Former One Tree Hill star Bethany Joy Lenz has disclosed that she was compelled to follow a mandatory “sex schedule” during her marriage to Michael Galeotti Jr., the son of a Christian group leader she describes as a cult figure. The actress, 45, detailed the lasting psychological impact of her decade-long involvement with the organization, known as the Big House Family, during an appearance on the Call Her Daddy podcast that originally aired in October 2024 and in her 2024 memoir, Dinner for Vampires.
From Bible Study to Commune Life
Lenz explained that her association with the group began with Bible study but eventually escalated into full immersion. Leader Michael Galeotti Sr. invited her to live on a small commune in Idaho. She alleges the organization ultimately controlled her career decisions, life choices, and bank account.
An ‘Arranged Situation’ Marriage
In 2005, Lenz married Galeotti Jr., though she admits there was little romantic foundation.
“There wasn’t a lot of intellectual stimulation,” she said. “But I had kinda run out of options. 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.”
The Florida-born actress, who shares daughter Maria Rose, now 15, with Galeotti Jr., said she abstained from intercourse until marriage but felt no intimate connection when they consummated the union.
“It felt like this promise that I had been given as a good evangelical was a big crock,” Lenz went on. “Like, what the heck? 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 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’.”
“And I don’t think that necessarily had anything to do with saving myself for marriage. It was just that I married the wrong person.”
Alleged ‘Sex Schedule’ and Marital Duty
Lenz said her resulting disinterest in sex led to a demand from her husband.
“Basically of 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.’”
“It was a routine that I had to participate in order to keep the peace in my marriage.”
She told host Alex Cooper that she dreaded her husband’s return from work trips because of the expectation of intercourse.
“My stomach dropped every single time,” Lenz said. “In fact, it really affected my relationships afterwards [with] other boyfriends when I had to go pick them up from the airport.”
“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 two weeks or three weeks or whatever.”
Memoir Details Financial and Emotional Toll
In Dinner for Vampires, Lenz wrote that she funded their “abysmal” honeymoon in Colorado.
“I felt angry with him for suddenly having no interest in me besides my body, and he was angry that everything he’d been promised about wives being a personal blow-up doll was false,” she wrote, as per the Daily Mail.
“I had no idea how bad it would get or how exhausted and emotionally stripped I would become, but it was immediately and abundantly clear this whole arrangement was the worst decision I’d ever made.”
Family Denials and Co-Parenting Boundaries
Michael Galeotti Sr. denied Lenz’s allegations of brainwashing and control.
“Everybody sees things a little differently and she’s going to cling to the fame. Good for her. She’s going to make a name for herself. But it’s not the way it went down.”
Galeotti Jr. also responded to the memoir.
“I don’t know what to make of this memoir after all this time. I have a daughter who’s really important to me. I don’t want it to affect her. It’s too much. I don’t really want to cause any problems for her.”
The couple divorced in 2012, a year after their daughter was born. Maria Rose now performs under the stage name Maria March.
Speaking to Variety in 2024, Lenz discussed the difficulty of writing about the marriage while protecting her daughter’s relationship with her father.
“She’s old enough now that, if she wants to read it, she can, and I feel like we’d be able to talk about it,” the mum said. “But I didn’t want to dishonour her dad.”
“I don’t believe he’s a bad person. He’s on his own journey, and I don’t want to judge it, but I have to maintain that balance of me being authentic and telling the truth of what I experienced and also leaving space for their relationship.”
“That was the hardest part in the whole book: making sure I created that balance.”
Asked about her current connection to the Galeotti family, Lenz was direct.
“I am not connected to them in any way, thank the Low-ard Jesus.”
If you’ve been affected by any of the issues in this story, you can speak in confidence about where to get help from Mind free on 0300 123 3393, 9am–6pm Monday to Friday, excluding Bank Holidays.
