Source Details

{
    "source_type": "extension",
    "content_hash": "e2d8a6dabfdff79c8b7facacdd92a537de76c2f8e89dc27a8eddf863049c6f06",
    "submitted_via": "chrome_extension",
    "extension_version": "1.0.18",
    "original_url": "https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/09\/18\/style\/donna-flagg-hoyt-richards-wedding.html?emc=edit_na_20260918&nl=breaking-news&segment_id=226703",
    "parsed_content": "AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTSupported bySKIP ADVERTISEMENTVowsHe Left Her for a Cult, but It Would Be Years Before She Knew ItHoyt Richards, a male supermodel, disappeared from Donna Flagg\u2019s life for several years. The reason was the subject of a recent HBO Max docuseries.Listen \u00b7 11:22 min Share full articleHoyt Richards and Donna Flagg were married on Jetties Beach in Nantucket, Mass., on Sept. 4.By Tammy LaGorceSept. 18, 2026, 12:00 a.m. ETSign up for the Love Letter newsletter. Warm your heart with our best stories on love, sex and relationships. Some will make you cry. Some might make you blush. Get it sent to your inbox.When Hoyt Richards vanished from Donna Flagg\u2019s life in 1998, she saw his face everywhere.\u201cI\u2019d be walking around New York not knowing what happened to my boyfriend,\u201d she said, and then he would appear. Flagg knew it was normal for the mind to instinctively scan crowds and surroundings for a loved one who was missing. But this was different.Because Richards was an international supermodel, his likeness was hard to avoid. (Since launching his modeling career in the mid-1980s, John Richards Hoyt has professionally gone by Hoyt Richards.) One Father\u2019s Day, \u201cI walked into Macy\u2019s, and there was a life-size picture of Hoyt on foam core, posing as a father with a wife and two kids,\u201d said Flagg.His disappearance four years into their relationship, she told herself, had been brought on by an occupational hazard. \u201cI felt very often that he didn\u2019t understand romantic love because he had been so objectified\u201d as a model, she said.The truth was more complicated. Richards had been indoctrinated into a religious cult whose leader forbade outside personal attachments. \u201cThe only relationship or love affair you were supposed to have was with God,\u201d he said.AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTIn June 1994, she was newly divorced and living in Chelsea when her friend, Moe Lospinoso, a film producer, invited her to visit him in Los Angeles. While there, she joined Lospinoso for lunch with Richards, who was in Los Angeles for work and meeting with Lospinoso to discuss a film project. Though his job kept him living mostly out of a suitcase, Richards maintained an apartment in Midtown Manhattan.\u201cI can\u2019t say I had this, \u2018Oh my God, he\u2019s a supermodel\u2019 reaction,\u2019\u201d she said of meeting Richards for the first time. But he did make a good impression: \u201cI thought he was darling and really warm.\u201dImageThe couple met in June 1994 when they had lunch with a mutual friend in Los Angeles. \u201cI can\u2019t say I had this, \u2018Oh my God, he\u2019s a supermodel\u2019 reaction,\u2019\u201d Flagg said. \u201cI thought he was darling and really warm.\u201dFlagg was back in New York later that month when Richards called her from Europe and left a message on her answering machine. Within weeks, they were on their first date at Gascogne, a now-closed French restaurant in Chelsea. \u201cIt didn\u2019t feel real\u201d that someone so recognizable had asked her out, she said. A friend who had pointed out his picture in a store window warned that she shouldn\u2019t expect the date to amount to much. \u201cShe was like, \u2018There\u2019s no way it\u2019s going to work with him. He\u2019s too perfect.\u2019\u201dRichards, now 64, was by then used to strangers mistaking him, and his family, for perfect. He grew up in Berwyn, Pa., the fourth of Bob and Terry Hoyt\u2019s six children. \u201cIf you look at my dad\u2019s home movies, it\u2019s very Norman Rockwell,\u201d he said. \u201cWe were a bunch of towheaded blonds, going to Disneyland or the Washington Monument.\u201dAdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTBinge more Vows columns here and read all our wedding, relationship and divorce coverage here.At Princeton, he played varsity football before being sidelined by a shoulder injury. By the time he earned his bachelor\u2019s degree in economics, he had been courted as a model worthy of runways helmed by Versace, Valentino and Ralph Lauren. He was simultaneously being courted by a cult leader.Sign up for The Wedding Plan. A guide to planning a modern wedding, with tips on budgeting, timelines, and the tasks needed to create your ideal day. Get it sent to your inbox.Flagg, 61, grew up in Middletown, N.J., with an older brother and their parents, Carole and David Flagg. At Rutgers, she earned a bachelor\u2019s degree in dance. She completed a master\u2019s in human resource management and organizational development, then earned a post-master\u2019s in business education, both at N.Y.U. Flagg is the founder of Lastics Stretch Technique, a Manhattan exercise firm.Frederick von Mierers, the leader of the doomsday group Eternal Values, first encountered Richards as a 16-year-old on the shores of Nantucket, where the Hoyt family spent summers. \u201cHe was an eccentric person who was part of the Nantucket landscape,\u201d Richards said. The two didn\u2019t keep in touch much until 1981, when Richards had enrolled at Princeton. Von Mierers, who had an apartment in Manhattan, \u201chad taken an interest in me, kind of like a mentor.