Family of ‘lacking’ Gossip Girl star Chanel Maya Banks insist she’s joined a Christian cult in tearful video

The family of ‘missing’ Gossip Girl star Chanel Maya Banks have insisted she has been ‘brainwashed’ by a Christian cult.

The actress, 36, was reported missing earlier this month by her family after they claimed they hadn’t heard from her in two weeks, before she was found safe in Texas on Monday.

When she was discovered, Banks said she was fleeing her family to be baptized by doomsday Pastor Robert Clancey, who had recently advertised a three-day ‘end times prophetic gathering’ in Texas and claimed her family had abused her.

In turn her loved ones bizarrely claimed claimed she was being imitated by an imposter online.

In a new press conference in LA on Friday, her mother and cousin Danielle-Tori Singh slammed the abuse claims as ‘false’ and claimed the actress was being held against her will in the Christian group – before breaking down in tears.

Singh said: ‘If she was abused… first of all my grandmother would never allow that, there are no police reports anywhere, if she had bruises on her , school would have noticed… she was involved in extra curricular activities too, there’s not one report on that

When asked: ‘Do you believe she’s being brainwashed by this group?’ Singh responded: ‘Yes I do believe so, I know my cousin, she’s a very smart girl.

‘And what I can tell you, I’ve sent out and posted the Youtube video, we did identify her from… you notice everybody is sitting down or standing up

‘Why does Chanel make the move to move across the screen? She knew it was live, they were recording and maybe that was her way of showing the world, hey I’m here I can’t get out, they have my phone

‘I’m not allowed technology because we’re supposed to grow closer to God.’

The pair were later seen crying after the press conference.

This comes after Banks  proved she isn’t missing in dramatic fashion by sharing a YouTube video teasing an upcoming tell-all interview on her ‘toxic’ family.

In an apparent attempt to disprove the claims, Banks shared a YouTube reel of herself preparing to speak about the strange saga, telling fans: ‘As you can see, I am alive.’

‘Interview loading,’ she added while gazing at the camera in a full face of makeup.

Banks also updated her Instagram bio to say: ‘I AM NOT MISSING. I just want to be free of a toxic woman and her family. INTERVIEW INCOMING.’

Banks did not say when the tell-all interview will be released or on what platform she will share it on.

Following a two-week search for the star, who played Sawyer Bennett in the hit Netflix show, Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) located a 36-year-old in Texas on Monday, claiming they had found the actress unharmed.

Singh previously took to her Instagram story to share: ‘I have the still from Texas PD body cam footage that was shown to us on Monday Nov 11 at the Pacific Police Station in LA.

‘This is the woman they’re telling us is Chanel. We have told them this is not Chanel. They didn’t listen to us and closed the case.

‘That’s why @ohhheychanel won’t post a video saying she’s safe because it’s not Chanel,’ Singh wrote, after flying in from Toronto to help with the search. 

Singh previously said LAPD’s update was ‘fake news’ and that the woman they found and claimed to be Banks is an ‘imposter’.

She added that she will continue distributing ‘Missing Persons’ flyers, ABC7 reports.

It comes after Banks took to social media on Wednesday night with a statement in which she made the series of strong allegations against her family.

An Instagram account associated with Banks posted four frames from a notes app screenshot in which she commented on the issues at hand. 

It was not immediately clear if Banks penned the posts herself on the account, which is verified and has made a total of 70 posts in more than three-and-a-half years, KTLA reported.

Her husband Carlos Jimenez told the station over the phone that Banks ‘had decided she didn’t want to talk to the family any more due to past issues that they had’.

She purportedly said on the social media site: ‘My name is Chanel Banks I’m a 36 year old American nobody,’ adding her family members ‘are all so very “concerned” about my current whereabouts.’

Banks, who also appeared on a 2010 episode of Blue Bloods, acknowledged that she had spoken with law enforcement amid the probe into her alleged vanishing.

‘I have met with the police and verified that not only am I okay, but I’m finally free from my … family,’ Banks said.

She alluded to her religious faith as a factor in why she had cut off contact with some of her relatives.

‘They say, once you’re free in Christ Jesus, you’re free indeed, so I told my husband six days ago I was going to get baptized by one of my favorite pastors Pastor Robert Clancy,’ Banks wrote. ‘He drove me to the airport and then I was off for a week.’

She continued, ‘God said: “I’m going to give you some money and I was shocked when it appeared just like He said!”

Banks said God told her to move, so she took a first-class flight ‘to the Promise Land.’

The actress also said she was ‘releasing a clarion call to those in high places who still have a soul and want to keep it in such a time as this. Reach out. Help me.’ 

Banks said she ‘found out hours before leaving’ that some of her relatives ‘were vehemently pursuing a CONSERVATORSHIP [i.e.] complete legal control.’

She added that ‘there will be no more lies’ and that ‘everything in the darkness must come to light … thus says the Lord.’

Banks ended her statement in saying: ‘PLEASE DO NOT DONATE TO ANY GO FUND ME THAT SAYS I’M MISSING I AM NOT MISSING.’ 

Relatives of the actress had previously reported her missing, claiming her husband Carlos Jimenez hadn’t been helping them in their search.

Police subsequently said that Banks, a resident of Playa Vista, California, had been located unharmed in Texas on Wednesday and that no foul play was suspected in the now-closed case.

Banks’ family claims they last heard from her on October 30 when she texted her cousin Danielle-Tori Singh, who is leading the fundraiser for her urgent return.

The actress had been living at an apartment in Playa Vista with her husband of one year before her family members suddenly stopped hearing from her, Singh told ABC7.

Singh claims that a tip led police to a residence in Texas and a woman who identified as Banks answered the door.

The family however, after viewing police body camera footage from the encounter, claim that woman was not Banks.

Authorities in California had carried out four welfare checks at the actress’s Playa Vista property this month alone but Banks was not home on any of the occasions, KTLA reported.

When the family visited the home, they discovered that her belongings were still at the location, including her ’emotional support’ dog and car. However, her phone and laptop were not found.