India Oxenberg

India Oxenberg was born on June 7, 1991, in Los Angeles, California, to Catherine Oxenberg and William Weitz Shaffer. Her parents were never married but Shaffer was involved in her upbringing. However, she was reportedly forbidden to reveal who her real father was because of Shaffer’s troubled past. When Catherine and Shaffer met, he was a fugitive living in Germany. In 1992, he pleaded guilty in a court in Seattle, Washington to the charges of smuggling several tons of marijuana from Thailand. According to the authorities, Shaffer and other members of his criminal group made about $50 million from this venture. Despite this, Shaffer had been an attentive father and was present at Oxenberg’s first birthday celebration. After he was incarcerated, Catherine would take their daughter to the prison so that she could spend time with her father.

Through her mother, Oxenberg is related to the House of Karageorgevich, the former royal family of the Kingdom of Serbia and the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. Her maternal grandmother is Princess Elizabeth of Yugoslavia. Catherine was a popular actress in the 1980s and 1990s. One of her most popular portrayals was of Amanda Carrington in ABC’s prime time soap opera ‘Dynasty’ (1984-86). The role was later recast with Karen Cellini.

Oxenberg has two half-sisters through her mother’s marriage to actor Casper Van Dien: Maya Van Dien and Celeste Van Dien. She has reportedly dated singer Hudson Franzoni.

India Oxenberg debuted on the small screen with the telefilm ‘The Vector File’ in 2002, portraying a character named Mattie. In 2005, she lent her voice to a character in the ‘Starship Troopers’ video game. She made her cinematic debut in 2012 with the comedy film ‘Noobz’. Oxenberg has also appeared in Lifetime’s reality show based on her family, ‘I Married a Princess’ (2005) and served as part of the production crew on various projects. In 2013, she was the assistant to Pierce Brosnan on the set of ‘The November Man’ (2014).

In 2011, Catherine took her daughter to an NXIVM seminar in Venice, California believing it to be a business skills class. Her intention was apparently to help her daughter as she had low self-esteem. She reportedly found the organization to be “weird and creepy” but Oxenberg was interested in what they were offering. She subsequently became more and more involved with NXIVM and even donated most of her inheritance to them.

Oxenberg later relocated to Albany, New York, where the headquarters of NXIVM is situated and became further immersed into the organisation. She allegedly became a slave in the sex cult and even received a branding, which, according to her mother, represents the initials of NXIVM leader Keith Raniere.

After being wary of NXIVM for a considerable period, Catherine actively began to campaign against the organisation and tried to get her daughter out of it after she was contacted by an NXIVM detractor who told her that she had to save India. The detractor informed her in detail about what was happening to her daughter, who was part of the core of NXIVM, called DOS. Besides branding, the women were beaten and put on a restrictive, 800-calorie diet. Furthermore, they were compelled to hand over nude pictures and make recorded confessions about family members. They were warned that if they leave NXIVM, these things would be released to the public.

Several members of Oxenberg’s family also voiced their support for Catherine. Oxenberg’s father came out of hiding to plead to her to leave NXIVM. In 2017, ‘The New York Times’ and several other publications ran exposés of the organisation. About a year later, both Raniere and Mack were indicted on charges, such as sex trafficking, sex trafficking conspiracy, and conspiracy to commit forced labour. In September, in an interview to ‘The Sun,’ India Oxenberg’s mother revealed that India was safe and “in a really good place.”