Did NXIVM Leader Keith Raniere Have Children?

It’s now common knowledge that NXIVM leader Keith Raniere had many sexual partners, and even so-called sex slaves, but did any of his relationships result in children?

Raniere, along with other high ranking NXIVM members have been arrested in recent years after the multi-level marketing group was exposed as having a sex cult center. Prosecutors said Raniere used his self-help organization as a way to manipulate and victimize women. While NXIVM purportedly to empower women, dozens of women were asked to give over collateral —or black mail material — in exchange for becoming sex slaves in the group’s secret society DOS. Many members of DOS, as HBO’s new docuseries “The Vow” shows, were having sex with Raniere. He was convicted for racketeering, sex trafficking, and other charges in 2019.

Keith Raniere, Mariana and their son Kemar in San Pedro Garza Garcia, Mexico in 2017. Photo: The Frank Report

Raniere has two known children with two different mothers, and both mothers had strong connections to NXIVM. One was even the sister of one of his slaves, according to testimony.

Blogger and former NXIVM publicist Frank Parlato, who first exposed the DOS group on his blog “Frank Report” ahead of the 2017 New York Times expose on the group, told Oxygen.com that Raniere fathered a son named Gaelyn, who is about 13 now, with Kristin Keeffe.

Keeffe was a longtime partner of Raniere’s and a high ranking member of NXIVM. She fled the organization in 2014 and went into hiding with her son, the Times Union reported in 2014.

Parlato said he provided an apartment for Keeffe and her son for over a year while they were in hiding. 

“They’re doing well,” he said of the mother and son. “They’re in the northeast. They’re still somewhat in hiding because of Raniere's dangerous attributes.”

Since he stopped doing publicity work with NXIVM, Parlato has been embroiled in several legal battles with the group. Parlato was once accused of stealing $1 million from Sara and Clare Bronfman, NXIVM members and Seagrams heirs, Buffalo News reported last year. Those charges were later dropped. Prosecutors have also claimed that Parlato cheated the Internal Revenue Service. He has denied the tax fraud accusations and his trial has been delayed until next year, the Niagara Gazette reported in August. Clare pleaded guilty to conspiracy to conceal and harbor illegal aliens for financial gain and fraudulent use of identification last year.

Parlato told Oxygen.com that when Raniere fled to Mexico in 2017 following the public exposure of DOS, Parlato hired private investigators to track him down. In turn, they snapped photos of him pushing a baby stroller alongside a woman. The photo offered the first hint that Raniere fathered another child. The baby in the stroller is Raniere’s second son Kemar, according to Parlato. He said the woman is Mariana, Kemar's mother. Testimony reported by Rolling Stone last year also notes that a woman named Mariana had Raniere’s child.

Jurors heard testimony last year from Mariana’s sister and former NXIVM member Daniela, who claimed she was kept captive by Raniere in a room for more than two years. The alleged imprisonment was punishment for Daniela after she apparently fell in love with another man.

Daniela testified that both she and two of her sisters all terminated pregnancies after they were impregnated by Raniere, BuzzFeed News reported last year. Daniela said when she got pregnant in 2003, Raniere instructed her on how to terminate the pregnancy. She testified that in 2008, her younger sister Camila was also impregnated by Raniere and Raniere had high ranking members help her get an abortion as well. Daniela also testified that Mariana had two Raniere-related abortions before getting pregnant with him a third ime.

Parlato said that Kemar, who is now about 3, lives in Mexico with his mother.