Allison Mack has revealed she was subjected to a strict diet during her involvement with the NXIVM ‘sex cult’.
Mack, renowned for her portrayal of Chloe Sullivan in the Smallville series, became part of NXIVM after reportedly being introduced by a fellow cast member. The organization masqueraded as a self-help group but was eventually exposed as a perilous pyramid scheme.
The cult was under the leadership of Keith Raniere, who received a 120-year prison sentence following convictions on charges including sex trafficking.
Mack, alongside other top members, was involved in bringing women into the cult, where they were branded and coerced into sexual relations with Raniere. In 2021, Mack, 43, admitted to racketeering and racketeering conspiracy, resulting in a three-year prison sentence.
She was released early in 2023, after completing 21 months of her sentence.
Following her release, Mack has embarked on a new professional path and has shared her experiences in the CBC’s seven-part podcast series, Allison After NXIVM.
In the podcast, Mack discussed how she leveraged her celebrity status, describing it as ‘a power tool that I had to get people to do what I wanted.’
Mack also detailed the ‘pretty extreme’ regimen she followed as a NXIVM member, which required her to maintain a weight between 105 and 107 pounds.
She explained that she took ‘one-minute’ cold showers each morning prior to weighing herself to ensure ‘an accurate read.’
“I would write down everything I was going to do and at what time I was going to do it and then how it related to a character trait that I was trying to build in myself,” Mack stated, adding that Raniere had to approve her daily schedule.
“Every single thing that I did was related to some purpose of my character building.”
Podcast host and journalist Natalie Robehmed noted that Mack appeared ‘significantly underweight’ during her time in the cult.
“To achieve this absurd goal weight, Keith put her on a 500 calorie a day diet, less than a third of what’s recommended for an adult woman, basically a starvation regimen,” Robehmed stated.
Mack also disclosed that she was prohibited from eating after 5 pm, developed an orange tint due to her squash-heavy meals, and chewed enough gum to make her mouth ‘raw’.
“I was running 6 miles a day. I was really into half marathons, so I was running at least 6 miles on 500 calories,” she said. “I was very into yoga, so I was doing yoga. I did yoga every morning for about six years.”
Her daily meals included ‘kabocha squash, plain nonfat Greek yogurt, a little bit of honey, a little bit of almond butter, and maybe some blueberries’ for breakfast, a salad for lunch, and ‘glass noodles with kale, jalapeno peppers, and more kabocha squash’ for dinner, according to Robehmed.
Additionally, she fasted from 5 pm on Sundays until 5 am on Tuesdays.
Mack shared, “I always had these huge scarves, because I was always, always cold. I was so thin that I could touch my fingers together around my waist. I mean, I was anorexic.”
If you have been affected by any of the issues in this article and wish to speak to someone, contact National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders (ANAD). You can reach them on their free hotline at 1(888)-375-7767, which is open Monday-Friday, 9am-9pm CST.