Famous faces who cut ties with the Mormon church and why they left in Australia and the world
From MasterChef's kitchen to Hollywood's red carpet, an extraordinary roster of celebrities shares one surprising secret: they all escaped the Mormon faith. Here’s why.
MasterChef judge Poh Ling Leow, rugby player Israel Folau, and Hollywood star Ryan Gosling are some of the famous ex-Mormons who have cut ties with the church.
Former New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio also grew up as Mormons but left the church.
Actors Katherine Heigl and Amy Adams and singer Jewel were also former Mormons, with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints claiming to have 17 million followers across the globe.
As many as 7 million are in the United States, with the religion headquartered in Salt Lake City in Utah.
Interest in the conservative Christian church has exploded with the growing popularity of reality television show, The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives.
Former members say leaving the church can be difficult, with the church still contacting members years after they have left unless their contact details are deleted from Mormon databases.
“It can be psychologically difficult,” Debbie Hoad, said of leaving the church.
“I handed a letter to my bishop as my resignation. But the church can keep contacting you, particularly if your family keeps updating them with your address. You can move and have missionaries turn up at your door.”
Ms Hoad, 59, said she knew MasterChef judge Poh and her brother when they all attended the church in Adelaide.
Poh has spoken about how she left the church when she was 25 after her family converted to the religion when they moved to Australia from Malaysia.
“There’s a lot of cultural obligation to do the right thing by your family, which is a very Chinese thing. You’re also spooked by the voodoo,” she told Body and Soul magazine.
“You think, “Oh my gosh, am I going to be struck down by God?”
She added she and her then husband were “able to build a moral foundation based on what we truly believed in, and not on what anyone else was telling us that we should believe”.
Folau, who played with the Wallabies in rugby union and AFL’s Greater Western Sydney Giants, left the Mormons in 2009 for an Assemblies of God Christian church.
The star player claimed he had “a personal experience with the holy spirit touching my heart”.
“I’ve never felt that before while I was involved in the Mormon church – until I came to the AOG church and accepted Christ.”
Folau dominated headlines when he made an incendiary social media post condemning gay people to hell.
He was sacked after he refused to take the post down and then sued Rugby Australia for $14 million, with the case settled in 2019.
Ryan Gosling has previously spoken about growing up as a Mormon in a small town in Canada.
He said his mother was a “religious zealot” who followed the church’s strict rules on eating and their ban on alcohol and coffee.
In a separate interview for the Village Voice in 2002, he said: “My parents were more Mormon than I was, but it did help me understand. I see how happy it makes my mother and sister, and I think it’s beautiful. Maybe I’m too selfish, or I’m jealous of their humility – that somebody can say, yeah, it doesn’t make sense but I’m going to believe it anyway.”
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Originally published as Famous faces who cut ties with the Mormon church and why they left in Australia and the world