\u201d The cult had yet to form.ImageKatie McNabb, Richards\u2019s oldest sister, obtained a one-day officiant\u2019s license through the state of Massachusetts to marry them. McNabb had been estranged from her brother for more than a decade.While Richards was finding his footing as an undergraduate, von Mierers encouraged him to be his frequent guest in Manhattan. \u201cI started going into the city, going with him and his friends to Studio 54 and places like that,\u201d Richards said.Von Mierers eventually convinced Richards and a clutch of other young models, professionals and socialites to cut ties with their loved ones and train their thoughts on the turn of the century, when he told them the world would end. Members were led to believe they were chosen to become the leaders of \u201cthe new age.\u201d They were also led to believe that, to support the cause, they should give von Mierers all their money.AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENT\u201cI was not supposed to have a girlfriend or any sort of relationship because it threatened my spiritual path and the financing\u201d of the cult, Richards said. Some members dated to maintain a more normal facade. But in 1998, when Eternal Values\u2019s leaders demanded Richards cut ties with Flagg, the two had been together more than four years, and the fact of her presence in his life was becoming harder to conceal.\u201cIt was a covert relationship,\u201d he said. \u201cBut in a moment of vulnerability, I finally confessed.\u201d He had by then given von Mierers millions of dollars from his earnings as one of the highest paid male models, though he hadn\u2019t felt coerced. \u201cI was thinking, \u2018I\u2019m serving God. The money is not really mine.\u2019 That\u2019s what we call magical thinking in the cult survivor world.\u201dFlagg remained completely in the dark about the cult until October 2001, when she picked up the phone in her Chelsea apartment and heard his voice on the other end. In the summer of 1999, he had escaped Eternal Values\u2019s North Carolina compound, where the group had sequestered itself since von Meirers\u2019s 1990 death from AIDS-related complications, and where Richards had been living for several months between modeling gigs.His first phone call was to his estranged brother, Rory, who had tried to stage an intervention in 1990. At the time of the attempt, \u201cI felt betrayed,\u201d Richards said. The two hadn\u2019t spoken for 10 years.Image\u201cI\u2019ve never not loved Hoyt,\u201d Flagg said. \u201cIt was only Donna, all my life,\u201d Richards said. \u201dI\u2019ve always loved her.\u201dA reunion with his parents and a reckoning with what he called \u201ccomplex PTSD\u201d came before he called Flagg in 2001. From L.A., where he had moved in with the model and actor Fabio Lanzoni (yes, the Fabio), he told her, \u201cI owe you an explanation. I would really like to talk to you.\u201dAdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTWithin a month, the two met for dinner at the Spanish restaurant El Quijote, in Chelsea. \u201cMy heart broke,\u201d Flagg said, when he explained the circumstances of his disappearance. \u201cI felt terrible for him.\u201d Before he had escaped from the compound, he had been subjected to mental and physical abuse. Flagg was seeing someone at the time, but not long after, when Richards asked her to get back together, she didn\u2019t say no.\u201cI\u2019ve never not loved Hoyt,\u201d she said.Their breakup two years later may have been unavoidable, both say. \u201cI\u2019d been traumatized, and I was still fairly early in my recovery,\u201d Richards said. He was still living in Los Angeles, where he worked as an actor and script writer; in 2005, he married an actress.When he and Flagg next met, in the spring of 2011, he was divorced. Flagg, then the president of a management consulting company, was on the bus headed to her part-time job as a teacher at Joffrey Ballet School when she spotted Richards, in town for business, out the window near her stop on Sixth Avenue. When she hopped off the bus, they shared a moment of wonder at the chance meeting.Then they set a date for drinks.That spring, at Bar Veloce, \u201cwe talked for hours, and we cried,\u201d Flagg said. \u201cI called it \u2018the Hoyt and Donna show,\u2019 because we would get together, and it would all start up again.\u201d This time, the relationship lasted three years before they broke up.They kept in touch loosely until 2022, when Richards called Flagg to ask if she would participate in a docuseries in production at HBO Max about his life in the cult and his career. \u201cBring Me the Beauties: A Model Cult,\u201d came out in June.\u201cI told him, I\u2019m not discussing our relationship with strangers on camera before I discuss it with you,\u201d Flagg said. \u201cIt had all been quite devastating and quite intense. We needed to have a meeting of the minds.