This ‘Game of Thrones’ Actress Opens Up About the Cult That Almost Ruined Her Life

His face is well known to series fans. Hannah Murray first became known for playing Cassie in the series Skins from 2007 to 2013, then played Vere in Game of Thrones from 2012 to 2019. Now aged 36, and retired from film sets, the ex-actress returns this time to bookstores with her Memoirs, The Make-Believereleased on May 28, 2026, in which she describes having been under the influence of a sect.

A wellness sect

Throughout the pages of her book, Hannah Murray looks back on the difficulties she encountered during her acting career. This is where she explains having been caught in “a vicious circle” where the attention she sought throughout her projects on screen was only fleeting, she tells the Guardian. 

A reader of personal development books, a fan of meditation and gratitude journals, at the age of 27 she joined a wellness sect with the aim of improving mental health. Before diving into a serious psychotic crisis forcing her to be committed to a psychiatric unit. She will then learn that she has bipolar disorder.

In The Make-Believeshe then returns to this sect, which she calls “the organization”, and demonstrates how easily she allowed herself to be drawn into the system. “I couldn’t imagine experiencing everything described in the book. I would have thought it was impossiblethat I was safe. I was well educated, from a middle class family, everything should have gone well,” she told the Guardian. 

“Anti-sickness” bath salt

Hannah Murray explains she met an energy healer through her personal trainer on the set of the film Detroit (2017). After opening up about the bad experiences she had during filming, the actress was advised to speak with a fortune teller and take a course during which she learned how to treat herself. This healer spoke to her about methods to bring “light” into her body and to activate her “spiritual DNA”.Â

One thing led to another, the actress fell dangerously in love with the leader of the “organization” and paid thousands of dollars in so-called “care” from different individuals who taught him techniques to protect himself from negative energies or certain rituals, selling him for example “anti-evil” salt to pour in his bath. Until the breakup and the onset of a psychotic attack.

“Reclaiming my story”

In the following years, Hannah Murray tried to understand what happened to her by writing down her memories. “I am extremely proud of this book, which took me seven years to write,” she told the magazine People. “Throughout this process, I felt invested with great strength, that of telling my own story and to reclaim my story“, she added.

Today, ex-actress says she stays away from wellness worldalthough she is aware that there are versions of certain practices that are harmless and beneficial. “Even the gentlest practices can be quite distressing. I don’t meditate anymore. I wouldn’t go into a crystal shop. I don’t do yoga, because I don’t really know what might come out that would be a little too esoteric for me,” she lists in Guardian. 

With her story, Hannah Murray invites us to think more critically about wellness and how it has become an industry. A rare testimony.