Bethany Joy Lenz Was Only Married Once and Was in a Cult for 10 Years

Bethany Joy Lenz was married, but that marriage was part of her life in a cult.

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Published Oct. 15 2024, 10:29 a.m. ET

Bethany Joy Lenz at the iHeart Radio Festival in 2022.
Source: Mega

More than a decade after she actually left it behind, One Tree Hill star Bethany Joy Lenz is starting to talk about the cult that controlled her life for years. As she explains in her memoir Dinner for Vampires, Bethany's time on the teen show coincided with her time in the thrall of an ultra-religious Idaho pastor.

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Part of that story also involves Bethany's marriage, and as she continues to tell more of her story, many are wondering whether she's married today. Here's what we know about Bethany's married life.

Bethany Joy Lenz at the 2019 premiere of Ford v. Ferrari.
Source: Mega
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Is Bethany Joy Lenz married?

Bethany was only married once, from 2006 to 2012. That marriage was to Michael Galeotti, who was once a part of the indie rock band Enation. The couple has one daughter, Maria Rose, born in 2011.

Bethany first announced in a blog post in 2012 that the two were divorcing. The news coincided with the final season of One Tree Hill airing on The CW.

“As most of you know, as much as I love to share with you the magic of ordinary days, I am also very private about my personal life. In fact, the only reason I’m saying anything about this at all is because you’ll all be wondering soon why everyone is calling me ‘Bethany Joy Lenz’ again,” she wrote, according to The Hollywood Reporter. “I’m sorry to say that Michael and I have decided to divorce.”

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“We remain friendly and dedicated to raising our beautiful girl in love and we appreciate your prayers and support during this difficult time. I feel immensely humbled and grateful that God works all things for the good of those who love Him," she continued.

The invocation of God is telling, and all these years later, it seems that Bethany is looking back on both her marriage and her life at this time through a different lens.

Source: Instagram/@msbethanyjoylenz
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Bethany Joy Lenz now says her ex-husband was part of a cult she was also in.

In a recent interview with People, Bethany said that her decision to leave the cult in 2012 meant also leaving her marriage to Michael, who was part of the group.

"The stakes were so high," she says. "They were my only friends. I was married into this group. I had built my entire life around it. If I admitted that I was wrong ... everything else would come crumbling down."

Bethany's daughter is 13 years old in 2024.

It's clear that part of Bethany's reasoning for leaving the cult was having a daughter of her own, and now, she and Rosie seem to have remained close in the years since her divorce in 2012. It's unclear what kind of relationship either Rosie or Bethany has with Michael at this point, or whether they have one at all.

Now that Bethany is telling her story, she is also explaining how easy it can be to fall into a community and lose all sense of yourself. Thankfully, that appears to be a chapter from her past.

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