Dynasty's Catherine Oxenberg
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DYNASTY’S CATHERINE OXENBERG TRYING TO SAVE MY DAUGHTER The former TV star says her daughter has been ‘brainwashed,’ and she’s now waging a desperate battle to get her back By JOHNNY DODD and LIZ McNEIL A MOTHER’S FIGHT “The more I learned, the darker and darker it seemed that this group was,” says Oxenberg (in Brooklyn on Oct. 21). Inset: Oxenberg (right) HAIR & MAKEUP: DAVID TIBOLLA/CHANEL LES BEIGES/EXCLUSIVE ARTISTS; INSET: COURTESY CATHERINE OXENBERG CATHERINE COURTESY INSET: ARTISTS; BEIGES/EXCLUSIVE LES TIBOLLA/CHANEL DAVID HAIR & MAKEUP: with India in 2008. Photographs by ALLISON MICHAEL ORENSTEIN PEOPLE November 6, 2017 69 1 or the past several years, Catherine Edmondson, 40, who, after being bank account of her inheritance. Oxenberg, who Oxenberg had been unable to shake the recruited for Nxivm’s secret sis- resisted confronting India despite her fears, says, feeling that something wasn’t quite right terhood, was branded last March “It was like, ‘Oh God, she’s getting more and more with her oldest daughter, India. Ever below her hip with what she later enmeshed in this.’ ” since the 26-year-old had become more found out were Raniere’s initials, Shewouldhardly be thefirst.“The generalization deeply involved in a controversial self- shortly before fleeing the group. is that people get into these groups because they improvement program called Nxivm This past May, after Oxenberg, want to improve themselves and help others,” (pronounced NEX-i-um), “she seemed 56, confronted her daughter says Steven Hassan, founder and director of the distant and burdened,” says Oxenberg, about Nxivm, India stopped Freedom of Mind Resource Center. “like there was nobody home.” Her fears communicating with her. Now “But this is a group that preys on were confirmed last April after a meeting ‘I’M SCARED FOR the mother to five daughters has turned to the people. They get them in, they ‘I SAW A BIG with her friend Bonnie Piesse, 34, who’d MY DAUGHTER’ media: “I’m helpless. I’ve lost my child and will indoctrinate them, and then they PERSONALITY recently left Nxivm herself. “You need to save your 1. Oxenberg (in 1984) do whatever I can to get her back.” send them out to recruit more people, daughter,” Piesse told her. “You need to save India.” starred in the ABC A longtime fan of personal growth books and kind of like cancer cells.” CHANGE. FBy the time Piesse had finished detailing India’s hit prime-time soap seminars, Oxenberg—who has never lived with Edmondson says she met women role in what Oxenberg calls a “secret sisterhood” opera Dynasty for two India’s father (he declined to comment for this in the sisterhood in which Oxenberg SHE WASN’T seasons. 2. The actress within Nxivm, the formerDynasty actress says she was 29 when her first story)—knew nothing about the group when she says India is a member. They told her felt “sick to [her] stomach” and desperate to free child —India—was and her daughter drove to Venice, Calif., to attend they weren’t allowed to eat more than PRESENT her daughter. born in 1991. 3. “In my a Nxivm meeting in 2011 at the urging of a friend. 800 calories per day. Piesse, who last ANYMORE’ For nearly 20 years, an estimated 16,000 peo- opinion she’s in both She says she initially found the group “weird saw India in the days before she left psychological and —CATHERINE ple have paid as much as $3,400 for an execu- physical danger,” says and creepy,” but India, who Oxenberg calls “the Nxivm in January 2017, says, “India OXENBERG tive-coaching workshop offered by the Albany, N.Y.- Oxenberg (with her sweetest, most nonconfrontational, easiest child was in a bad situation. One time she based organization, whose leader, Keith Raniere, daughter in 1992). of all my children,” was intrigued—so Oxenberg told me that she wasn’t going to eat for three days 57, is known as Vanguard to his followers. With 4. India (in 1995) spent reluctantly signed up for more classes. “I thought, [out of] penance to try and correct her behavior.” ayearincollege locations in New York, San Francisco and Mexi- before dropping out ‘Okay, this is an opportunity to bond with my NotlongaftertalkingtoPiesseinApril,Oxenberg co, the group claims to take people on a journey of and eventually finding 20-year-old daughter,’ ” she says. reached out to India, who’d moved from L.A. to Al- personal discovery and development. But insiders her way to Nxivm. Over the next few years, she says, India threw bany in 2016, and invited her home for her birth- 5. “Everybody loves who have left Nxivm—scores of them in recent her,” says Oxenberg herself into the organization, attending more day. Before hanging up, Oxenberg says her daughter months—paintamuch darker pictureof life among of India (center with and more of the expensive classes, recruiting told her, “ ‘Mom, my hair has been falling out, and I the group’s hardcore believers. “It was the most sisters Celeste, left, friends and eventually emptying her haven’t had a period in a year. Maybe I should see painful, traumatic moment of my life,” says Sarah and Maya, right). a doctor?’ ” When she arrived home later in May, “She’s always had this sweet, ethereal an alarmed Oxenberg says she confronted her quality.” “superskinny” daughter, begging her to get help. She 4 2 says India dismissed her concerns, told her she was “acting silly” and flew back to Albany the next day. 3 On Oct. 19 India posted a message on her Face- book page: “I’m absolutely fine, great actually. I would never put myself or the people I love into any danger.” Nxivm did not respond to numerous inter- view requests and calls from People. In response to NXIVM FOUNDER a recent New York Times article about the organi- zation and India, Nxivm issued a statement calling Prior to Nxivm, Raniere (left) the story “a criminal product of criminal minds.” founded a discount- Recent allegations about the group have prompted buying club that the New York State Governor’s Counsel to launch a he later shut review into the matter. down after 23 states and two federal In the meantime Oxenberg fears what the agencies launched future might hold for her daughter—making investigations into her all the more determined to keep fighting allegations that it until India leaves the group. “I understand how was a pyramid scheme. Raniere admitted incredibly easy it is to mess with somebody’s mind to no wrongdoing to the point that you can get them to do almost 5 but agreed to anything,” she says. “It’s terrifying.” pay a monetary settlement. COUNTERCLOCKWISE FROM TOP: ABC PHOTO ARCHIVES/GETTY IMAGES; VIVIANE VENTURA/REX/SHUTTERSTOCK; IMAGES; ARCHIVES/GETTY ABC PHOTO TOP: FROM COUNTERCLOCKWISE OXENBERG CATHERINE COURTESY DODSON; PATRICK OXENBERG; CATHERINE COURTESY GALELLA/WIREIMAGE; RON With reporting by Jeff Truesdell 70 November 6, 2017 PEOPLE November 6, 2017 PEOPLE 71.