India Oxenberg Is Telling Her NXIVM Story In A New Docuseries

With HBO's The Vow coming to an end, one of the most famous former members of NXIVM is speaking out in a new explosive docuseries. India Oxenberg will tell her NXIVM story in Seduced, a Starz original which will track her eventual indoctrination into DOS, an alleged "sex cult" led by NXIVM founder Keith Raniere and longtime member Alison Mack. Both Raniere and Mack have pled guilty to charges of sex trafficking and racketeering relating to the group and are currently awaiting sentencing.

The new docuseries will detail Oxenberg's seven-year experience in NXIVM, and eventual participation in DOS. In the trailer, she explains that she first joined the group because she was "looking for a more purposeful life." She decided to enroll in their "Executive Success Programs," advertised as a form of awareness training to better one's life, and formed a connection with Raniere, someone who she says she "really trusted," and that connection eventually led to her DOS involvement. As fans of The Vow know, DOS was a secret master-slave subgroup within NXIVM where members were allegedly branded with Raniere and Mack's initials, forced to starve themselves, and groomed to perform sexual acts with Raniere.

According to a press release reported by Deadline, the docuseries "follows India’s seduction, indoctrination, enslavement, and escape" from DOS, and will also look at how Oxenberg eventually assisted the U.S. government in exposing Raniere and NXIVM's crimes. Several other alleged victims will also speak on their experiences within DOS, as well as India's mother, Dynasty actor Catherine Oxenberg, who led a public crusade against NXIVM back in 2017 to expose them and free her daughter from Raniere's clutches (a fight which was featured in The Vow).

In a new interview promoting Seduced, Oxenberg recalled how she felt when she was branded in 2016 to ensure her indoctrination into DOS. "I had two women holding my hands and my feet so I wouldn't convulse," she told People. "I remember the smell — of flesh. I remember crying but not with pain. There was no choice to say no." Once she finally left NXIVM, she went through two years of intense therapy and deprogramming to fully understand what happened to her. "People ask how could this happen but it doesn't happen right away," she explained. "It's a slow drip of indoctrination and grooming."

Part of that manipulation included convincing her to recruit other women into DOS, something that will also reportedly be included in the docuseries. "I betrayed people that I cared about, and I feel horrible and still struggle with that today," she admitted in a separate interview with Variety. "That’s a process of healing, and I want to be a person who fixes that. Sometimes I think they just want to be heard and they want me to acknowledge what I did, and they also understand that I was in a horribly compromised position."

Seduced: Inside the NXIVM Cult premieres on Starz on Oct. 18.