Hoyt Richards, widely regarded as the world's first male supermodel and the highest-paid male model of his era, has revealed that he was trapped in a cult for 20 years while at the peak of his career. The 64-year-old model, actor and activist escaped the group known as Eternal Values in 1999 and now shares his story in the HBO Max documentary Bring Me The Beauties: A Model Cult.
From Princeton to the runways
Richards, born John Richard Hoyt, rose to fame in the mid-1980s after graduating from college. He modeled for brands including Versace and Ralph Lauren, counted romance novel model Fabio Lanzoni as a friend, and socialized with A-listers at New York's legendary Studio 54. But behind the scenes, he had been swept into Eternal Values, a community led by Frederick von Mierers, who claimed to have had an extraterrestrial 'walk-in' experience where an alien supposedly took over his human form.
Richards met Freddie in 1978 when he was 16 on a beach in Nantucket, Cape Cod. Freddie was charismatic, addressing the teenager as an adult and making him feel special as he spoke about religion and the balance of the universe. 'When I met Freddie on the beach, he would phrase things in a certain way, looking back on it, that was very clever, but they were a technique,' Richards told Metro. 'He definitely made it clear to me he had information he wanted to pass on to me that he thought was important for me to hear, but he would also frame it by saying, “Because you’re very smart, you’ll understand this,” and then go into the diatribe.'
The seduction of a cult
Richards insists he never thought he was joining a cult. 'No one joins a cult, because joining is implying there’s informed consent. It’s more about seduction,' he said. At the time, he was adamant he hadn't – and would never – join a cult. Years later, he realized the truth. 'I’ll never beat myself up for what I signed up for, because I think even at 16, to consider the fact that maybe I could approach my life on a more spiritual basis, there’s nothing wrong with that. It just took me 20 years to figure out that’s not what it was, and that wasn’t any fault of myself, in the sense of being too naive or gullible. It was just not knowing certain elements were at play that I didn’t even know existed.'
The ethos of Eternal Values revolved around chasing perfection and reaching a higher spiritual plane. Members were encouraged to live healthier lives, avoid drugs and alcohol, and focus on relationships without sex. While at Princeton University, Richards' friends expressed concern about his lifestyle change to their school therapist, who saw nothing wrong with the star athlete being healthier. But there was more to it.
Handing over millions
At the height of his modeling career, when he was earning millions, Richards handed every penny over to Freddie. While staying in five-star hotels for work, he would return to the Eternal Values community and sleep on a mat on the floor. Members were encouraged to rat on and shame each other for indiscretions. Freddie used powerful friends to implement terrifying control and encouraged followers to distance themselves from their families, insisting that the families were the ones who were brainwashed.
Richards' mother called it a 'cult' very early on, but he couldn't believe it. 'When I came out of this, The Matrix had just come out. That was kind of what I experienced,' he recalled. 'In essence, Freddie and the group were telling me, “All the brainwashing happened before you met us. You were stuck in the Matrix. We had to pull you out of this thing because you’ve been brainwashed by your parents, you’ve been brainwashed by the world. Here’s the truth: we have to pull you out, and that’s why you can’t go back and start to deal with them, because they don’t even know they’re in the Matrix.”'
He added: 'It’s ludicrous, but at the time, you move into this thing of magical thinking, where it’s kind of like, one of the problems of the world is [it]s too close-minded, and when you free your mind to the possibilities out there, the impossible becomes possible.'
Freddie's obsession with beauties
The documentary reveals how Freddie had an obsession with beautiful people and targeted them specifically. 'Freddie always wanted the beauties. “Bring me the beauties, the beautiful people.” Yeah, it was all about beautiful people,' one contributor says. Richards now refers to the cult leader as 'Freddie' rather than the reverent 'Frederick' because he knows Freddie would hate it. 'For me it’s just this tool that I use to reframe this experience on my terms now rather than the terms he demanded.'
Freddie died in 1990 at age 43 from AIDS-related complications, days before a Vanity Fair exposé was published about the cult. Nine years later, Richards escaped. He has since become a public speaker to help prevent others from being seduced by cults and to guide families of loved ones trapped in them.
'It is just fascinating in this day and age that no one had really covered the story,' Richards said. 'I’ve been talking about it for 20 years; I can only have so much of a reach going on podcasts or interviews of that sort of thing, so it never moved into the zeitgeist. Even though Freddie’s not pictured in a very beneficial light, I think he’d be thrilled about the attention he’s getting right now. Those narcissistic personalities just can’t get enough.'
Bring Me The Beauties: A Model Cult is available to stream on HBO Max.
