Bethany Joy Lenz Says Her Relationship with “One Tree Hill” Cast Was 'Good at the Beginning' but 'Strained' at the End

The actress also touched on how her involvement in a cult affected her relationship with her costars

Bethany Joy Lenz and the cast of One Tree Hill weren't always on friendly terms.

During a Raleigh, North Carolina stop on her Dinner for Vampires book tour, the actress, 43, opened up about her relationships with her former costars on the early 2000s teen drama.

"I felt like I had really good relationships at the beginning," she recalled. "They got more strained toward the end. There were plenty of people, I mean, everyone just treated me with love and respect."

Related: One Tree Hill's Bethany Joy Lenz Reveals Fallout with Hilarie Burton Was Caused by 'Bizarre Misunderstandings'

While there were a "few people" that just "didn't quite know how to connect with me" and vice versa, Lenz said she kept things "professional." What really "blew my mind," she said, was how many cast and crew members welcomed her with "open arms and love and forgiveness."

"That surprised me the most because the system that I had come out of with all of this was tit for tat," she explained, referencing her time in what she's referred to as a cult. "You behave accordingly and then you get the love and support. And if you don't do what we want you to do and behave in a certain way, then you don't get our love and support."

She continued, "That grace shifted my whole dynamic about love and forgiveness and God and God's love and how it moves in so many different places. I mean, you guys really made an impact on me with your grace, that was so unexpected."

Related: Bethany Joy Lenz Says Her 'One Tree Hill' Costars Tried to 'Rescue' Her from a Cult: 'I Was Very Stubborn'

Lenz has previously opened up about falling victim and being lured into a high-control religious group when she was in her 20s.

"I had always been looking for a place to belong," she told PEOPLE earlier this month. "I wish someone had just told me when I was young that this is the universal human condition, but I didn't know that."

Raised an only child to young evangelical parents, she moved around a lot and said she had a lonely childhood. When she moved to L.A. at 20, she soon grew deeply attached to new friends she'd met at a Bible study. Soon, the group members began to feel even closer than family, and it was like nothing she'd ever experienced before. Her found "family" eventually grew more controlling and isolated her from her friends and family, according to Lenz.

Related: Jana Kramer and Former Costar Bethany Joy Lenz Open Up About 'One Tree Hill' 's 'Very Divided Set'

In her new memoir, Dinner For Vampires: Life on a Cult Show (While Also in an Actual Cult!), Lenz revealed how her involvement in the "cult" affected her relationship with her One Tree Hill costars — namely Sophia Bush.

"Sophia herself was also hilarious and a bit mischievous, always down for an impulsive adventure," Lenz wrote in an excerpt of her novel, talking about how they went to get pit bull puppies together not long after they met.

But the friendship didn't last. "I soon realized I wasn't equipped to get too close to Sophia," she continued. "I failed to notice that she was also trying hard. Frequently favored and constantly underestimated in life because of her beauty, Sophia worked obsessively at proving her value."

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Lenz, who was deeply entrenched in a what she called a Christian "cult" at the time, said this clashed with how she believed one should prove their value.

"I was using religion as my benchmark," Lenz wrote. "My budding friendship with sweet Sophia became a casualty of this, and instead of sitting shiva for my ego, I really f---ing wish I could turn back time, walk into her trailer, and give her a long, hard hug."

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