Elli Hakami and Julian P. Hobbs, directors of the new TLC docuseries The Cult of the Real Housewife — about The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City star Mary Cosby allegedly running a mind control cult — say they took their cue to investigate the reality TV star from the Bravo series on which she stars.
“They arrived there before we arrived there,” Hobbs tells The Hollywood Reporter about the Salt Lake City-set version of the Real Housewives series, which is now in its sixth season. RHOSLC went into its second season with a trailer where co-star Whitney Rose teased “all of the rumors are that Mary is a cult leader,” and that season included an appearance by Mary Cosby whistleblower Cameron Williams, a former member of her Faith Temple Pentecostal Church.
“Then we thought, ‘All right, let’s stress test this. Let’s dig deeper than just letting the series itself answer this question.’ And therefore, the door opened,” adds Hobbs, who runs Talos Films with Hakimi.
Among the allegations in the TLC docuseries (trailer, above) is that Mary Cosby and her husband, Bishop Robert Cosby Sr., manipulated church members into emptying their bank accounts to underwrite their purchase of mansions and an opulent lifestyle, and that Mary Cosby had an affair with Cameron Williams, who allegedly gave the Cosbys around $300,000 of his savings.
Williams made veiled allegations against Mary Cosby during his own RHOSLC appearance alongside co-stars Meredith Marks and Lisa Barlow back in 2021. He died shortly after due to complications from brain tumor surgery.
Getting former Faith Temple congregants — like the Enoch family, Mary’s sister Denise Jefferson Okinada and Mary’s cousin Dan Cosby, along with his wife Kim — to appear on camera in the Real Housewife-focused docuseries was complicated by Mary Cosby and her husband long being regarded as pillars of Faith Temple, responsible for their congregation’s spiritual salvation.
That led to feelings of guilt and shame among ex-Faith Temple members over Mary Cosby and her husband allegedly abusing their spiritual power amid claims of extortion schemes and sexual transgressions. “They believed in their leaders. They believed in Bishop and Mary being people who were their conduits to the divine, and they were the ones who were shepherding their faith for them,” Hakami argues in conversation with THR.
She and Hobbes were aided in their investigation by Daily Beast entertainment reporter Cheyenne Roundtree, who appears in the three-part TLC series now streaming on HBO Max and Discovery+. Interviews with the former followers reveal many were outraged by the contrast between the Mary Cosby they had seen leading a church founded by her beloved grandmother, Rosemary “Mama” Cosby, and the extravagant lifestyle she showed on the RHOSLC series.
“It’s when Mary Cosby appeared on Real Housewives as this diva, this wealthy spiritual figure, that was a bridge too far for a lot of people. They’re like, ‘No, no, no. We have to come forward and speak our piece. We have to let people know the reality of what our experience was with Mary Cosby, versus the packaged television drama that people we’re seeing out there,’” Hobbes explains.
The Cult of the Real Housewife docuseries also captures the real-time social media chatter that fed speculation around Mary Cosby’s church that surfaced on RHOSLC. “That interactive component of the discussion is part of the churn that gets the conversation going. So while the producers of Real Housewives planted this story about is Mary running a cult, it was the digital media world that ran with that story and wanted answers and was questioning what was the truth about Mary,” Hobbes claims.
Much of the online buzz around Mary Cosby that overlapped with her role on The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City since joining that reality TV show in 2020 centered on a possible affair with Williams. Dan Cosby reveals in the TLC series a clip of a phone call he had with Williams before his death where the former church follower confirmed his affair with Mary Cosby.
“Look, we were on private jets, going on trips, she was buying me $2,500 shoes,” Williams is heard to say on the call. “Of course, in my head I’m like, ‘Wow’ … I truly was manipulated in so many ways. I’m embarrassed of myself at this point.” The Cult of the Real Housewife docuseries also relies on cult expert Steven Hassan to better understand how Mary Cosby and Bishop Cosby could allegedly manipulate and coerce their followers into handing over their life savings to people seen as faith healers capable of delivering them from evil.
“It’s a playbook. It’s a recipe. It goes back to Behavioralism, understanding that the mind is malleable and any human, any one of us, can fall under the sway of coercive control; and you can actually learn the system to exert that coercive control,” Hobbes says. Mary Cosby sat out season three of RHOSLC, returned briefly in the fourth season and was restored to her starring role in the fifth season — all with no further mention of running a cult made in the series. The sixth season is currently airing on Bravo.
Hobbes and Hakimi reached out to Mary Cosby and Bishop Cosby to respond to the allegations made in The Cult of the Real Housewife, but received a “no comment” in return.
But Hobbes sees a possible reckoning ahead following the docuseries’ release on Jan. 1. “In the court of public opinion, Mary has controlled a lot of believers to craft the narrative, and what we’re trying to do is provide a different perspective you haven’t heard, in order to even up the playing field and let those who haven’t been heard have a voice,” he claims.
“It will be an interesting moment when this film comes out, that you’re going to hear a perspective that has not been allowed to be platformed,” Hobbes adds.
THR has also reached out to Bravo for comment from the reality series’ producers, and co-star Mary Cosby over the allegations in the TLC docuseries.
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