Karen Zerby

In 2009, Zerby and Kelly renewed their apologies, acknowledged that certain applications of the 'Law of Love' had hurt members or destabilised families, and announced a major restructuring. In 2010, The Family International became a much less communal and more decentralised network; Zerby remained co-director until her retirement in 2025.

State of the evidence

Documented

Attribution

Directly implicated

Zerby and Steve Kelly published a letter of apology to second-generation members and former members. They acknowledged that, from the late 1970s to the mid-1980s, The Family had not provided children and young adolescents with as safe an environment as it should have, and apologised to those who had experienced inappropriate or harmful sexual experiences.

State of the evidence

Documented

Attribution

Directly implicated

Former member Davida Kelley told CNN that she had seen Karen Zerby engage in sexual intercourse with Ricky Rodriguez when he was 11. The allegation was repeated in several reports about Rodriguez's childhood and the community's practices.

Attribution

Accused

Ricky Rodriguez, raised as the movement's model child, murdered former member Angela Smith and then died by suicide. In a preparatory video, he said he wanted revenge for the abuse suffered during his childhood and expressed his intention to hold his mother Karen Zerby, and other leaders, accountable or make them pay.

State of the evidence

Documented

After David Berg's death in 1994, Zerby assumed leadership of the movement. This period coincided with a revision of governance, adoption of more formalised rules and the British Ward judgment, which found that the movement had broken with certain earlier sexual and disciplinary practices while requiring safeguards.

State of the evidence

Documented

The Family maintains that it prohibited all sexual contact between adults and minors in 1986 and made violations punishable by excommunication, before withdrawing or repudiating earlier texts. Zerby, already a member of the leadership circle, subsequently participated in reforms codifying these safeguards.

State of the evidence

Admitted by the person

After joining the movement in 1969, Zerby became David Berg's secretary, partner and later wife, occupying a central position in his inner circle. She participated in transcribing, producing or distributing doctrinal texts during the period when the movement promoted the 'Law of Love' and extremely permissive ideas about sexuality.

State of the evidence

Documented

Attribution

Directly implicated

The Los Angeles Times reproduced the contents of a 1985 letter attributed to Berg and his wife explicitly encouraging sexual experimentation between prepubescent boys and girls. This document establishes Zerby's direct editorial involvement in a doctrine now repudiated by the movement.

State of the evidence

Reported by the press

Attribution

Directly implicated