Born in 1994, Janet said she was brought up in a breakaway group of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, which was led by convicted sex offender Warren Jeffs. Her early life centered on a large household, a strict belief system, and clear rules about what girls and women were expected to become.
The family lived together in a 13-bedroom, 15-bathroom home, where Janet says women were treated like ‘second-class citizens’. With so many siblings and several mothers under one roof, daily life was built around obedience, chores, religious lessons, and the idea that men held the authority.
The now 32-year-old, from the US, 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.”
Why the rules shaped almost every part of her childhood
The way Janet describes it, the rules were not limited to religion or marriage. They affected how children learned, how girls saw their future, and how much freedom each person had inside the family home.
That is why her story is not only about growing up with a huge number of siblings. It is also about being raised in a system where authority moved from father to husband, and where women were expected to fit into a role long before they were old enough to question it.
Stories like Janet’s often raise wider questions about control, religious pressure, and women’s choices, especially when a childhood belief system decides what adulthood is supposed to look like.
The children’s schooling also took place at home. Their lessons included English, math, and history, and the school day usually ran until 3.30pm, giving the household a set routine from morning into the afternoon.
Janet added: “We had a very strict schedule with homeschooling; my biological mother would lead the lessons, and my sister would help out, too.”
“I stayed home to help run the household and graduated from online school.”
As Janet got older, the life she had been taught to expect began to feel different from the reality she was seeing around her. By the time she was 20, she decided to leave and build a new future in Salt Lake City.
“A lot of my sisters had already married, so I was doing a lot of cooking, cleaning and helping raise my siblings,” Janet added.
What changed when she left
Leaving at 20 meant stepping away from the future Janet had been raised to expect. Instead of becoming one of several wives in the same system, she chose a new life outside the household and outside the rules that had shaped her childhood.
That move also gave her space to look back on the way she was raised. In similar coverage of her story, Janet has been described as a stay-at-home mom in St. George, Utah, who now shares parts of her experience online to raise awareness about life inside the group, according to the New York Post.
Her account helps explain why leaving was not just a move to a different city. It was a break from a full belief system, a family structure, and years of being told what her role as a woman should be.
Janet has described life after leaving the ‘cult’ as ‘freeing’. She also said her biological mother eventually managed to leave the lifestyle, showing that Janet was not the only one in the family who began to question the system.
Her father, who Janet stayed in contact with after she left, died in 2024.
“She realized she didn’t want to be told what to do all the time by men and decided to leave.”
For Janet, her mother’s decision added another layer to the story. It showed that even after years inside the same home and the same rules, it was still possible for someone to decide they no longer wanted men making every major choice for them.
