Known from movies

Piers Morgan Tonight (2013)
as herself

Raised to Hate: Kids of Westboro Baptist Church – ABC 20/20 (2010)
as herself

Brainwashed by the Westboro Baptist Church (2012)
as herself

The Most Hated Family in America (2007)
as herself



Lauren Drain Kagan is an American registered nurse, professional bikini model/athlete, certified personal fitness trainer, and author, who gained public attention after authoring the New York Times Bestselling eBook “Banished: Surviving My Years in the Westboro Baptist Church.” her personal memoir of her exile from Westboro Baptist Church.

Early life and family

Lauren Danielle Drain Kagan was born on December 31, 1985 in Tampa, Florida, USA, to parents Steve and Lucy Drain. She has a brother, Boaz Abel Drain, and two sisters, Taylor and Faithy Marie Drain. When she was five years old, the family was expelled from Florida and moved to Olathe, Johnson County, Kansas, while her father continued his graduate studies in philosophy at the University of Kansas while being paid as a teaching assistant in a Western Civilization course. .

Her mother was not too keen on the idea, but she had no choice because her father was very domineering. Eventually they adapted well and her mother started working as a dental hygienist at a local clinic. Her father would cycle around campus with her and show her his favorite spots. She fell in love in college, just like her father.

After living in Olathe for a year, Taylor was diagnosed with Wilms tumor, a kidney cancer. It was hard for the family, but they all bonded and supported each other to help Taylor. Lauren’s sister was cured and eventually went into full remission.

The Drain family went through different stages of life depending on her father’s decisions.

Once a preacher befriended her father and he began to study the Bible and told his family to live by the teachings of the Bible; however, when he fell out with the preacher, he became an infidel again.

After that stage, her father started living a hippie, bohemian, rock and roll lifestyle, with people going in and out of their homes, drinking and smoking weed. Instead of just two years in school, it took seven years and she racked up huge student loans as her father kept changing majors. It was a financial burden on the family, especially her mother, as her father lived irresponsibly and unfaithfully. Sometimes she felt that her mother wanted to get out of the marriage, but her father knew she never would.

Despite the cracks in the marriage, her father supported all of her school activities and even coached her softball team. In 1997, her father finally graduated with a master’s degree in film and then decided to move back to Tampa.

In 2000, during her freshman year of high school, her father began filming a documentary about the Westboro Baptist Church (WBC) entitled “Hatemonger.” This was supposed to be an exposé of the cult group spewing hatred against everyone under the guise of spreading God’s word. However, with just one instance of filming a WBC supporters protest event at a gay parade, he became fascinated with their beliefs. Instead of exposing them, he was indoctrinated into the WBC religion.

He decided to move to Topeka, Kansas to be closer to the WBC church; he then demanded that the entire family live and breathe the teachings of the Church.

Lauren took an active part in various protest activities of her church for many years and felt privileged to have been selected to participate in a protest rally. However, in 2008, after questioning some of their doctrines and after communicating with a man on the internet, she was expelled from the group. In an interview, she said her father was looking for a reason to kick her out of the church. She had no chance to leave, although she was close to it, but she knew she would be cut off from her family, so she was conflicted. On the day she was declared person non grata, her parents let her pack her things, took her to the local hotel, and left without speaking to her.

Lauren reached out to her family numerous times, even when she was suicidal, but they all ignored her. Jael, her best friend of seven years at church and a fellow nurse, not only abandoned her, but was mean to her at the hospital. Jael even complained about her to management, but the Nurse Manager told Jael that Lauren was doing a great job and that if Jael couldn’t work with her, she could leave.

Education

Lauren graduated from Topeka West High School, Kansas and graduated from Washburn University in 2007 with a bachelor’s degree in nursing.

Career

After graduation, she became a registered nurse and worked in the cardiac ward of St. Francis Hospital. Banned from her home and church, she moved to Ohio and was hired at a local hospital as a cardiac nurse.

Overworked, she realized that she had to change her lifestyle, and that led her to become a bodybuilding fitness model. She worked hard to get a healthy and toned body. She entered the World Beauty Fitness & Fashion (WBFF) Bikini Pro in 2013 and competed in various shows and competitions, improving her standing until she won the “WBFF Rhode Island Bikini Pro” title in 2014. She did this in between her shifts. as a day-to-day cardiac nurse in one hospital and as a floating nurse in another. She rejoined in 2017, but failed to make the top 5.

