- Actress Sarah Edmondson was a member of the NXIVM cult, but came forward in a New York Times interview that helped bring the group down and facilitate legal action against its founder, Keith Raniere.
- She is now the focus of HBO's new documentary series, The Vow, which follows her life and the lives of several others once affiliated with NXIVM.
- Edmondson wrote a book, Scarred: The True Story of How I Escaped NXIVM, the Cult That Bound My Life, that was released in September 2019.
- She's since returned to acting.
Run under the auspices of being a "personal development program" and multi-level marketing company, NXIVM has since been widely decried as a sex cult where women were abused and trafficked.
Part of what made NXIVM such a headline-making entity was that it boasted in its ranks successful actresses like Allison Mack, Kristen Kreuk, and Sarah Edmondson, the latter of whom helped expose the cult with an in-depth interview in The New York Times in 2017.
She was admitted into a "secret sorority" within NXIVM, where women were referred to as "slaves" and made to follow "masters" and recruit other women to the group. It also featured physical abuse like branding, which prompted Edmondson and her husband, Anthony Ames, to leave the group. Since first speaking to the Times, she's been vocal about her traumatic story, speaking with ABC News and Refinery29, as well as the podcast Uncover: Escaping NXIVM by CBC Podcasts.
Edmondson's life post-NXIVM is one of the central storylines featured in HBO's The Vow, from directors Jehane Noujaim and Karim Amer, which follows several people formerly immersed in the cult.
In preparation for The Vow, which begins airing on August 23, here's a look at what Sarah Edmondson's life has been like since she helped bring down the toxic cult that she was once a key part of.
Sarah Edmonson has continued to share the story of her time in NXIVM.
After the Times interview put a spotlight on NXIVM's illicit practices, Edmondson continued to speak to the media about her experiences. She spoke to Refinery29 in 2019, explaining her pitching techniques that reeled in 2,000 new members and how she feels looking back.
"I really thought these seminars were a wonderful opportunity. I have a lot of guilt about the people I brought in, but if there’s one thing I can hang my hat on, it’s that I never lied. I thought Keith Raniere was the greatest, wisest, most brilliant man on Earth," she said. "I had no idea what was going on with the women and everything that came out in the FBI’s investigation."
She also appeared in an ABC News segment detailing the abusive rituals she underwent, including the story of how she got branded.
"It was worse than childbirth," she said of the experience.
Her story was also the focus of the first season of CBC Podcasts' Undercover. The eight episodes go into painstaking detail about Edmondson's experience with NXIVM, her decision to leave, and how she's grappled with the harm she caused others by getting them involved.
Edmondson has rekindled her acting career.
During her time as part of NXIVM, Edmondson's acting career dwindled. Known for her voice acting work in shows like Transformers: Cybertron, The Little Prince, and Max Steel, Edmondson's work was scarce in 2015 and 2016.
That's changed in recent years, and she's even been getting into more live-action film and TV work. Edmondson had a recurring role in the CBS series Salvation, as well as the Hallmark Channel films Wedding of Dreams and Welcome to Christmas.
In a particularly on-the-nose casting, Edmondson played a reporter in the television movie The Sisterhood about a cult-like group of women who force members into dangerous activities as the cost of getting what they want in life.
She and her husband, Anthony Ames, have two children.
Edmondson and Ames have remained together since leaving NXIVM, and the pair have two young children who Edmondson frequently posts on Instagram. The eldest is Troy, and the younger brother is named Ace, who was born in March 2019.
Based on her posts, it appears that the Canadian actress and her family now live in her hometown of Vancouver.
She wrote a book based on her experience with NXIVM.
In September 2019, Edmondson's memoir was released. Scarred: The True Story of How I Escaped NXIVM, the Cult That Bound My Life tells the harrowing story of her 12 years as part of the group and was written with veteran author and ghostwriter Kristine Gasbarre.
Edmondson wrote in detail about her initiation into the group and life beforehand, her work as star recruiter for NXIVM, and the actions of Keith Raniere, who ran the cult and was convicted of racketeering and sex trafficking in 2019.
"As I work to regain my personal power and move past what happened, there's a special message I have for the friends and people close to me whom I became distant from or lost contact with over the years I was a proponent of NXIVM's practices: I'm deeply sorry," she wrote in the book's forward. "Hopefully, my actions and all that I share in this book will be a step towards making amends as I begin to repair the impact my 12-year journey had on those around me."
The book was covered widely upon its release, with Edmondson's candor highlighted by critics including Jessica Bruder of The New York Times.
"At once riveting and disturbing, Scarred is a brave but messy stab at redemption, one that succeeds more as a cautionary tale than an apology," Bruder wrote.
She's part of a large lawsuit against NXIVM.
Edmondson is part of a group of more than three dozen people suing the leadership of NXIVM—Raniere as well as Sara and Clare Bronfman—over emotional and financial damages. The suit was filed in New York's Eastern District in January 2020.
The lawsuit features additional allegations of abuse by the group and details about the filing of false police reports in retaliation to members who left—something they did to Edmondson—and the existence of a male counterpart group within NXIVM called Society of Protectors. The suit calls the group a "Ponzi scheme and coercive community."
Hopefully, the people who suffered at the hands of NXIVM will receive some sort of compensation, and those who abused and hurt people will face appropriate consequences. As for Edmondson, she's still continuing on the road to recovery, something that The Vow explores in detail.
"There is no playbook for leaving a cult," she told the Times back in 2017, a statement that still rings true.
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Grant Rindner is a culture and music journalist in New York. He has written for Billboard, Complex, and i-D, among other outlets.
