[1] MacLean, who was born in Glasgow, Scotland,[1] grew up under poor conditions with a single mother who often left her daughter with relatives.
After one year, she returned to the UK and London, working as a call girl after getting involved in a prostitution-ring scandal, and then joining the Church of Scientology.
The next year they introduced the cult, The Process Church of The Final Judgment, to a small group of friends and like-minded people.
Robert de Grimston disappeared into the United States while Mary Ann MacLean tried to further develop a cult organisation, relocating the group to Arizona and renaming it The Foundation - Church of the Millennium.
In 2005, MacLean died, and the management of her charity was left to her second husband, Gabriel De Peyer,[6] a former Foundation Faith of God Church member and co-founder of Best Friends Animal Society.