CAST FROM THE CULT

Theo was born into a closed religious sect but then she started asking questions

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Theophila Pratt is 27 and has a job as an occupational therapist. She has a long-term boyfriend, Kevin, and a house they share in Auckland. She dreams of travel and building her career. It all sounds very normal but up until nine years ago, Theo, as she calls herself, could never have believed this would be her life.

She grew up in New Zealand's 500-strong Gloriavale cult, where she didn't have choices or a future like this and it was only when she was kicked out, age 18, that she found out what life was really about.

"I knew something wasn't quite right from about 11," Theo tells Woman's Day. “When we went to the doctor, we'd see the outside world so I knew some of what was there. Inside the cult, you didn’t talk about how you were feeling, though, or you'd get in trouble with the leaders.”

Instead she and her seven siblings had to toe the line doing and wearing what they were told, performing endless chores and never questioning the fundamentalist beliefs that included arranged marriage and women being subservient to their husbands.

‘Leaving was exciting but very overwhelming’

Theo, born Honey Faithful, also lived in fear of sexual abuse at the community which has been at the centre of decades of allegations, and which she experienced herself.

Her worries all came to a head when, at 18, Theo was asked to sign a contract committing to Gloriavale.