The Vow: What Celebrities Were in NXIVM?

The Vow: Here Are the Celebrities Known For Being Involved With NXIVM

Aug 24 2020 by Stacey Nguyen

HBO's new documentary The Vow is a true crime project at its core, taking on the chilling scandals of the NXIVM organisation. Because the group looked to recruiting wealthy women, the sex cult and pyramid scheme underlying the self-help dogma of NXIVM also intersected with celebrity culture. Yes, cofounder Keith Raniere was at the centre of it all, and he had a reputation for coercing women into sleeping with him and performing free labour for the organisation. But Raniere's second hand was none other than Allison Mack, who's best known for her decade-long run on Smallville as Chloe Sullivan. And Mack certainly wasn't the only Hollywood star tied to NXIVM. Ahead, we've compiled a list of the celebrities with links to the infamous cult.

Image Source: Getty / Jemal Countess

Allison Mack

Mack was known to be Raniere's second-in-command. While working on Smallville, she became involved with Raniere's company Jness, which was formed to "to promote the furtherance and empowerment of women throughout the world." Smallville co-star Kristin Kreuk first brought her along to a Jness meeting in 2006, around the time she met Raniere and his co-conspirators. Mack eventually became a recruiter for Raniere's inner circle DOS, a "sisterhood" in which women were coerced to have sex with Raniere. In fact, Mack, in a New York Times interview, claimed to come up with the idea for branding people during the DOS initiation process. In NXIVM's inner circle, "masters" recruited "slaves," who could be "masters" when they recruited more members. Mack was arrested in April 2018. A year later, she pleaded guilty to racketeering conspiracy and racketeering charges relating to her role in NXIVM's sex trafficking case. Mack currently awaits her sentence.

Image Source: Getty / Todd Williamson

Kristin Kreuk

Mack's Smallville co-star Kristin Kreuk, who portrayed Lana Lang, was also involved with NXIVM, though, in her reports, to a lesser extent. Around the time abuse allegations surfaced, Kreuk published a statement on Twitter. She said that at age 23, she had taken the organisation's self-help courses to overcome her shyness. Kreuk asserted that she was never in the organisation's inner circle and "never experienced any illegal or nefarious activity." Actress Sarah Edmondson, a top NXIVM recruiter turned whistleblower, backed Kreuk's claim on Twitter. Kreuk currently stars on the Canadian legal drama Burden of Truth.

Image Source: Getty / George Pimentel

Sarah Edmondson

Known for her work on Stargate SG-1, Canadian actress Sarah Edmondson was recruited in 2005 and left in 2017. A star recruiter, she brought in over 2,000 members to the organisation, originally joining herself for the self-help courses. Deeply involved in the organisation, she even started a branch in Vancouver.

Edmondson finally left NXIVM when she learned about DOS and became branded. She became a key whistleblower regarding the cult's dark realities, publishing details in her 2019 memoir, Scarred. In recent years, she's had parts in series and TV movies, such as the role of Nora on Salvation in 2018.

Image Source: Getty / Daniel Novisedlak / Contributor

Nicki Clyne

Battlestar Galactica actress Nicki Clyne married Allison Mack in 2017. Personally recruited by Edmondson, Clyne had been a NXIVM member for well over a decade, and it's been said that she quit her TV gig to join Raniere. She's considered to be a part of Raniere's inner circle but has not been named as a co-conspirator. Clyne has not posted on her main social media pages since 2018.

Image Source: Getty / Bobby Bank / Contributor

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Catherine Oxenberg

Dynasty actress Catherine Oxenberg had heard about NXIVM from a friend and recommended it to her daughter India, who was about to start her own business in 2011. Oxenberg believed that NXIVM was a leadership organisation, but eventually noticed that something was off with India when she got more deeply involved with the cult. Following Raniere's arrest in 2018, Oxenberg's daughter left NXIVM. Later that year, Oxenberg released her book Captive: A Mother's Crusade to Save Her Daughter From a Terrifying Cult.

"It was a slow drip. First, she seemed more distant, more distracted, more serious, kind of burdened," she said in an interview with California Live. "But it was slow and I wouldn't see her and she would pretend that she could come and go as she pleased, but the truth is they had her on a very tight rein and they had a lot of control and the control became absolute."

Image Source: Getty / Matthew Eisman

Grace Park

Known for her roles in Battlestar Galactica and Hawaii Five-0, Park was connected to NXIVM. However, not much is known about her involvement in the organisation. She supposedly left the group in 2017 around the time news about DOS broke. In a report by Vice, former members say that Park and Kreuk had significant past roles even though they left. Park currently stars on A Million Little Things.

Image Source: Getty / David Livingston / Stringer