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Hoyt Richards spent his modeling heyday leading "a double life."
"Even when I was at the height of my career, taking transatlantic flights and staying in five-star hotels," he says in the new HBO docuseries Bring Me the Beauties: A Model Cult, "I'd go back to New York where I was rolling out a mat and sleeping on the floor."
Because, 40 years ago, he was a member of Eternal Values, a group Richards now considers to be a cult that trafficked in a hodgepodge of Eastern philosophical tenets and revolved around founder Frederick von Mierers' assertion that he was an "alien walk-in" sent to prepare earthlings for the imminent end of the world.
“It was so obvious to me that he was just being improvisational and just kind of bulls---ing in many ways and just riffing,” Richards told People recently. “And I just had this new lens of going, ‘Wow. Wow. That's not what I remember experiencing and the person I was so intimidated by.’"
Till the end of his life, von Mierers maintained that his flock—all of whom, as the HBO series title implies, were very, very good-looking—were just people seeking spiritual enlightenment in an age of materialism.
Courtesy of HBO
"We are not a cult," he told Vanity Fair shortly before his death in 1990. "Do you understand? We are not a cult."
Hoyt now purposely refers to von Mierers as Freddy because, as he explains in the series, "I know he would probably hate being called Freddy. It's a tool I use to reframe this experience on my terms, rather than on the terms he demanded."
Here is what to know about Hoyt, von Mierers and Eternal Values ahead of Bring Me the Beauties: A Model Cult's final episode, premiering June 15 at 9 p.m. ET on HBO and HBO Max:
Courtesy of HBO
Who is Hoyt Richards?
The former college football player, born John Richards Hoyt, has been called the first male supermodel, having come up in the 1980s alongside the likes of Cindy Crawford and Naomi Campbell.
Richards was 16 when he met self-help guru and man-about-town Frederick von Mierers. The 31-year-old set his towel down next to Richards on a Nantucket beach in 1978 and soon had the teen in his thrall, Richards says in the HBO docuseries Bring Me the Beauties: A Model Cult, recalling how von Mierers talked about "Eastern religion, and ancient civilization and a little smattering of astrology."
When Richards was a student at Princeton, he reached out to von Mierers one night in hopes of finding a party for his friends—and they ended up in New York at Studio 54, a scene that Richards quickly decided was the one for him.
Courtesy of HBO
After a shoulder injury put an end to Richards' football career, von Mierers introduced him to Ford Models president Joey Hunter, who signed the Ivy Leaguer.
And, as Richards details in Bring Me the Beauties, he handed over most of the money he proceeded to make as a top model to von Mierers and Eternal Values.
Courtesy of HBO
Who was Eternal Values founder Frederick von Mierers?
Von Mierers, who had a late-night public access TV show on which he espoused his philosophies, insisted he was an "alien walk-in" who was sent to Earth to neutralize "the dark forces" and enlighten people about a coming apocalypse in 1999.
He traced his awakening to reading Ruth Montgomery's 1967 book A Search for the Truth, which led him to believe he was a "walk-in."
"You must write that I am from the star Arcturus," he told Vanity Fair in 1990, just months before he died of complications from AIDS when he was 43. "You must write that I am the reincarnation of Jeremiah from the Old Testament. The spirit of Jeremiah walked into my body."
Von Mierers predicted, "Terrible storms will destroy the world. You will all be dead within 10 years. Only the elite will be saved. I am here to train the leaders of the New Age."
He surrounded himself with models, he explained, because the elites he was "training for leadership will have perfect features. I believe in the master race!"
In reality, von Mierers was Fred Meyers from Brooklyn, the son of a dry cleaner, though he told people that his parents died when he was 4 and he was raised by his grandparents until he was taken under the wing of his socialite godmother.
Courtesy of HBO
What was "model cult" Eternal Values?
In Bring Me the Beauties, former Eternal Values members described a freeing, then increasingly stifling atmosphere, as von Mierers put them on strict diets, encouraged them to cut ties with their families and—after initially encouraging them to abstain from sex—insisted they have casual sexual encounters.
And, as he monetized his teachings by selling cassettes and videos, books, supplements, psychic readings, etc., he encouraged his acolytes to buy "gem prescriptions," sapphires and other precious stones he claimed had healing properties.
In 1990, the Manhattan District Attorney's Office started investigating von Mierers for selling gems using inflated appraisals.
Model Jacki Adams, who spoke to prosecutors at the time, says she paid von Mierers more than $100,000, noting in Bring Me the Beauties, "It was amazing how much spirituality cost."
Von Mierers was never charged with any crimes before his death, telling Vanity Fair that former followers who accused him of cheating them were "jealous, sick, twisted people."
Evan Agostini/Liaison
When did Hoyt Richards leave Eternal Values?
After von Mierers died, some of his followers moved to North Carolina, where he had been building a compound—primarily with Richards' money—for the end times, convinced the Blue Ridge Mountains would be one of the few things still standing in the year 2000.
Meanwhile, Richards was still jet-setting as a model and he started dating dancer Donna Flagg.
Henry McGee/MediaPunch/Shutterstock
But as 1999 approached, Richards told The Hollywood Reporter, "I’m looking around and going, ‘Well, all the signs that he had told us were going to lead up to this thing, the storms, the earthquakes, the tidal waves—none of that’s happening, and certainly the economies aren’t collapsing, governments aren’t falling apart.' So I got up the courage to go back to say, ‘If nothing else, I think the timeline’s off.’ And that’s when I got attacked.”
He even broke up with Flagg as a sign of his loyalty, but the emotional abuse he encountered after he started asking questions, Hoyt said, left him considering suicide, and he realized he had to get out.
Ron Galella, Ltd./Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images
How did Fabio help Hoyt Richards get his life back together after leaving Eternal Values?
On July 3, 1999, Richards called Fabio and the Italian model bought his friend a plane ticket to come to Los Angeles.
Richards stayed with Fabio for 18 months while unpacking the previous 20 years of his life, eventually determining he had escaped a cult.
Courtesy of HBO
Where is Hoyt Richards now?
Richards, now 64, is a cult exit counselor and board member of Living Cult Free, a nonprofit group that, according to its website, was founded to "highlight survivor voices, strengthen self-agency, and provide education that builds resilience against coercion and abuse."
He's engaged to Flagg and they plan to marry in September, the couple having rekindled their relationship after he reached out to her about a project that became Bring Me the Beauties.
Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images
Richards told Vanity Fair he started telling his story 25 years ago "to take ownership of what happened, and along the way start to learn also how and why it happened.”
And since we live in a "cultish society," he said, what he learned from his experience with von Mierers is timeless.
"We find ourselves in these situations where you just feel like you’re trying to please this person, you want them to be happy…and no matter how hard you try, you’re being diminished in some way," he explained. So, he noted, "it’s more relevant now than even when I was going through it.”
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