A woman who grew up in a polygamous “cult” with 44 siblings and four mothers has said women were treated like “second-class citizens” and taught that “it was a privilege to marry a man.”
Janet Z, 32, was born in 1994 into a “break-off” group of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, the sect led by convicted sex offender Warren Jeffs.
Growing up in Salt Lake, Utah, Janet had one father, four mothers, and 44 siblings, all living in a 13-bedroom, 15-bathroom home.
Janet, who was sibling 25, said women were treated like “second-class citizens” and were taught to wear “modest clothing” that covered their entire bodies.
She said she was raised to become a plural wife — a woman in a polygamous marriage — and to enter into an arranged marriage in her early 20’s.
Janet said she was taught it was a “privilege” to marry a man, but at the age of 20, she began to question that belief after a friend told her it felt like “watching her husband cheat, and there being nothing she could do about it.”
At 20, Janet left the family home and moved elsewhere in Salt Lake City, where she said she finally felt “free.”
Janet, a stay-at-home mom from St George, Utah, said, “My whole life, I was raised that it was a privilege to marry a man as one of his wives.
“As a woman, you are treated like a second-class citizen.
“Some men are amazing, but some do not consider their wives’ emotions or how hard it is to raise their family with so many kids.
“The way the cult was set up is that your dad is your leader, and when you marry, your husband becomes your leader.”
Growing up, Janet and her 44 siblings were homeschooled.
The day started at 8 a.m., when they would go over religious scripture for an hour, before moving on to English, math, and history until 3:30 p.m., Janet said.
“I was homeschooled for most of my life,” Janet said.
“We had a very strict schedule with homeschooling; my biological mother would lead the lessons, and my sister would help out, too.
“The schooling was also religious teachings; the first lesson we had in the morning was going through religious scripture for an hour.
“In 2010, all of my younger siblings went to school because homeschooling was becoming too overwhelming with so many kids.
“I stayed home to help run the household and graduated from online school.”
The religion Janet’s family followed was a breakaway group from the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints — led by Warren Jeffs, who was on the FBI’s ten most wanted fugitives list before his arrest in 2006.
Growing up, Janet said she was taught that it was a privilege to marry a man and be one of his wives.
She said women were treated like second-class citizens, and she said she wasn’t allowed to date as it would “mess with God’s plan.”
Janet said, “I was raised from birth to become a plural wife and marry a man as one of his wives.
“It was something that was preached to me since I was born.
“In the religion, they do arranged marriage; they teach you not to date, as that is messing up God’s plan of who you should marry.”
As she was approaching adulthood, Janet started having conversations with friends and family members who had entered an arranged marriage.
She soon realized that the lifestyle she had been sold was not the reality, and her friends were struggling with having a husband who had multiple wives.
“As I had gotten older, I was getting into conversations with women who live that lifestyle,” Janet said.
“They were telling me how hard it is, and how hard it is to share their husband and live in the same home with multiple other women.
“You are constantly hurt over and over again by watching your husband with a different woman.
“That was the tipping point for me. My friend said it was like watching her husband cheating in front of her face, and there was nothing she could do about it.
“In my head, I thought life was difficult enough already. I realized I never wanted this life, but I was doing it to make my parents happy.”
At the age of 20, in 2014, Janet told her parents that she was planning to leave the family home and move to Salt Lake City to pursue a new life.
Janet said her parents were shocked, and her dad told her that she was going to “waste her life.”
“I told my mom a month before I left, I wanted to give her some time to process,” Janet said.
“A lot of my sisters had already married, so I was doing a lot of cooking, cleaning and helping raise my siblings.
“My dad was worried for me, he said he thought I was going to waste my life, and he didn’t know what was going to happen to me.”
Janet said life outside the cult was “freeing.” She said her biological mom is no longer in the cult but still lives at the family home with ten family members.
Sadly, in 2024, her father, with whom Janet stayed in touch, passed away, and so did one of her mothers in 2023.
She said most of her sisters are no longer part of her group, but the majority of her brothers still follow the religion.
Janet said, “My mom still lives in the family home. She is living her life separately from the rest of the family, but still lives there.
“As we got older, watching us children live our lives separately made her question a lot.
“She realized she didn’t want to be told what to do all the time by men and decided to leave.”
Janet is sharing her story about growing up in a cult on TikTok: @ManifestMoreMagic
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