Meet the supermodel who spent who 20 years in a cult
Once called the world’s first male supermodel, New York-born model Hoyt Richards has appeared in hundreds of campaigns for brands such as Versace, Valentino, Ralph Lauren and Cartier, and has been photographed by everyone from Bruce Weber to Helmut Newton.
But at the height of his career, he was drawn into a cult that exploited him financially and forced him to cut ties with his family. He escaped in 1999, after more than two decades.
General culture editor Michael Idato He spoke to Richards, now 64, about his life-changing experiences and HBO’s riveting new three-part docuseries: Bring Me the Beauties: A Model CultThey inform.
Michael Idato: Let’s start here and now, Hoyt. If the first thing you lost in a situation of coercive control was confidence, how quickly did you regain confidence in the journey out of it?
Hoyt Richards: It probably lasts a lifetime to some degree. But I can definitely say that in the beginning there was a lot of mistrust. My siblings and family would say it took them four or five years to really feel like I was back. I work with a lot of cult survivors now and try to help them on their own personal journey because there is no set path. Self-education is a big part of this.
You can take that information and intellectually say, “ah, that’s how it worked.” But it takes a long time to process this emotionally. There is such an imperative in the beginning to right the ship and get your life back on track. It was really hard for me to realize how I was hurting the people I loved the most, who were doing their best to help me.
This all felt somehow like a metaphor for 2026 politics. People are caught up in cults of personality. Some find their way out.
I think it’s more relevant today than when I was alive. When you have the perspective that I have, I see it everywhere.
For me, if I were to frame my experiences in the most accurate way, I would say that I have had a cult relationship with this band for 20 years. The way the media portrays it, the word “cult” is so triggering. I’ve used this word many times, but even in the social context where I try to be transparent, it’s a big hole to dig. This word immediately asks “so what, were you sacrificing babies?” It triggers ideas like. “Were you thinking of drinking the Kool-Aid?”
Every relationship is somewhere on the cult relationship spectrum. You often unconsciously give your power to someone else. We’ve all found ourselves in these relationships. It could be a parent, it could be a sibling, it could be a boss, it could be a lover, it could be a coach, they could have swept us off our feet in some way, or they might have shown great interest in us. We start liking it and wanting to seek it out, then they start pulling away and we start chasing after it. Some people will use this unhealthy power dynamic to control and potentially abuse you.
Most people find their way out of this relationship because it sucks, but they don’t realize how traumatic it is. They just get out of it and start an unconscious pattern of attracting this type of relationship back into their lives over and over again.
If we make it acceptable to talk about it, then people will realize that they are experiencing some form of this relationship and they will begin to heal. More extreme cases like mine are valuable teaching tools.
How many people in your life knew the extent of your experience? Have you received a variety of reactions from friends and family to the HBO documentary?
This has been one of the most rewarding things: outreach. People came out of the woodwork. Finally they saw everything put together and said “now I get it”. It was so incredible because not only did I want people to understand this, but to embrace the fact that it wasn’t anyone’s fault. This is no different than the conversations I have with all my siblings and even my parents. We were out of our depth. We didn’t know or really understand the cults. We didn’t know.
My father was very happy to have me back. But he didn’t want to talk about it at all.
Hoyt Richards
This has been a 25 year journey for me. When I watched some of the earlier cuts, it really struck me and I thought, “Oh, these are going to start with my IPO.” That moment was a necessity for me because I finally realized it was a cult in 2001 – and that was almost two years after I escaped. It took me that long to realize what had happened. Google had just come out. And I knew I could never escape it. Everyone I meet and have any contact with Googles me and says “wait, is this the guy?” he asks.
Do you see your years in the sect as completely lost? Was there any value at that time?
Great value. In the midst of all this impact, I was still there. There is also value in taking responsibility and being transparent about the role I play in participation. Yes, of course I am a victim. But more importantly, I participated.
The other side was with my family and friends. I wanted them to know that there were things I couldn’t take back, the weddings I missed. But it taught me valuable lessons not only about myself, but also about the world we live in. I frame it like a school of hard knocks: very expensive, hard lessons, but the life lessons were priceless.
Everyone wants to blame themselves: “I should have seen it before.” “I should have come and helped you.” But it’s not constructive because it’s not true. No one knew what really happened, so it’s no one’s fault.
They were also traumatized by watching someone they loved go through this. It’s like an addict: They’re under an influence, but they’re still making self-destructive and self-sabotaging decisions. And you feel powerless to stop them. You are experiencing a very deep trauma.
What about your family?
My father was very happy to have me back. But he didn’t want to talk about it at all. We had nice conversations with my mother. It was such a blessing and I love the time I was given because he was also fighting cancer. They gave him one year to live, and he fought him for seven years. If I hadn’t spent those years with him, if I had been able to spend time with him, I would still be in therapy and trying to figure everything out.
When I realized that it was a sect, I called my brother and said, “You are right, I became a member of the sect.” And he was so polite that there was no “I told you so”. He said: “Listen, from everything I’ve read, it’s very rare for someone to get to the point where you’re talking about this, so what can I do to support you?” It was so great.
This documentary now becomes, to some extent, the definitive account of everything that happened. Are you happy with this? What about the choices made by director Chris Smith? Because like it or not, that’s how we all interpret the story now.
In general, I would say yes. As I said, I want to have conversations based on people who know this experience. I always felt like I would use up all my bandwidth getting into the story.
Honestly, you can’t fit 25 years of my life into three hours, so I can say that the story is a bit bifurcated. I wanted to tell the survivor’s story. The cult story I see as background. But the director said, “I need to sell this thing,” and leaned more into the cult story than I did. But I still think he achieved his goal. I will always look at him as an incredible presence where he initiated the conversation.
In my opinion, this is a big step forward.
This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
Bring Me the Beauties: A Model Cult is currently streaming on HBO Max.
