'The Vow' Episode 7: Meet Toni Natalie who met Keith Raniere before he founded NXIVM and helped bring him down
HBO's latest docuseries dives deep into the history of NXIVM (pronounced Nex-e-um) — the organization linked to businessman Keith Raniere, 'Smallville' actress Allison Mack and many federal charges, including sex trafficking and child sex trafficking. 'The Vow' refers to the literal vow women who joined a secret sex cult within NXIVM were made to take — that they would not sleep with anyone else besides Raniere himself.
After a six-week trial in 2019, Raniere was convicted in June 2019 of charges, including racketeering, racketeering conspiracy, wire fraud conspiracy, forced labor conspiracy, sex trafficking, sex trafficking conspiracy and attempted sex trafficking. 'The Vow' features former members, including actresses Sarah Edmondson and Bonnie Piesse, as well as Piesse's spouse, filmmaker Mark Vicente, in the first few episodes as they describe their experiences joining NXIVM, meeting Raniere, and their subsequent departures from the group. Following this, they began the fight to bring to public attention about the real intentions of NXIVM, Raniere, and Mack, with the 1980s 'Dynasty' actress, Catherine Oxenberg joining in to rescue her daughter, India, from the group. The subsequent episodes then detail the legal fight to charge Raniere.
In this week's episode, the seventh of the nine-episode docu-series, we meet Toni Natalie, whose impeccable documentation of her time with Keith Raniere helped with much of the legal paperwork to get the authorities' attention. Natalie had met Raniere much before he started NXIVM and describes in 'The Vow', how Raniere and co-founder, Nancy Salzman, came about creating NXIVM. Natalie had met Raniere when he was running Consumers Buyline Inc. and became a top seller along with her then-husband in the company.
Once, when Raniere noticed the smell of cigarettes on Natalie, he asked her if she wanted to quit smoking. When she replied in the affirmative, he led her to a quiet room and they talked — about what makes her nervous and what makes her anxious. He touched what he called "trigger points" in her hands, telling her to touch them whenever she got the urge to smoke. When she later emerged from the room thinking it had only been 15 minutes, her then-husband told her she had been in the room for two and a half hours. Natalie grew closer to Raniere and eventually began a romantic relationship with him as her marriage crumbled. She moved to Albany with Raniere and spent much of the next eight years in a relationship with Raniere. By 1997, the relationship started breaking down. Natalie had sought Salzman's help when she felt Raniere was becoming less sharp. However, once Salzman met Raniere, she herself became enamored with him, according to an interview Natalie had with the podcast, Pink Shade.
In 1999, Raniere's eight-year relationship with Natalie ended and she subsequently claimed to have become a victim of Raniere's harassment. She also claimed that she was repeatedly raped by Raniere prior to leaving. In her 2019 book, 'The Program: Inside the Mind of Keith Raniere and the Rise and Fall of NXIVM', Natalie details experiencing what she calls "terrorism by litigation", saying she was wrapped up in baseless lawsuits spanning decades. She also says those close to Raniere stole her mail, broke into her home and spread false claims. She also alleged that Raniere poisoned and killed her dog in 2004.
'The Vow' airs on HBO on Sunday nights at 10/9c.