Christine Marie, Who Took Down a 'False Prophet,' Has a Talented Singer-Songwriter Daughter

The Netflix true crime documentary Trust Me: The False Prophet documents a polygamist community and the self-proclaimed prophet at the center. Cult psychology expert Christine Marie and her husband, Tolga Katas, began working on a documentary meant to destigmatize people from the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS) community.

They gained the trust of Samuel Bateman, who was at the center of the community. In the process of filming Bateman, they recorded evidence of systemic sexual abuse, including the sexual abuse of young girls. This led to Bateman's 50-year prison sentence.

Christine Marie's experience of being manipulated by another false prophet inspired her to learn about cult psychology. Many are curious about Marie's family and personal life. Here's what we know.

Christine's daughter, Kandice Marie Melanakos, is a singer-songwriter who goes by the stage name "Lola Blanc." Lola is a true multi-hyphenate, as she has released multiple albums and singles, and she often directs her own music videos. She is also an actress, appearing in an episode of American Horror Story. The theme song for Trust Me: The False Prophet is one of Lola's songs.

When Lola was young, Christine was tricked into believing a false prophet. Lola was only 12 at the time, and she was manipulated into believing the false prophet as well, with compliments and gifts from the man whom she only describes as "Adam" in her essay.

After leaving the situation, Lola and her mom moved to Utah together to get a fresh start. In a TikTok, Lola says she's proud of her mom for going undercover and helping bring Bateman down.

Lola has a podcast, also named Trust Me, and she had her mom, Christine, on to discuss her experience with a false prophet in the first episode.

Lola and her mom appear close, and Lola mentioned in a TikTok that they used to perform as ventriloquists together.

In a Vice essay, Lola mentioned having brothers from her mom's previous marriage, per Swoon, but there isn't much information available about them.

There also isn't much information publicly available about Christine's ex-husband (Lola's father), but Lola's Wikipedia page lists her father as a Greek-American who was in the CIA.

Tolga Katas is a record producer, music video producer, and photographer who was born in Istanbul, Turkey, and raised in the U.S., according to Swoon. He was the producer and cinematographer for the Trust Me: False Prophet documentary.

Tolga and Christine celebrated their 20th wedding anniversary in 2025. In the Netflix documentary, Tolga talked about his experience meeting Christine. He said, "She had a TV show called Gingerbread House, and she was teaching kindergarten. I’d never met anybody like her in my life ... I would catch her doing crazy stuff, helping out people."

The couple is still living in Short Creek, the community in which they created the documentary, per Tudum.