Amanda Frances made her debut on Season 15 of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, adn her presence has garnered mixed reactions from fellow cast members. There’s been noticeable tension between Frances and Dorit kemsley, which came to a head when Kemsley tried to discuss their issues on (unknowingly) the anniversary of Frances’ son’s death.
In previews for the Thursday,January 29,episode,the aftermath of that dramatic conversation is teased,including a gossip session where Kemsley mentions seeing a story about Frances being in a cult. Below, we’re breaking down everything we know about that claim.
Was Amanda Frances in a cult?
In a 2011 blog post, frances wrote that she was “in a cult” for two years of her life. She did not name the “organization” she was referring to, but hinted that it had religious ties.
According to Frances, she was in a “controlling, really frightening situation” during those two years. She said she was not able to “be myself, live my life, call home too frequently enough, talk to a myriad of people from my school or hometown, date boys, drink alcohol, hang out with people who dated or drank, visit another church, be close to people that did not commit to volunteer/dedicating their lives to my church, talk about my life to anyone who wasn’t at a higher ranking than me in the little system of the church, etc.”
Frances admitted that she realized what she’d gotten herself into when she started studying cults. “Each time I read something new, I hope that the group I was in doesn’t fit the criteria,” she shared. “I hope this one time that it doesn’t add up and that I wasn’t really in a cult. Each time it does. Every time. The way the leader acted, the way the followers acted in response to the leader, the insane boundaries, the isolation… It always fits.”
When was Amanda Frances in a cult?
Frances revealed in her blog post that she was a member of this organization during the years between when she attended ministry training school and went to college (she began college at Oral Roberts University in 2008, per LinkedIn).
“I left three years ago yesterday,” she shared in the April 1, 2011, post, which means she was part of the organization from 2006 to early 2008. Frances revealed that she “ran away” to escape.
