Hoyt Richards, widely regarded as the world's first male supermodel and the highest-paid in the industry during the 1980s and 1990s, has revealed that he was trapped in a cult while at the height of his fame. His experience is documented in the new HBO Max documentary Bring Me The Beauties: A Model Cult, which premiered in July 2026.
The Rise of a Supermodel and the Cult Leader
Richards, now 64, rose to fame in the mid-1980s after graduating from college, modelling for brands such as Versace and Ralph Lauren. He counted peers like Fabio Lanzoni as friends and mingled with A-listers at Studio 54 in New York. However, behind the scenes, he had been drawn into Eternal Values, a community led by Frederick von Mierers, who claimed to have had an extraterrestrial 'walk-in' experience where an alien supposedly took over his human form.
Richards met von Mierers, known as Freddie, in 1978 when he was 16 on a beach in Nantucket, Cape Cod. Freddie's charisma and spiritual talk made the teenager feel special. Richards' modelling career, suggested by Freddie, began after a shoulder injury ended his American football aspirations at college. 'I'll never beat myself up for what I signed up for, because I think even at 16, to consider the fact that maybe I could approach my life on a more spiritual basis, there's nothing wrong with that,' Richards told Metro. 'It just took me 20 years to figure out that's not what it was.'
Life Inside Eternal Values
Eternal Values promoted chasing perfection and reaching a higher spiritual plane, encouraging members to live healthier lives, avoid drugs and alcohol, and focus on relationships without sex. Despite earning millions, Richards handed over every penny to Freddie and slept on a mat on the floor when not staying in five-star hotels for modelling jobs. Members were encouraged to rat on and shame each other for perceived indiscretions. Freddie used powerful friends to implement control and urged followers to distance themselves from their families, claiming they were brainwashed.
Richards' mother called it a 'cult' early on, but he couldn't believe it. 'When I came out of this, The Matrix had just come out. That was kind of what I experienced,' he recalled. 'In essence, Freddie and the group were telling me, “All the brainwashing happened before you met us. You were stuck in the Matrix.”'
Freddie's Obsession with Beautiful People
The documentary reveals Freddie's obsession with beautiful people, targeting them specifically for brainwashing. 'Freddie always wanted the beauties. “Bring me the beauties, the beautiful people.” Yeah, it was all about beautiful people,' one contributor says. Richards now refers to von Mierers as 'Freddie' rather than the reverent 'Frederick' because he knows von Mierers would hate it. 'For me it's just this tool that I use to reframe this experience on my terms now rather than the terms he demanded,' he said in the series.
Escape and Aftermath
Von Mierers died in 1990 at age 43 from AIDS-related complications, days before a Vanity Fair exposé about the cult was published. Richards escaped in 1999 and has since become a public speaker, aiming to help prevent others from being seduced by cults and guide families of trapped loved ones. 'It is just fascinating in this day and age that no one had really covered the story,' Richards said. 'Even though Freddie's not pictured in a very beneficial light, I think he'd be thrilled about the attention he's getting right now. Those narcissistic personalities just can't get enough.'
Bring Me The Beauties: A Model Cult is available to stream on HBO Max.
