Andrew Keegan from 10 Things I Hate About You addresses ‘cult leader’ rumours

Andrew Keegan denies being a cult leader.

The 10 Things I Hate About You actor addressed long-time whispers that he once ran a cult, maintaining that Full Circle – the community he co-founded in 2014 – was a spiritual movement and nothing else.

During his appearance on Monday’s episode of the Pod Meets World podcast, the 45-year-old actor – who portrayed the nemesis to Heath Ledger’s romantic lead Patrick Verona in his pursuit of Julia Stiles’ Kat Stratford – reflected on the time when he “woke up one day” and “was anointed a cult leader.”

Keegan moved to Venice, California in his early twenties. He recalled a time in 2013 – a year before he inaugurated his Venice-based community spiritual center – where he “got really immersed in the culture and the community” with the “hippie types.”

Per a statement on their official website, Full Circle claims to be the “home of a conscious social movement, we provide an experimental environment designed to creatively expand consciousness through visual and performing arts, movement classes, workshops, forums and healing therapies.”

Keegan reflected that though his intention was to “do some positive things for the community” it ended up costing him a lot.

Not only was he “putting down… tens of thousands of dollars,” he was also accused of starting a religion and being a “cult leader.”

He further slammed any such headlines as “clickbait central.”

Offering his final thoughts, Keegan reminisced, “We really just got together, and we did a Sunday thing and did almost a thousand events in three years and it was actually really hard, and it was really beneficial to a lot of people,” he shared.