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'It was devastating'

Glenn Close reveals she spent 15 years locked in a controversial religious cult before breaking free to become an actress

The actress, now 71, says her family joined the spiritual movement Moral Re-Armament when she was 7 - and she escaped at the age of 22

GLENN Close has revealed she was in a religious cult until the age of 22.

The Damages actress, 71, says she was just seven when her parents entered the controversial international spiritual movement Moral Re-Armament.

 Glenn Close says she spent 15 years in a cult
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Glenn Close says she spent 15 years in a cultCredit: Getty - Contributor

Moral Re-Armament revolves around the idea that changing the world begins with change in the individual, and was set up in 1938 by evangelical fundamentalist Rev Frank Buchman.

Glenn and her siblings lived at the organisation's headquarters in Switzerland for two years while their father was in Africa, and the family remained part of MRA for 15 years.

She told : "It was a cult-like group where everybody is supposed to say the same things and act in the same way, and my parents were in it from when I was seven to when I was 22.

"It was devastating to a child because it meant that at a time when you’re trying to figure out who you are, you’re being told instead who you’re supposed to be.

 Glenn was in the cult with her sister, Jessie Close, who is on the far left.
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Glenn was in the cult with her sister, Jessie Close, who is on the far left.Credit: This content is subject to copyright.

"You basically weren’t allowed to do anything, or you were made to feel guilty about any unnatural desire.

"It was very difficult because by the time I was able to break away from it, I didn’t trust any my instincts because I thought they had all been dictated to me instead of being my own."

At 22, Glenn broke free of the MRA to enrol at the College of William and Mary in Virginia to study drama.

She said: "Many things led me to leave. I walked straight into the theatre department and became someone else!"

 Glenn left the cult at the age of 22 to become an actress
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Glenn left the cult at the age of 22 to become an actressCredit: This content is subject to copyright.

Glenn admits she resented her "narcissistic" father for making the family join the organisation.

She says she wrote him an angry letter shortly before making her bid for freedom.

Glenn explained: "There came a point when I got very, very angry and I wrote him this letter where I was absolutely honest.

"I said, 'You don’t deserve to be called our father'. I mean, it was so harsh. In fact, I read it to my mother and my sisters and I said, 'I’m just going to send this to Dad,' because he was brilliant, but he definitely had a dollop of narcissism."

 Glenn Close with her daughter, who she says she is a better parent to because of her experiences
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Glenn Close with her daughter, who she says she is a better parent to because of her experiencesCredit: AP:Associated Press

The actress has also said her experiences in the movement have helped her be a better parent to her own daughter, Maude Starke.

She told : "She’s wonderful and makes me incredibly proud."

"I’m also proud that I have a great friendship with her father [producer John H. Starke], and when she turned seven she was living in the same house that she was taken home to when she was born, and we still have that house."


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