vaguely accusatory about it. It’s guilt by association. I think it was really innocent on my parents’ part. They really believed, but I don’t think most people see it that way. I’ve always thought that was strange and unfair.”

Ultimately, the family left when they became disenchanted with the group after first joining in the early 1970s and traveling throughout South America before moving to Florida and later California:

“I think my parents thought they’d found a community that shared their ideals. Cults rarely advertise themselves as such. It’s usually someone saying, ‘We’re like-minded people. This is a community,’ but I think the moment my parents realized there was something more to it, they got out.”

David Arquette

Much like Winona Ryder, David Arquette also grew up in a commune situation along with his parents and soon-to-be famous siblings. Born to actor/director Lewis Arquette and actress Brenda Novak, the Scream actor, Rosanna, Richmond, Patricia, and Alexis had a tumultuous childhood and settled in the Skymont Subud commune in Virginia, because their parents believed the secluded life would benefit them.

Patricia told Oprah Winfrey in 2011 that she did not recall electricity or running water in their home until the late 1970s:

“[My parents] started it with a bunch of their friends, and they wanted to kind of build this utopian society.”

Richmond, the eldest of the siblings, was 6 when the family first moved to their unheated one-room cabin, and recalled to Virigina Living some of what his upbringing was like:

“I was surrounded by friends, all the time, and we had a lot of freedom. We swam in the creek. We swam in the river.”

Speaking about intricate games that kids would develop, he added:

“Subud was the inspiration. There were a lot of people and a lot of kids. … Some of them would last for weeks on end, with long story lines.”

Allison Mack

Allison Mack of Smallville fame saw the spotlight once again following her 2018 arrest on charges of forced labor conspiracy, sex trafficking, and sex trafficking conspiracy in relation to her role in the NXIVM organization, a multi-level marketing group which has widely been referred to as a cult. Clare Bronfman, heiress to Seagram, was also among those arrested, along with founder Keith Rainere.

Based out of Albany, New York, the company offered personal development and success seminars, but is alleged to have been a platform to recruit young women into a secret society, in which they were branded and forced into sexual slavery. Additional claims have come out accusing Allison and others of targeting sororities for recruitment and forcing women onto insane diets.

Alaina Huffman, Allison’s co-star on Smallville, is one of many women who have accused her of trying to lure them into the group:

“Interestingly, when I look back on it, I had been invited to several meetings, and because I had two little kids at the time, I never really had the time and our schedules never really lined up, so I never ended up attending. Honestly, there was always a little something off about it. But I can see the appeal. Here was this successful young woman who was living a great life, and it was intriguing. I can see where people got recruited.”

As of April 2019, Mack pleaded guilty to racketeering and racketeering conspiracy charges, with a sentencing scheduled for September 2019 which was postponed by the court to grant additional time for investigations.

Glenn Close

Glenn Close‘s parents joined the Moral Re-Armament (MRA) when she was 7-years-old, living in communal centers for fifteen years. The movement was created by American minister Frank Buchman in 1938 as a successor to the Oxford Group, and has roots in Christianity. Though it is not widely regarded as a “cult” or “cult-like,” Close has shared that the group dictated the direction of her life.

In a 2018 episode of The Jess Cagle Interview, Close explained to the then editor-in-chief of People Jess Cagle about her family’s life during and after the Moral Re-Armament:

“Each of us had to go through that process of forgiveness. It wasn’t easy for my parents to talk about, certainly my father. But I guess I’ve made my career figuring out the why’s of behavior, and I did the same thing with my parents.”

She explained:

“There came a point where I got very, very angry at my father and I wrote him this letter where I was absolutely honest with [him]. I said, ‘You don’t deserve to be called our father.’ I mean, it was so harsh. In fact, I read it to my mother and I read it to my siblings and I said, ‘I’m just going to send this to dad,’ because he was a narcissist and he was brilliant, brilliant, but he definitely had a dollop of narcissism.”