Mar 4, 2026 · 1 hr 16 min · 19 segments
Ladies and gentlemen, we’ve got David Archuleta! From the pressure of being Mormonism’s golden boy after American Idol to embracing his sexuality and learning to trust himself, David opens up about…
David ArchuletaGuestHaley RallHostI believe it's at the end of the book, you're talking a little bit about this process of kind of talking through this with your family.
And I also found it really beautiful how you paint the picture of your whole family, because ultimately, this is a story, I think, about family in a huge way.
And it was something kind of surprising to me, because I was expecting... more I guess of like the church stuff at the beginning and I was like oh this is a story about family and family dynamics and then it was really interesting to see how the church maybe played into that or exacerbated that but I feel like when, as I interpreted your story, you had this really controlling dynamic with your dad.
And then it seems like though the church was obviously a part of your life and your upbringing, it seems like during some of that kind of like tumultuousness, you found an even deeper connection with the church, almost as a means of like...
You talk about this in your book of, oh, well, now this is the thing that can offer me control and this can be my authority.
Like if you noticed that dynamic happening in real time or it's just now in retrospect, you can kind of see why you became so churchy at that point in your life.
Yeah, it wasn't something I saw until I was writing the book and seeing how the story played in chronological order.
Because I looked at it, I was like, my dad was, like, in a lot of ways, my God.
Because he was the one guiding me and showing me who I really was supposed to be.
And when I was finally strong enough to cut, you know, put some kind of boundary with my dad, I felt like I cut off my lifeline.
Who's going to tell me what to do? I'd cut off my dad, but I still was holding on to this belief that I couldn't function without him.
I couldn't function without someone telling me what to do, because that belief had already been instilled in me, and I wasn't ready to... trust and believe in myself so when this band member came was now there i just transmitted this need to be controlled onto her yeah and i became obsessed with That's when I really became obsessed with my religion.
I was already pretty committed to it, but it became my everything at that point and filled in whatever gaps were now missing from where my dad once was filling.
What do you think were the seeds of that for you, developing this really intense relationship with religion?
I believe it's at the end of the book, you're talking a little bit about this process of kind of talking through this with your family.
And I also found it really beautiful how you paint the picture of your whole family, because ultimately, this is a story, I think, about family in a huge way.
And it was something kind of surprising to me, because I was expecting... more I guess of like the church stuff at the beginning and I was like oh this is a story about family and family dynamics and then it was really interesting to see how the church maybe played into that or exacerbated that but I feel like when, as I interpreted your story, you had this really controlling dynamic with your dad.
And then it seems like though the church was obviously a part of your life and your upbringing, it seems like during some of that kind of like tumultuousness, you found an even deeper connection with the church, almost as a means of like...
You talk about this in your book of, oh, well, now this is the thing that can offer me control and this can be my authority.
Like if you noticed that dynamic happening in real time or it's just now in retrospect, you can kind of see why you became so churchy at that point in your life.
Yeah, it wasn't something I saw until I was writing the book and seeing how the story played in chronological order.
Because I looked at it, I was like, my dad was, like, in a lot of ways, my God.
Because he was the one guiding me and showing me who I really was supposed to be.
And when I was finally strong enough to cut, you know, put some kind of boundary with my dad, I felt like I cut off my lifeline.
Who's going to tell me what to do? I'd cut off my dad, but I still was holding on to this belief that I couldn't function without him.
I couldn't function without someone telling me what to do, because that belief had already been instilled in me, and I wasn't ready to... trust and believe in myself so when this band member came was now there i just transmitted this need to be controlled onto her yeah and i became obsessed with That's when I really became obsessed with my religion.
I was already pretty committed to it, but it became my everything at that point and filled in whatever gaps were now missing from where my dad once was filling.
What do you think were the seeds of that for you, developing this really intense relationship with religion?
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3 of 14
A Childhood Revenge Plot
Family secrets can profoundly reshape a child’s reality
When Family Betrays Children
Family trauma can remain frozen for years
Fear Is Not Divine
Fear can masquerade as faith and obedience
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