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Polygamist cult leader's daughter breaks free, says false prophet abused her: 'The world could see the shame'
It was New Year’s Eve 2014 when the daughter of polygamist cult leader Warren Jeffs finally broke free.
“When I stepped out, I remembered thinking, ‘Gosh, I should have left sooner,’” Rachel Blackmore recalled to Fox News Digital. “There’s just so much life out there.”
The mother of seven is coming forward in a new A&E docuseries, “Secrets of Polygamy,” which explores extreme polygamist groups across the country.
It features new sit-downs with one of Jeffs’ former wives and former members and investigators.
SON OF POLYGAMOUS CULT LEADER WARREN JEFFS SPEAKS OUT IN DOC: ‘WE WERE BRAINWASHED’
Rachel Blackmore is speaking out in A&E’s “Secrets of Polygamy.” (A&E)
Jeffs, 68, was sentenced in 2011 to life in prison after his conviction on two counts of child sexual abuse. In 2017, Blackmore wrote a memoir, “Breaking Free.”
“It’s been really important to me to give a voice to the young girls who have been sexually abused,” Blackmore shared.
Polygamy is a legacy of the early teachings of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The mainstream church abandoned the practice in 1890 and now strictly prohibits it.
The headquarters of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Colorado City, Ariz. The home base of FLDS is on the Arizona-Utah border. (Getty Images)
The FLDS (Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) broke away from the Mormon church and was formed so that members could continue practicing plural marriage. It was headquartered on the Utah-Arizona border. Jeffs’ father, Rulon T. Jeffs, took power in 1986 and ruled until he died in 2002 at age 92. He left behind an estimated 75 widows and 65 children.
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Following Rulon’s death, Warren Jeffs took over as the group’s prophet. In the FLDS, it is believed the prophet can speak directly to God and direct which male members can enter heaven. The prophet can also perform marriages and assign wives to their husbands. In pleasing the prophet, loyal members are rewarded with more wives, who “belong” to their spouses for eternity, NPR reported. Members believe that each man must have at least three wives.
“I think, as a child, you don’t realize when something’s bad all the time,” Blackmore recalled. “I think, for a lot of us, that’s how it was. … I felt protected from the world. I was taught that the outside world was wicked.”
The grave of FLDS prophet Rulon Jeffs. He fathered more than 60 children. (Getty Images)
Jeffs has an estimated 78 wives and 53 biological children.
“We had to wear sleeves to our wrists and long dresses. Our hair had to be braided a certain way,” Blackmore said. “And there were the continual teachings of polygamy where there was a leader, one man, and you never questioned him. … We were taught that if we wanted to go to heaven, we had to live polygamy. We had to have sister wives and marry a man we were told to marry, not who we wanted to choose. All of those restrictions were accepted because that’s all we knew.”
In the series, Blackmore claimed Jeffs sexually molested her when she was eight years old. She noted that women and girls couldn’t express anger or jealousy without enduring punishment. Instead, they had to “be sweet.”
Several young women play football in the dirt yard of one of the many schools in Colorado City, Ariz., owned and run by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints March 3, 2004. (George Frey)
“I have always been taught that boys don’t touch girls, that our bodies must be covered,” she said. “So, when Warren started sexually abusing me, I was just shocked. I just felt so guilty. I just put the shame on myself. … I just felt the whole world could see the shame. I went from being a joyful girl to being shy and quiet. And I didn’t tell anyone for a long time because I felt shame. I was embarrassed.”
Blackmore said the abuse continued until she was 16.
“I faced Warren one day and told him that I hated him doing those things to me,” she explained. “I didn’t know words like ‘molest,’ ‘abuse’ or ‘rape.’ He listened and asked for my forgiveness. And he stopped doing it. But then he started marrying younger girls after that.”
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Rachel Blackmore claimed her father, Warren Jeffs (pictured here), started molesting her when she turned 8. (Douglas C. Pizac/AFP)
At 18, Blackmore was forced into an arranged marriage. Her husband already had two wives. They met for the first time on the day before their wedding.
“Warren performed the marriages. He decided who married who,” Blackmore said. “He chose my husband for me, and he kept control of our marriage. He had the say of what my husband and I did at all times.”
For years, Blackmore wondered what life was like in the outside world. She feared that her five children would endure the same abuse she did. And when one of her younger sisters confessed that she was also molested by Jeffs, Blackmore had enough.
