Despite being released from prison two years ago, former actress Allison Mack has only now spoken about her arrest, the s*x cult she was recruiting for, and the effect it had on her family.
After a few minor roles in Hollywood in Honey, We Shrunk Ourselves, Camp Nowhere, and My Horrible Year, Allison Mack’s big break came in CW’s Smallville. A Superman origin story, Smallville ran for 10 seasons and is still widely considered one of the best DC comics adaptations of all time. She played Chloe Sullivan in the show, an original character who appeared in over 210 episodes alongside names such as Tom Welling, Justin Hartley, and Jensen Ackles. She later went on to star in Wilfred and The Following.
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If you’re not familiar with the case, let’s get you caught up
In 2006, Allison Mack joined NXIVM, a deceptively benign multi-level marketing company that offered personal development courses. She rose through its ranks quickly, heading up various internal groups and working closely with its founder, Keith Raniere.
By 2015, Keith Raniere had created another group within NXIVM called Dominus Obsequious Sororium (DOS). Though DOS was built around female empowerment, it was a front for human trafficking that demanded “collateral” in the form of nude photographs, damaging information about family and friends, and rights to their assets. The group was incredibly secretive, and the information was used to blackmail the female members into keeping quiet.
Alongside sexual abuse, the women in the group were also subjected to physical isolation, readiness drills, sleep deprivation, restrictive diets, corporal punishment, and being branded by Keith Raniere’s initials. Allison later admitted that the branding was her idea.
She was arrested by the FBI in 2018 on charges of sex trafficking, sex trafficking conspiracy, and forced labour conspiracy. Prosecutors said that, “under the guise of female empowerment, she starved women until they fit [Raniere’s] sexual feminine ideal.”
Allison Mack pleaded guilty to the charges, and she recieved a more lenient sentencing after assisting with the investigation and offering crucial information against Keith Raniere. He was sentenced to 120 years, and she recieved three years and three years of probation.
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The actress was released from prison in 2023, and she’s now spoken about the experience in a podcast for CBC.
Allison Mack realised she was wrong as the trial
In a new podcast episode called Allison After NXIVM, produced by CBC Undercover, Allison Mack detailed how she was brainwashed by Keith Raniere after being introduced to the cult through her Smallville co-star Kristin Kreuk. In fact, she only realised she was committing evil acts during the prosecution process, turning to see her family reacting to the sentencing.
“Oh, my God, my poor brother behind me, having to hear this about his sister,” she tearfully said. “My poor mom! I’m so sorry, you guys. I can take it, but like f**k, you guys, I’m so sorry. I don’t see myself as innocent, and they were.”
Credit: JUSTIN LANE/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
She also admitted to capitalising on her fame to serve the cult’s wider purpose, revealing: “And it was a power tool that I had to get people to do what I wanted. … I think that I was very effective in moving Keith’s (Raniere) vision forward.”
Elsewhere in the podcast, Allison recalled one moment when Keith allegedly offered to help her with issues surrounding her sexuality.
She said: “‘I think that there were things that happened when I was a kid that weren’t OK. I can’t feel myself connecting to my sexuality. I feel ashamed of my body and my sexuality. Like, I don’t understand how I can get around this.’ And he was like, ‘Well, I can help you with that.’
“He said, ‘But in order for me to help you with that, we’re going to have to be physically intimate because it’s an experiential problem that you’re having. So I can’t just theoretically help you through it. You have to have the experience of going through it.’”
More information is expected to be revealed as the episodes play out.
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Featured image credit: JUSTIN LANE/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock and CW
