Maha Christopher
Former male supermodel Hoyt Richards has revealed how he unknowingly became entangled in a cult that took millions of dollars from his modelling earnings while he enjoyed international fame.
According to People, Richards is sharing his story in the HBO Max docuseries Bring Me the Beauties: A Model Cult, which explores the activities of the Eternal Values group led by Frederick von Mierers from the 1980s until his death in 1990.
Richards said he first met von Mierers as a teenager on a beach in Nantucket in the 1970s and later developed a close relationship with him while attending Princeton University.
Following a football injury that ended his sporting ambitions, Richards turned to von Mierers for guidance. Soon after, he was introduced to the modelling industry and quickly rose to become one of the world’s most successful male models.
After signing with Ford Models, Richards travelled the world, attended exclusive parties and landed major modelling jobs. However, he said much of the money he earned was handed over to the Eternal Values group.
“The mentality around Eternal Values and the way Frederick operated was everybody needed to give everything that they had,” Richards said in the documentary.
Though he never disclosed an exact amount, footage featured in the series showed Richards estimating that his contributions to the group totalled millions of dollars.
According to reports, von Mierers convinced followers that he was an extraterrestrial consciousness inhabiting a human body and claimed the world would face a catastrophic apocalypse in 1999.
Richards said he remained committed to the group for years and initially dismissed concerns raised by his mother that he was involved in a cult.
“I’m not in a cult. I would never join a cult,” he recalled thinking at the time.
His doubts began after group members allegedly pressured him to end a relationship with his future fiancée, Donna. He eventually left the organisation and later came to realise he had been part of a cult after reconnecting with former members and studying material on cult behaviour.
“It’s absolutely crushing,” Richards told People. “I’m just a textbook cult member from a textbook cult.”
The Eternal Values group eventually disbanded in the early 2000s, more than a decade after von Mierers’ death. Richards now hopes his story will help others recognise the warning signs of manipulation and coercive control.
