Nicki Clyne barred from contacting jailed Keith Raniere, ex-wife Allison Mack
NXIVM alum Nicki Clyne would love to communicate with jailed exes Keith Raniere and Allison Mack — but “unfortunately” is not allowed to, the “Battlestar Galactica” actress tells Page Six in an exclusive new interview.
“I have no communication with Allison or Keith,” she claims when asked about current relationships with her ex-wife and the NXIVM co-founder, who are both behind bars for crimes related to their involvement in the controversial — and now dismantled — organization.
“I stopped being able to communicate with Allison when she decided to cooperate with the government, which is over three years ago now,” Clyne continues.
The “Smallville” star, 40 — who was married to Clyne, 39, from February 2017 until December 2020 — was sentenced to three years in prison in June 2021 after pleading guilty to charges she manipulated women into becoming sex slaves for NXIVM’s leader, Raniere, 62.
Mack is currently incarcerated at a Dublin, Calif., facility.
Both Mack and Clyne were part of DOS (an acronym for a Latin phrase that roughly translates to “master over obedient female companions”), a coalition that Clyne asserts was “separate” from NXIVM. The company was established in 1998 as a multi-level marketing company that focused on self-help curriculums.
“There was a lot of crossover in the people who were involved [in DOS] and in some of the philosophy and practices,” Clyne notes.
“But people are conflating an organization with thousands of people with Keith’s private sex life. From my point of view, every woman who had a relationship with him did so because she wanted to.”
Clyne believes Mack only cooperated with authorities after Raniere was charged with possession of child pornography, which the former considers the “linchpin” that led to a succession of plea deals among ex-acolytes.
“The government brought this inflammatory charge, probably the worst charge that anyone could be charged within the criminal justice system,” she says.
“And because the judge wouldn’t sever their trials and make them separate trials, they couldn’t go to trial with Keith and hope to win. It just wouldn’t happen.”
Clyne, who never faced charges amid the mounting controversy surrounding NXIVM, holds no ill will toward Mack for making a plea deal.
When asked what she would like to tell Mack today, if given the opportunity to talk, Clyne says, “I would just want Allison to know that I love her and I support her.”
She continues, “And I know that she’s had to make some very tough decisions and that all I want to be is a source of positivity and support in her life.”
Clyne tells Page Six that she maintained communication with Raniere after he was locked up — until “the prison made up some bogus reason why I wasn’t allowed to speak to him” more than a year ago.
“I’ve been involved for two years now, since I’ve learned the conditions of prison and what people are going through — particularly during COVID — it was very, very bad,” she explains. “And I started communicating with people in prison and I still do.”
Aware of Clyne’s advocacy, Raniere put her in touch with a fellow inmate who had “hardly anyone to talk to” on the outside and was interested in exploring his Jewish heritage.
“There was someone in his unit that had no family and wanted to find out his maternal ancestry to know whether he should practice Judaism and he thought, ‘Maybe Nicki can help you out,’ and he asked me and I said yes,” she recalls.
“So I was in touch with another inmate in his unit and I guess one day the guy was about to call me and he told Keith and Keith said, ‘OK, send my love.’ So over the phone, he said, ‘Keith sends his love.’”
Such a transit put a prison official on edge, Clyne says, and she soon found herself unable to speak with Raniere.
“The prison used that comment to say that Keith was trying to subvert proper prison protocol to communicate with me — which makes no sense because I was in touch with him over the phone, during visits,” she points out. “He had no reason to do that, but that’s what they used as the reason.”
Raniere was sentenced to 120 years in prison following his 2019 conviction on charges of federal sex trafficking, racketeering and possession of child pornography. He was also fined $1.75 million.
Raniere has always denied all of the charges against him — and claims that the FBI planted child pornography on his hard drive.
Raniere’s legal team accused the FBI of tampering with the photographic evidence to fit the “government’s narrative” and “secure convictions for the racketeering acts of possessing child pornography and sexual exploitation of a minor” — according to a motion for appeal filed this year by attorney Joseph Tully and obtained by the Post.
Clyne believes the prison’s choice to bar Raniere from further communication with her was punishment for bringing forward the FBI tampering allegations.
“I think that was more tied to retaliating against him for bringing forward the FBI tampering issues and the other ways he’s fighting his case in court and thinking that maybe the more they punish him and the more they make him feel isolated and not having support, that he might give up,” she surmises.
In an opinion filed Friday, a three-judge panel from the Manhattan-based Second Circuit Court of Appeals wrote they were unmoved by Raniere’s motion for appeal.
“Raniere has failed to persuade us that there is insufficient evidence to sustain his convictions,” the opinion stated.
Raniere is serving time at a prison near Tucson, Ariz., where he was allegedly attacked by a fellow inmate and sex offender.
He was in the dining hall at 6:50 a.m. July 26 “when he was assaulted by inmate Maurice Withers with a closed fist on Mr. Raniere’s head and face,” his lawyers wrote in the September suit against the Justice Department and the Bureau of Prisons.
Clyne has become increasingly concerned for Raniere’s safety in jail.
“I very much fear for Keith’s safety. I think that we’ve seen throughout history, where unpopular inmates have been attacked or killed,” she tells Page Six. “And with the charges that Keith has, that certainly puts him at risk on its face.”
With that said, Clyne yearns to check in on Raniere. “I would just want to ask him how he is and how he feels,” she shares.
NXIVM, DOS and the eventual imprisonment of Raniere, Mack and others have been heavily covered across two seasons of HBO Max’s “The Vow” docuseries.
Clyne participated in Season 2, which recently finished airing, and says the second installment of the project continued to perpetuate a “very specific narrative” she “completely [disagrees]” with.
“It is totally inaccurate as far as my story is concerned and I don’t know if I’d go as far as to say I regret participating, but I would say that it is certainly unfortunate that they missed the opportunity to provide what they offered when I said yes to filming with them for the second season — which is a more nuanced, complex, human perspective where I’d get to actually tell my story,” she claims.
“They’ve taken things that I’ve said completely out of context, without giving any background of who I am, why I’ve made the choices I have, what I saw and all the evidence I offered to them to show why I have the point of view that I do.”
Clyne contends that she is “not a victim” and that her participation in NXIVM and DOS was rooted in empowerment.
“I really think the whole narrative is sexist and infantilizing,” she says. “I’ve gotten a lot of criticism from people thinking I don’t care about women or I’m against women. And it’s exactly the opposite. I want women to feel empowered, to feel like causing agents in their own lives.”
