She spent her formative years inside a controversial religious group—one where “free love” was encouraged, obedience was expected, and children were taught to prepare for the second coming.For a while, it almost seemed peaceful… until it wasn’t.Her father ran an Italian branch of the Children of God, and while most children were learning to ride bikes or going to school, she was living in communal spaces. She traveled across Europe with her parents, watching the adults around her embrace a lifestyle she never truly felt connected to.

Even early on, she sensed something wasn’t right.She believed in God, yes—but she rejected the strict roles the group imposed on women and what she would later describe as its “hippie aesthetic.”“I remember observing how the [cult’s] men interacted with the women, and at a very young age, I resolved that I did not want to be like those women. They were essentially there to cater to the men sexually—it was acceptable to have multiple wives,” she told People.She refused to dress like the other girls and pushed back against the idea that women existed to serve men. She didn’t fit their expectations, and she knew it. As a child, she rebelled by setting a pile of Bibles on fire and answering “no” whenever someone asked whether she had “let God into her heart.”