Allison Mack opens up about her mother’s reaction to her marriage within a sex cult.
In 2023, the ex-Smallville actress was released after completing 21 months of her three-year sentence for helping recruit women as sex slaves for NXIVM cult leader Keith Raniere.
This group was initially branded as a self-help support and women’s empowerment network, but it was later exposed as a deceptive pyramid scheme.
Numerous women reported being manipulated into joining the organization and coerced into sexual relations with Raniere, who received a 120-year prison sentence for his offenses.
Following Mack’s release in 2023, she has been working on transforming her life and has shared details about her experiences within the cult on the new podcast Allison After NXIVM.
In the third episode, Mack discussed her marriage to Canadian actress Nicki Clyne, who also played a significant role as a ‘frontline’ slave for Raniere.
The 43-year-old remarked: “Nicki was another one who didn’t really like me very much. I was too much for her.”
“She didn’t like how performative I was, and didn’t like how outgoing I was, and loud I was, and sort of boisterous and gregarious and stuff.”
“We were like sister wives, essentially. That’s, ultimately, what it ended up being.”
“Even if that’s not what I initially thought it was, that was ultimately what it ended up being.”
Mack explained that she married Clyne in 2017 to help Clyne stay in the United States.
Her decision was driven by a desire ‘to get her to like me,’ noting that she was ‘the only American citizen in the group.’
Rationalizing her choice, she said: “I already know I’m not going to marry somebody else. What’s the difference? We’re basically married anyway. So why not?”
Her mother, however, had her own perspective on the marriage and recalled being ‘horrified’ upon learning about it after the fact, with Clyne’s mother serving as the witness at the wedding.
“I was hurt that she didn’t trust me,” Mindy Mack expressed in the podcast.
“I think it’s because she knew that I would say, ‘What the hell are you doing?’
“Because it was Keith’s idea, of course. There was some stuff going on that was hurtful to me, that was extremely out of character for Allison.”
The couple eventually parted ways and divorced in 2020 amid legal proceedings, during which Mack was found guilty of racketeering and conspiracy charges.
Her cooperation with law enforcement in bringing Raniere to justice spared her a longer prison sentence.
In June of this year, Mack remarried former neo-Nazi Frank Meeink, according to reports from US Weekly.