RHOBH’s Amanda Frances reveals the truth behind her shocking cult past
'I was in a really controlling, really frightening situation'
If you thought the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills drama was all about handbags and dinner party shade, you haven’t met Amanda Frances yet.
The season 15 newbie is bringing a backstory that’s way deeper than most Bravo intros, and it’s already bubbling up this week thanks to Dorit Kemsley.
After Dorit teased something she’d read about Amanda’s past, the cult talk is swirling on X again.
But here’s what’s actually been said by Amanda herself, straight from her own words and context she’s given publicly over the years.
Dorit brings up Amanda’s past
View this post on Instagram
In previews for the January 29 episode of RHOBH, Dorit Kemsley references an online story about Amanda having been in a cult.
The conversation starts as typical Housewives tea… someone reads a headline, shares it at a gathering, and boom, it becomes part of the group dynamic.
What’s interesting here is that Dorit isn’t sharing a first-hand account; she’s reacting to something she’s “seen.”
While Dorit’s comment sparked gasps and curiosity among cast members, the buzz online surged because of what Amanda has actually talked about openly before joining Bravo.
Amanda lays it all out when it comes to her cult past
View this post on Instagram
Long before she stepped onto the RHOBH set, Amanda Frances publicly wrote about a chapter of her life she describes as being in a “cult.”
In a 2011 blog post on her own site, she wrote extremely candidly about spending around two years in what she now characterises as a controlling, frightening religious environment, a place with strict rules governing nearly every part of life.
In her own words, Amanda said: “Sometimes I will try to get comfortable enough with someone to say that I was in a really controlling, really frightening situation… I tell the truth. Sometimes I will say I was in a cult.”
She detailed limits on how often she could call home, who she could talk to, restrictions on dating, visiting other churches, or even talking about her life to anyone not part of that system.
That kind of isolation and strict behavioural control is part of why she labelled it that way.
Another powerful part of her account describes the night she left. She wrote about driving away in the middle of the night with everything she owned, “afraid of everything, but knowing if I could just make it out, I would go to school, live my life, and make a difference in the world.”
Amanda went to ‘Bible schools’
In interviews, Amanda has offered more context, noting that she has two Bible school degrees and a ministry training degree, and that her time in that environment deeply shaped her understanding of spiritual freedom and control.
Per Us Weekly, she said:
“I’ve always been a writer. … That’s what I do. That’s my process. It’s one of the ways I teach… The very first blog is on what it is to leave a cult and then not be able to trust yourself and go, ‘What was that? How did I get into that? And how do I trust myself again to make choices as a young adult woman?’ It’s a good blog, but it’s not easy to find.”
Dorit managed to unearth the blog although it was written more than a decade ago.
Amanda admitted she was kinda confused by that. But added: “It was never a secret. I’ve written, like, four blogs on the topic, in addition to other articles. The cult story isn’t a secret. Everyone in my audience, in my community, women in my courses, have known this story forever… So, when she’s pulling it up like it’s dirt, it’s very weird to me. Because it’s not dirt.”
For all the latest reality TV cast member news, scandals, gossip and updates – like Reality Shrine on Facebook.