Mitchelle Pfeiffer - Part of a Cult Group

Michelle Pfeiffer has revealed that she was once part of a cult – which taught that humans can exist without food or water.

The 55-year-old actress explained how she had become involved with a ‘controlling’ couple when she first moved to Hollywood in her early twenties.

The pair, who believed in ‘breatharianism’, tried to convert the star – and put her on a diet that ‘nobody could adhere to’.

She claims she was only saved when she was introduced to her first husband Peter Horton.

The actor had been cast in a film about the Moonies, followers of Rev Sun Myung Moon’s Unification Church. 

While she was helping him research the role, it dawned on her that she too was a member of a type of ‘cult’. 

She said: ‘We were talking with an ex-Moonie and he was describing the psychological manipulation and I just clicked.’

Describing the couple as ‘kind of personal trainers,’ she added: ‘They worked with weights and put people on diets. 

'Their thing was vegetarianism. They were very controlling.

‘I wasn’t living with them but I was there a lot and they were always telling me I needed to come more.

'I had to pay for all the time I was there so it was financially very draining. They believe that people in their highest state were breatharian.’

Followers of breatharianism believe that food and water is unnecessary – as sunlight can provide all the nourishment that the body needs.

But the practice has been linked to several deaths, including that of Verity Linn, 49, who died in a remote part of the Scottish Highlands in 1999.

Her diary mentioned the teachings of Jasmuheen – a self-proclaimed prophet from Australia, also known as Ellen Greve, who thinks people can draw nourishment from the ‘divine life force in the form of liquid light’.

Miss Pfeiffer also denied having plastic surgery, but admitted that she had found ageing difficult.

She said: ‘The loss of youth, the loss of beauty – it plays havoc with your psyche. I used to think I would never have surgery but I’m in the “never say never” camp now.’