When Gossip Girl star Chanel Maya Banks disappeared, her family's public pleas painted a picture of concern and mystery.
But when the actress resurfaced two weeks later, she didn't just explain her absence — she flipped the narrative on its head, declaring, "I am not missing."
The actor went on to claim her disappearance was an intentional attempt tobreak free from a lifetime of alleged abuse from her family, explaining she had willingly left "to escape my cage."
"Not only am I okay, but I'm finally free," she said.
"She is fine," LAPD spokesperson Charles Miller confirmed to People. "No danger. She is okay. She has been taken out of the missing person system for us and we have closed our investigation."
"My name is Chanel Banks, I'm a 36-year-old American nobody, and for my entire life I have been silently carrying the pain of the ritual… abuse, manipulation and outright endless torment I've endured continuously since I was a defenseless baby, at the hands of my own so-called family, who are all so very concerned about my current whereabouts," Banks alleged in a statement to True Crime News on November 13.
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The actor, who appeared as Sawyer Bennett in the 2000s iconic TV series Gossip Girl and had roles in Blue Bloods and the action thriller Twelve, said she had fled Los Angeles for Texas to get baptised — an escape she described as her "freedom ride".
Allegations of control and abuse.
Banks' family initially reported her missing on November 8, after they said she hadn't been heard from since October 30.
Her cousin Danielle-Tori Singh described her absence as alarming, telling ABC7 News: "Five days without hearing from my cousin is red flags and alarm bells. She doesn't go more than 48 hours without speaking to me or her mum… That girl is more like a big sister to me."
But Banks has refuted this, claiming on social media that she hasn't "spoken to Danielle in over 15 years much less every day or 48hrs as they've perjured.
"For decades my family has been my spiritual, physical, and emotional warden, giving me zero authority of my personage," she wrote.
"I was not allowed to make any decisions in life in any way without their approval."
Banks further claimed her family would "falsify official government documents relaying lies concerning my mental health" whenever she tried to leave.
She clarified, "For the record, I have no mental health or any other record aside from a parking ticket here and there."
Despite this, her cousin Singh told True Crime News that while they the family was "satisfied" knowing that Banks was safe, they believe she is "not well" and fear she may even be involved in a "cult".
"We know how these things go. This is not the first time a woman has gone missing in LA and saying, 'Don't contact me,' and the parents lose her, and they find they have to hire a private investigator," said Singh.
"Chanel is not the first person to have gone through this. We know how these things go. We know she's a part of a cult.
"We know this organised group is not allowing her phone because of all the things that have been written on social media without the facial recognition... there's so many holes in that story."
'Everything in the darkness must come to light.'
The actress also alleged that her family took extreme measures to isolate her and take away her independence.
"When I spoke up, they called me mad, mercilessly gang-stalked me, and obliterated any semblance of peace, a career, or connections I ever had. In this digital era, they were able for decades, without my knowledge or consent, to reach out to my colleagues, friends and even neighbours to sabotage and effectively destroy not only my life's work but any semblance of happiness or peace I could hold on to," she said.
She accused her family of gaslighting her to maintain control, alleging they "took shifts to isolate me by gaslighting me" and that it was their "life's goal to destabilise and break me".
"It's like they took shifts to isolate me by gaslighting me, lying to those who could help concerning my sanity, it was their life's goal to destabilise and break me."
In another concerning detail, Banks claimed she discovered just hours before her baptism that her family and her husband's family "were vehemently pursuing a conservatorship to silence me".
According to Singh, the actress' spouse told her that Banks did "not want to be found" and "will reach out when she's ready".
Amid her claims, Banks declared, "There will be no more lies. Everything in the darkness must come to light. Thus says the Lord."
Banks expressed her hope that speaking out would inspire others in similar situations. "I want to come out so that people like me won't be ashamed anymore. I want justice. I'm asking God to help me get justice," she said.
"I'm 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 the cause. Help me. I will never allow myself to be silenced ever again — least of all by my abusers," she said.
"I want freedom not just for myself, but for everyone suffering in silence."
Feature Image: Instagram/@ohheychanel; Getty.
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