UPDATE: An Instagram announcement by Bethany Joy Lenz today revealed that her upcoming memoir will be titled Dinner for Vampires. The book details her decade in a cult while working on the hit TV show One Tree Hill.
“Being a writer has been a great, private joy in my life since I was about 12,” she wrote on Instagram. “This isn’t the first book I thought I’d write, publicly, but as difficult as this subject matter could be to untangle, I’m grateful I get to share my story, my way. It’s a story of forgiveness and a roadmap to how manipulation works, with a heartache and humor along the way. We all make mistakes and I hope Dinner for Vampires reminds you that, no matter what weird roads you’ve gone down, you’re not alone.”
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The book is planned for an Oct. 22 release via Simon & Schuster.
EARLIER: Bethany Joy Lenz is working on what promises to be a bombshell memoir, expected to arrive early next year.
Lenz is sparing on the details, but says the book will cover her 10 years spent in an unnamed cult, a period which overlapped with her years on the television show “One Tree Hill.” She claims the cult involved “spiritual abuse,” actions that led to “lots of therapy” to overcome the induced issues.
“Recovery looks different for everyone, depending on your experience of trauma,” she said in an interview with People. “I had to start from a baseline of my personal understanding of God and the experiences I had had. And then there was a lot of going back to who I was before and remembering that, and then acknowledging that there was so much I just didn’t know.”
The writing process has been “painful” at times, she confessed. But “I’m a writer at heart, so turning a phrase is easy for me. Exploring the memories, and really facing them, can be challenging — but I’m doing it.”
The “One Tree Hill” actress played Haley James Scott for nine seasons on the popular CW coming-of-age drama. She often relives those times with former costars Sophia Bush and Hilarie Burton on the “Drama Queens” podcast, which revisits the behind-the-scenes moments, as well as bullying and sexual harassment they allegedly experienced on set.
“It’s been really valuable,” she says. “I’ve arrived at the conclusion that the hard things are meant to be shared, not hidden. They can be helpful and healing.”
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