You’ll be shocked at the A-list celebrities who grew up in cults. And you’ll never guess who said growing up in one was actually good for their careers!
Image Source: WENN.com
Joaquin Pheonix
Joaquin Phoenix was raised in the a “religious organization” called the Children of God until he was four years old. Once his family fled the group, they changed their names from “Bottom” to “Phoenix” to symbolize their new beginning.
Rose McGowan was also a member of the Children of God. Her family stayed until she was 9 years old. Rose remembers, “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. [Women] were basically there to serve the men sexually-you were allowed to have more than one wife.”
Singer Susan Justice was raised in The Family of Love which sent her and her siblings on street corners to sing for money almost as soon as she could walk. Susan remembers, “It was so strict that any sort of mythology was — it was Christian based — so we were only allowed to read things that were the bible or teachings from the group that we were in. A restrictive environment, you know what I mean? And as a kid, I would sneak and read books, and sneak and listen to music.”
Susan fled the group as soon as she was old enough to make it on her own.
When she was just 20-years-old and new to Hollywood, Michelle Pfeiffer found herself caught up in a movement called Breatharianism. They believed that people can live on light and air and nothing else. Several people associated with the group died of starvation. But it wasn’t until her first husband Peter Horton helped her see the light that she realized “I was in one — a cult.”
When Winona Ryder was 7-yeas-old, her family moved he into the Rainbow commune. Winona and her family eventually left the group, but she credits it for sparking her interest in acting because without electricity or TV, the kids on the commune had to come up with creative ways to entertain themselves. And as soon as her parents got her out, Winona started auditioning.
The Echelon singer describes the Greater Apostolic Faith commune in which she grew up very cult-like: “We all lived in the same community, within 10 minutes of each other. You weren’t allowed to talk to anyone outside of that. You weren’t allowed to wear jewelry, listen to music, to eat certain things, to date people… You weren’t allowed to do pretty much anything.” Angel and her family escaped when she was 16.
Lisa Marie Presley called Scientology a cult when she was finally ready to leave it. She told USA Today, “I was slowly starting to self-destruct, and I didn’t know where that was coming from. I started to uncover the main person who was really close to me for years, and then it was a domino effect. I was devastated. I got bad advice. I was insulated with no grip on reality. They were taking my soul, my money, my everything.”
Glenn Close’s parents joined the Moral Re-Armament (MRA) cult when the actress was just seven years old. Her family stayed with the cult for 15 years. And Glenn says her membership actually helped her acting career because she always had to pretend to believe what she was told.
Remember Emily Schromm from The Real World: D.C.? She grew up in a fundamentalist Christian cult in Columbia, MO. But now she’s free from the group, identifies as bisexual and enjoys extreme sports and CrossFit.
Girls singer Christopher Owens was born into the Children of God cult and he even lost his little brother to pneumonia because of the group’s rules against seeking medical attention. Christopher left the group when he was 16.
In her recent memoir Unbreak My Heart, Toni Braxton revealed that she grew up in a cult called the Pillar of Truth and was forced to speak in tongues when she was only 8 years old!
Craig Mack wasn’t raised in a cult, but he’s spending his life in one now. Years after the Flava In Ya Ear rapper dropped off the map, he resurfaced in this video of a meeting of the Overcomer Ministry commune which has been called a cult by the Cult Awareness Group.
![Why Actress Amber Iman Calls 'Goddess' A Love Letter To Black Women In Theater [Exclusive]](https://ionemadamenoire.staging.go.ione.nyc/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/2025/05/17468188616796.png?strip=all&quality=80&w=102&crop=0,0,100,153px)
