Bethany Joy Lenz claimed being on a “sex schedule” during her marriage to the son of a “cult” leader left her with PTSD.
Lenz explained on the “Call Her Daddy” podcast this week how she got involved with the “Big House Family” — which she described as a “high-control group” — and ended up married to the leader Les’s son, whom she referred to as “QB.”
The “One Tree Hill” alum said her relationship with QB was “playful and easy” at first but they admittedly “didn’t have a lot in common.”
“There wasn’t a lot of intellectual stimulation,” she told host Alex Cooper. “But I had kinda run out of options. Like, I couldn’t date a non-Christian, and I couldn’t really date anybody outside of the group. … So it just became this sort of arranged situation.”
Despite having “a crazy sex drive,” the 43-year-old waited until marriage to have sex after being “promised” it would make things better.
“I thought if I save myself for marriage, then the promise is amazing sex and super deep intimacy, and nothing’s ever as good and it’s just, like, the best thing ever,” she continued.
However, it turned out to be “a big crock.”
“Then we have sex, and it’s like, ‘Why do I feel so sad? I don’t feel more connected to you. I feel farther away from you.’”
Lenz admitted the issue was more so because she “married the wrong person,” not because she saved herself for marriage.
To help with their intimacy issues, she and QB were forced to develop a “sex schedule.”
“Because I was so disinterested in sex, I was then asked to go on a schedule,” she said.
“Basically [they were] like, ‘You just have to do it. Just do it. This is your duty. This is your job as a wife. Your emotions will fall in line. If you do it enough, then eventually, you will find a way to enjoy it.’”
With “so much at stake,” Lenz tried her best to “make it work” — even though she “hated it.”
“It was a routine that I had to participate in in order to keep the peace in my marriage,” she said.
Lenz explained that QB constantly traveled between the Pacific Northwest and Wilmington — where “OTH” was filmed — and often expected sex whenever he returned.
“My stomach dropped every single time [he came back],” she shared. “In fact, it really affected my relationships afterwards [with] other boyfriends when I had to go pick them up from the airport.”
She continued, “I had so much PTSD from showing up at the airport to see him knowing that I was gonna have to start this sex schedule for the next, like, two weeks or three weeks or whatever.”
Although their marriage didn’t work out, the actress still has sympathy for her ex, whose identity she did not reveal.
“The poor guy never had a shot,” she said. “He was raised by this narcissist, he was thrust into a marriage that’s not right for him, he’s doing the best that he can and he has been fed all these lies about men and machismo … like, he was raised in that.”
She was previously married to Michael Galeotti from 2005 to 2012. The exes share a 13-year-old daughter, Rosie. Galeotti did not immediately respond to Page Six’s request for comment.
Despite getting involved with the “Big House Family” in the early 2000s, the Everly frontwoman didn’t open up about her experience in the “cult” until last year.
At the time, Lenz told her “Drama Queens” podcast co-hosts — and former “OTH” co-stars — Sophia Bush and Hilarie Burton Morgan that she wanted to write a tell-all book to help other people in similar situations.
“I would love to write about my experience, you know, I was in a cult for 10 years,” she shared. “That would be a really valuable experience to write about, and the recovery — 10 years of recovery after that.”
Lenz’s memoir, “Dinner for Vampires: Life on a Cult TV Show (While Also in an Actual Cult!)” hits shelves on Oct. 22.
