Episode 221 (Bonus): Confronting Polygamy | One Woman's Experience

At Last She Said It

Cynthia Winward

Religion & Spirituality, Feminism, Motherhood, Ldswomen, Spirituality, Lds, Thechurchofjesuschristoflatterdaysaints, Mormonwomen, Religion, Marriage, Mormon, Faith

5 • 900 Ratings

🗓️ 3 June 2025

⏱️ 82 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

TW: Emotional Abuse and Physical Abuse Members of the Church don't talk much about polygamy, but isn't it time we did? After all, it continues to haunt our family trees, our church history, and many women's minds and hearts. Imagine getting married to a man only to find out he actually has a deep testimony of polygamy and insists you'll need to have one too. In Bonus Episode 221, Blakelee Ellis is joined by Alicia Owens, who shares her personal story of finding herself in that unthinkable situation, and everything that happened next. Please exercise self care—this is a harrowing conversation about one of the heaviest topics Latter-day Saint women carry.

Transcript

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0:00.0	How do women feel about polygamy when they're first told the concept of it?
0:09.7	We're revolted.
0:11.2	We are absolutely disgusted and we want nothing to do with it.
0:15.1	That is the invariable, it happens 100% of the time.
0:19.5	I have never encountered a story or a person that I have met that likes polygamy right off the bat if they're a woman.
0:27.6	It's only after coercion, it's only after being convinced, it's only after being spiritually blackmailed, it's only after being pressured that people, that women
0:38.7	accept it.
0:43.3	Hi, I'm Cynthia Winward.
0:45.4	And I'm Susan Hinkley.
0:47.5	And this is at last she said it.
0:49.6	We are women of faith discussing complicated things.
0:52.8	The title of today's episode is Confronting Polygamy, One Woman's Experience.
0:59.9	Hello, Cynthia. How are you, Susan? Long time no see. Long time no see on our microphones, but not in person.
1:08.1	Not in person. We've been seeing each other a lot. It's been
1:12.0	lovely. It's been great. And a lot of our listeners too. So thank you for everyone for your
1:17.7	support as we've been out stumping for our book. Yes, it's been fantastic. But we're excited
1:25.4	today to bring all of you a bonus episode.
1:29.7	Some of you know we have wonderful women who help us behind the scenes.
1:34.7	And one of those women is Blakely Ellis.
1:37.5	And we were just so grateful that she recorded an episode with Alicia who had contacted us to talk about some really
1:49.1	hard things she had experienced in her marriage. So this was a really hard episode to listen to.
1:57.1	It's pretty heartbreaking. But I don't know, did you have any thoughts, Susan, after hearing
	...

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