“One Tree Hill” actress Bethany Joy Lenz said her co-stars on the popular show tried to rescue her from the cult she was a part of for a decade — but she was “very stubborn.”

The 42-year-old star told Variety magazine that several of her well-known friends from the show noticed she was in trouble and tried to “save” her, but she was “very committed” to what she believed was best.

“It was the whisper behind the scenes, like, ‘You know, she’s in a cult,'” Lenz said. “For a while, they were all trying to save me and rescue me, which is lovely and so amazing to be cared about in that way.”

“But I was very stubborn,” she added. “I was really committed to what I believed were the best choices I could make.”

Bethany Joy Lenz is ready to tell her story. The actor, best known for her main role on “One Tree Hill,” is in the process of writing a book about her experience in a cult.

Read her interview with Variety: https://t.co/FFsOLPK1Il pic.twitter.com/uGtohzZgbX

— Variety (@Variety) August 10, 2023

The actress then talked about how the “nature of a group like that is isolation,” which she said “built a deep wedge of distrust between me and my cast and crew.”

“They have to make you distrust everyone around you so that the only people you trust are, first and foremost, the leadership and then, people within the group if the leadership approves of them and isn’t in the middle of pitting you against each other, which happens all the time also,” Lenz told the outlet.

In the end, Lenz said she believes that in “a lot of ways,” being on the show and the demands of the series saved her life.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE DAILY WIRE APP

“I had a lot of flying back and forth, a lot of people visiting and things like that, but my life was really built in North Carolina,” Lenz said of the nine months shooting the show out of the year. “And I think that spatial separation made a big difference when it was time for me to wake up.”

The “Royal Matchmaker” star recently talked about how she’s writing a book about being in the cult, something she told the outlet she started during the pandemic.

“Why I wanted to talk about it is because I think it can be really healing for a lot of other people,” Lenz said. “I know I’m not the only one. What good are our painful experiences if we just lock them away and pretend like everything’s perfect? That’s not doing anybody any good.”

She admitted the reason it took her so long to open up about it was because she had to first overcome “shame,” and secondly, “because I don’t like to identify as a victim.”

The federal judge presiding over former President Donald Trump’s prosecution in Washington, D.C., regarding alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 election, said on Friday that he will not be treated differently than any other defendant and warned Trump that she will take action to stop him from attempting to intimidate witnesses or taint the jury pool.

Judge Tanya Chutkan made the remarks during a hearing about an order sought by prosecutors to protect discovery evidence in the case.

Chutkan repeatedly stated throughout the hearing that she will not let politics interfere in the case and she considers his presidential campaign as “a day job,” no different than any other defendant.

“He is a criminal defendant,” Judge Chutkan said. “He is going to have restrictions like every other criminal defendant.”

She said that she would not “allow him any greater or lesser latitude than any defendant in a criminal case.”

The protective order said in part that Trump must not have access to a smartphone or any other device capable of “photocopying, recording, or otherwise replicating the Sensitive Materials” when he is viewing the materials outside of the defense counsel’s presence.

“Defense counsel must also ensure that all Sensitive Materials are collected and safeguarded when the defendant is no longer reviewing them,” she added.

The order was not a gag order, rather it was a measure to restrict Trump’s ability to release discovery evidence to the public, which could give unindicted co-conspirators evidence about potential cases against them.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE DAILY WIRE APP

LAURO frustrated that government wants Trump's team to "babysit" the defendant. But Chutkan notes that Trump readily agreed to that condition in Florida so it undercuts defense argument here.

— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) August 11, 2023

The judge warned Trump’s legal team about statements that he makes outside of the courtroom, which comes after he recently posted on Truth Social: “IF YOU GO AFTER ME, I’M COMING AFTER YOU.” Trump’s team claims that the statement was directed at politicians and had nothing to do with the case.

“I do want to issue a general word of caution — I intend to ensure the orderly administration of justice in this case as I would in any other case, and even arguably ambiguous statements by the parties or their counsel,” she said. “I caution you and your client to take special care in your public statements in this case. I will take whatever measures are necessary to protect the integrity of these proceedings.”