\u201dAdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTThe couple, who will continue to maintain homes in New York and Los Angeles, hosted 60 guests at their wedding.That December, Richards flew to New York. When he left a week later, they had come to an agreement about their 30-year on-again, off-again love affair. They wanted to try again. \u201cWe had gotten rid of all the crap between us, all the pain,\u201d Flagg said. \u201cWe were just, like, let\u2019s be in each other\u2019s lives. Let\u2019s keep all the good stuff.\u201dThree years later, in May 2025, Richards proposed in the Chelsea apartment. \u201cIt was either Donna or I wasn\u2019t going to get married at all,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was only Donna, all my life. I\u2019ve always loved her.\u201dOn Sept. 4, Flagg and Richards were married on Jetties Beach in Nantucket.Katie McNabb, Richards\u2019s oldest sister, obtained a one-day officiant\u2019s license through the state of Massachusetts to marry them. During Richards\u2019s entanglement with Eternal Values she, like Rory and the other siblings, had been painfully estranged from him for more than a decade.In handwritten vows, Richards traced his feelings about the long path he and Flagg had traveled for their 60 guests. \u201cDonna became an oasis for me in the midst of a turbulent storm that it would take me years to fully understand,\u201d he said, as waves lapped the shore. \u201cIf you\u2019re very fortunate, the one you thought got away didn\u2019t after all.\u201dImage\u201cDonna became an oasis for me in the midst of a turbulent storm,\u201d Richards said in his vows.AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTOn This DayWhen Sept. 4, 2026Where Jetties Beach in Nantucket, Mass.Back for Good After the wedding, guests gathered for a dessert reception at Ten Easy Street, a local design house. The signature drink, an Aperol spritz, was given the nickname Cupid\u2019s Comeback.Spread the Word Richards still works as a model, actor and filmmaker. He has also formed a company, Hoyt Richards Consulting, to provide resources to families who have lost loved ones to what he called \u201ccultic situations.\u201d He plans to start traveling to universities to share his story. \u201cI want people to have the information I wish I had at that age,\u201d he said. \u201cThey should be aware that these people are out there,\u201d and that even those who think they are immune \u201care incredibly vulnerable to these forms of manipulation.\u201dSame Corner For now, Flagg and Richards will maintain homes on both coasts. But they don\u2019t expect to spend a lot of time apart. \u201cI\u2019ve always said that Donna contributed to me getting out of the cult,\u201d Richards said. Though he lost sight of her for years, he said he doesn\u2019t plan to do so again.AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENT",
    "published_at": "2026-09-18T04:00:12+00:00",
    "author_name": "Tammy LaGorce",
    "site_name": "The New York Times",
    "section": "Style",
    "publisher": "The New York Times Company",
    "ai_headline": "He Left Her for a Cult, but It Would Be Years Before She Knew It",
    "ai_simplified_title": "Hoyt Richards and Donna Flagg Marry After Cult Separation",
    "ai_excerpt": "Hoyt Richards, a male supermodel, disappeared from Donna Flagg's life in 1998 due to his involvement in a religious cult. After years apart and his escape from the cult, the couple reconnected and were married on Jetties Beach in Nantucket, Mass., on Sept. 4, 2026.",
    "ai_subject_tags": [
        "Weddings",
        "Relationships",
        "Cults",
        "Supermodels",
        "Love Stories",
        "Marriage"
    ],
    "ai_context_type": "News",
    "ai_context_details": {
        "tone": "informative",
        "perspective": "neutral",
        "audience": "general",
        "credibility_indicators": []
    },
    "ai_source_vector": null,
    "ai_confidence_score": 0.9999999999999999,
    "ai_extraction_metadata": {
        "extracted_at": "2026-09-18T18:06:17.360378Z",
        "ai_model": "gemini-2.5-flash",
        "extraction_method": "automated",
        "content_length": 12434,
        "metadata_prompt_body_chars": 12434,
        "metadata_prompt_truncated": false,
        "url": "https:\/\/nytimes.com\/2026\/09\/18\/style\/donna-flagg-hoyt-richards-wedding.html",
        "existing_metadata": {
            "author_name": null,
            "published_at": null,
            "domain_name": "nytimes.com",
            "site_name": null,
            "section": null,
            "publisher": null
        },
        "openai_refusal_gemini_fallback": false
    }
}

{
    "extracted_at": "2026-09-18T18:06:17.360378Z",
    "ai_model": "gemini-2.5-flash",
    "extraction_method": "automated",
    "content_length": 12434,
    "metadata_prompt_body_chars": 12434,
    "metadata_prompt_truncated": false,
    "url": "https:\/\/nytimes.com\/2026\/09\/18\/style\/donna-flagg-hoyt-richards-wedding.html",
    "existing_metadata": {
        "author_name": null,
        "published_at": null,
        "domain_name": "nytimes.com",
        "site_name": null,
        "section": null,
        "publisher": null
    },
    "openai_refusal_gemini_fallback": false
}