Actress Chanel Maya Banks claims she was never missing — but looked to ‘escape’ after having ‘zero authority’ over her life
“Gossip Girl” and “Blue Bloods” actress Chanel Maya Banks took to the Internet to confirm she was never missing after her family filed a police report saying they hadn’t heard from her in two weeks.
Banks, who was found in Texas on Monday, said that she was running away from her family to be baptized by Pastor Robert Clancey, who recently preached about the “end times.”
The pastor drove her to the airport so she could take “an opportunity to escape,” she wrote in an Instagram post.
“I have met with the police and verified that not only am I OK, but I’m finally free,” the 36-year-old actress wrote.
Banks was reported missing earlier this month by her mother and cousin after a welfare check found she was not at the Playa Vista apartment she shares with her husband, who has not been named.
Her cousin Danielle-Tori Singh previously told ABC 7 Eyewitness News she feared something was wrong when they couldn’t reach Banks.
“Five days without hearing from my cousin is red flags and alarm bells,” Singh said. “She doesn’t go more than 48 hours without speaking to me or her mom…That girl is more like a big sister to me.”
Banks, however, claimed in her post that she has not spoken to her cousin in “over 15 years.”
“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 concluded her post by asking people not to donate to any GoFundMe her relatives have set up claiming she is missing.
Her cousin, however, when told that Banks was found, told ABC it was “fake news” and said she would continue handing out “Missing Persons” flyers in Los Angeles.
The LAPD told The Post on Wednesday authorities located Banks in Texas.
She was uninjured and no foul play was suspected in her reported disappearance, authorities said.
It was not immediately clear why Banks took to the Lone Star State.
