Former Smallville star Allison Mack is speaking out about her involvement with cult-like organization NXIVM following her 3-year prison sentence.
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In the seven-episode podcast Allison After NXIVM, Mack opens up to host Natalie Robemed about the group. NXIVM had masked itself as a self-help organization.
Following her April 2018 arrest on charges of sex trafficking, sex trafficking conspiracy, and forced labor conspiracy, the Smallville actress pleaded guilty to racketeering and racketeering conspiracy. She admitted to manipulating other women into becoming “slaves” to NXIVM leader, Keith Raniere.
Raniere is currently serving a 120-year prison sentence for racketeering and sex trafficking offenses. Mack received a 3-year prison sentence and was ordered to pay a $20,000 fine. She was released after serving 21 months.
“I definitely recognize and admit that I was abusing my power and that I was mean and I was forceful,” the Smallville star explained. “But I also can’t negate the fact that there was a part of me that was altruistic and was desperate to help people, and I wanted to be better — and I was willing to do anything to be better in myself and to help other people be better.”
The Smallville Actress Said She Was Trying to Heal From Her Own Trauma While Traumatizing Others
When asked by Robehmed how she first became involved in sexually traumatizing others, Mack said she was trying to do “the opposite.”
“I was trying to heal sexual trauma,” she said. “And then I turned around and was someone who was supporting it. I mean, that was why it took me a year to plead guilty, because I was like, I can’t face that fact. I can’t face that truth.”
Mack said she was influenced to join NXIVM after her Smallville co-star Kristin Kruek took a course on it.
“It was all she could talk about,” she recalled. “She was just like super excited about it, you know?”
Kruek left NXIVM in 2013. She claimed she had “minimal contact with those who were still involved” following her departure. The actress then said any claims that she was part of the organization’s “inner circle” or was recruiting women as “sex slaves” are “blatantly false.”
“During my time, I never experienced any illegal or nefarious activity,” Kruek said. She further stated she was “deeply disturbed and embarrassed to have been associated with NXIVM.”