As a fitness model, she has worked with top brands including Domin8 and launched her own brand fitness clothing line called ‘Fit Angel Collection’.

Aside from being a registered nurse and a fitness model, she is also a National Academy of Sports Medicine certified personal trainer.

Private life

The transition from her past life to her current life was not so easy. She had trouble adjusting to the outside world after being banned from her church and disowned by her parents. She was in a previous relationship for about two years with a man named Scott who helped her through the transition and encouraged her to move to Ohio, but it didn’t work out.

Lauren met David Kagan through mutual friends and asked him on their first date if he googled her on the internet. He was startled by her question because he was unaware of her association with the controversial Westboro Baptist Church. When he heard about it, he was very supportive of her and helped her embrace her new life.

They were married on August 4, 2013, after being engaged for about a year; she invited her family, but no one came. Two former WBC members, Megan and Grace Phelps-Roper, came to give her away during her wedding.

These two women are granddaughters of the founder of WBC, who left the church the following year after Lauren was expelled.

In December 2019, they were blessed with a baby girl they named Aria Skye. She and her husband have a thriving fitness business, as can be seen from her posts on her Instagram account. She posted many body transformations of clients who underwent physical fitness coaching through their help.

She started a GoFundMe campaign to reach out to those WBC members who wanted to leave the church but feared how they would start a new life, and extended an invitation to those still in her former community. She still hopes that one of her siblings will contact her.

Lauren currently lives in Las Vegas with her husband and daughter.

Posted by Lauren Drain on Thursday, June 25, 2020

Interesting facts

• Lauren loves to eat and is always hungry, but would be on a strict diet when competing in WBFF Pro competitions.
• When she was rejected by her family and lived alone in a cheap apartment, she got a cat to keep her company. Now she lives with Max, a Puggle, (a cross between a pug and a beagle), who she claims is her guard dog.
• Fred Phelps, the founder of her former church, the Westboro Baptist Church, was also expelled from the church he founded. He was rumored to utter the words “You are good people” to the gays who painted their house with rainbow colors and lived across from the church grounds. It was not certain whether he was in his right mind at the time, as he was already old and quite ill.
• She experienced bullying as a registered nurse as she tried to keep fit and lead a healthy lifestyle. Even at work, she ate three times during a shift to build muscle, and some of her colleagues made snide remarks about her eating habits. Some of them would often be rude about the smell of fish being heated in the microwave. It was difficult, but she managed to overcome it.

https://t.co/LNjiCyqvrR pic.twitter.com/FbnoS8Fjj6

— Lauren Drain (@LaurenDrain) October 27, 2019

Social media activity

Lauren is quite active in posting on her social media accounts. Her Instagram has nearly four million followers, which has made her a popular fitness lifestyle influencer. She documented her struggles in building a shapely, healthy body fit enough to compete in bodybuilding bikini pro competitions. Most of the videos and photos on her Instagram account are of her wearing bikini and gym clothes. She can also be followed on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.

Appearance

She is 1.65m tall, weighs 62kg and has an hourglass shape with vital stats of 34-25-36. She wears a size 6 in dress and a size 9 shoe. Lauren is white with blonde hair and blue eyes.

Net value

According to sourcesher net worth is estimated to be over $3 million as of June 2020.

General information

First and last name	Lauren Drain
Height	1.68m
Profession	Model, nurse, author
Education	Bachelor of Science

Family

Husband	David Kagan
Parents	Steve Drain, Lucy Drain
Brothers or sisters	Faithy Marie Drain, Taylor Drain, Boaz Abel Drain

Links to social profiles

Movies

Yourself

Title	Year	Status	Character
Piers Morgan tonight	2013	TV serials	herself
Brainwashed by the Westboro Baptist Church	2012	Video documentary short	herself
Raised to Hate: Kids of Westboro Baptist Church – ABC 20/20	2010	Documentary about TV movies	herself
The most hated family in America	2007	TV movie documentary	herself

Source: IMDb, Wikipedia