Former 'Dynasty' star and European royal Catherine Oxenberg is talking publicly about her role in exposing an alleged "sex-slave group" that she says ensnared her daughter and now is under federal indictment for sex trafficking and forced labor.
Promoting her new book, "Captive: A Mother's Crusade to Save Her Daughter from a Terrifying Cult," Oxenberg says she believes it was her interview last year with NBC's Megyn Kelly that helped get the attention of federal officials to investigate, and eventually arrest, Keith Raniere, leader of the secretive organization NXIVM, and some of his top followers, including former "Smallville" actress Allison Mack.
They have been charged by the U.S. Attorney's Office in Brooklyn with sex trafficking, sex trafficking conspiracy and forced labor conspiracy, among other charges.
They've also been accused of staging secret ceremonies to brand the pubic areas of female followers, allegedly including Oxenberg's daughter, India, with Raniere's initials and forcing them into unwanted sex.
"I was desperate to get law enforcement's attention and my appearance on your show was pivotal; I really think my appearance is what did it," Oxenberg tells Kelly in new interviews airing Monday and Tuesday.
Oxenberg is talking to Kelly again to promote her book and give an update of what has happened to NXIVM and her daughter since last year's interview. She will be interviewed by Kelly on NBC's "Dateline" Monday night (10 p.m. ET), along with an attorney representing NXIVM. She will also appear on Kelly's daytime show Tuesday.
In the interview, “A Mother’s Mission,” Oxenberg tells her story of how she tried to "save" her daughter from a "cult" she says "brainwashed" her for years.
Oxenberg tells Kelly she feels "horrendous guilt" because she is the one who introduced India, 27, to NXIVM in 2011, when she invited her to attend a self-help course for budding entrepreneurs offered by Raniere.
Within two years, Oxenberg stopped attending the courses but her daughter was so entranced she left Los Angeles and moved to Albany, N.Y., to be nearer to Raniere and his followers, who were based there.
Then, Oxenberg says, she learned her daughter had become part of a secret "sex cult" within NXIVM and had been branded with Raniere's initials.
"They take a lifetime vow of obedience to their master," she tells Kelly. "I was horrified," and vowed to expose NXIVM as "deviant and dangerous."
Oxenberg (born Karatina Oksenberg), 56, is a member of the former Serbian royal family of the former Yugoslavia. She made her acting debut playing Princess Diana in the 1982 made-for-TV film "The Royal Romance of Charles and Diana." Two years later, she joined "Dynasty" as Amanda Carrington, a daughter of Blake Carrington (John Forsythe) and Alexis Colby (Joan Collins).