Rachel Blackmore said she was stunned by her sister’s revelation. (Visions of America/Joe Sohm/Universal Images Group)
“It was a big moment for me,” Blackmore said. “I realized it wasn’t my fault. Warren had a problem with sexual abuse. And we both agreed that we didn’t trust him with our kids. That’s when I said, ‘I’m going to leave.’ It was the first time I said it out loud. And when I did, I knew it was the final decision for me. Even though I didn’t leave for a few months after, I knew that was it.”
Little by little, Blackmore was “disobedient” as she began taking her children out on longer walks and leaving the property. Every time she got in trouble for “spreading my wings,” she was also getting a taste of freedom. But time was ticking. Blackmore learned that, as punishment, she was going to be placed in a bishop’s house, a property with towering walls and coded gates. Blackmore knew if she ended up there, she and her children would never be able to leave.
“It was scary, but I was sneaky,” said Blackmore. “I got my kids out during the night to my sister’s house. She had already left.”
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Rachel Blackmore fled the compound in secret with her five children. (George Frey)
Blackmore and her children managed to leave the compound in secret.
“I didn’t know how I was going to support five kids on my own,” Blackmore admitted. “I’m not going to pretend that [being free] was easy. It wasn’t. It was really hard. It’s still a growing experience for me. I’m still learning how to make friends and live within a community.
“I remember experiencing Christmas and Easter for the first time,” she recalled. “We never got to celebrate those things. I also wanted my children to celebrate their birthdays. I wanted to exchange gifts. I wanted them to go to a school and meet all kinds of people. I wanted them to experience what it was like to date. I never got to experience any of those things. There were so many firsts we didn’t have in a cult.”
In this handout provided by the FBI, polygamist Warren Steed Jeffs is pictured on an FBI Ten Most Wanted poster. (FBI)
In 2006, Jeffs, who was on the FBI’s Top Ten Most Wanted list, was arrested during a routine traffic stop near Las Vegas. He was booked on two out-of-state warrants issued in Utah and Arizona on charges of unlawful sexual conduct with a minor and rape as an accomplice.
Women and children from the YFZ Ranch, the compound built by polygamist leader Warren Jeffs, are moved by bus to San Angelo, Texas, April 6, 2008. (Khampha Bouaphanh/Fort Worth Star-Telegram/Tribune News Service)
According to prosecutors, Jeffs engaged in sexual abuse with two girls, ages 12 and 14. A key piece of evidence against Jeffs was an audio recording of him instructing his “spiritual bride,” as well as several other girls, on how to please him sexually.
In 2007, Jeffs tried to hang himself in a Utah jail. He was force-fed at an Arizona jail in 2009. Then in 2011, he was sentenced to life in prison. That same year, he was put in a medically-induced coma after fasting behind bars.
Some followers of FLDS still consider Jeffs to be their prophet and that he was wrongfully convicted. But over the years, the group has lost hundreds of members who either left or were cast out.
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Warren Jeffs in a booking photo from Sept. 5, 2006, at the Purgatory Correctional Facility in Hurricane, Utah, after he was extradited from Nevada. (Washington County Sheriff)
Blackmore has remarried. And she’s hopeful her story will give hope to other young women like her who left.
“We need to work, more than ever, to protect our children,” she said. “To give children an opportunity to have a good life is important to me. … And as long as there are people who will do what Warren says, he will always be a threat. … But there is strength and healing after trauma. There is hope you can have a better life.”
“Secrets of Polygamy” premieres Jan. 8 at 10 p.m. on A&E. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Voting underway in 2025 election that may determine if Republicans hold House in 2026 midterms
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Early voting is now underway in California in a special election that will make a huge impact on next year’s battle for the U.S. House majority.
California voters are deciding whether to pass a ballot proposition this November which would dramatically alter the state’s congressional districts, putting the left-leaning state front-and-center in the high-stakes political fight over redistricting that pits President Donald Trump and the GOP against the Democrats.
California state lawmakers this summer approved a special proposition on the November ballot to obtain voter approval to temporarily sidetrack the state’s nonpartisan redistricting commission and return the power to draw the congressional maps to the Democrat-dominated legislature. Ballots began being mailed out on Monday.
The effort in California, which could create five more Democratic-leaning congressional districts, aims to counter the passage in the reliable red state of Texas of a new map that aims to create up to five right-leaning House seats. Failure to approve what’s known as Proposition 50 would be a stinging setback for Democrats.
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California Gov. Gavin Newsom speaks during a news conference Thursday, Aug. 14, 2025, in Los Angeles. (Jose Sanchez/AP photo)
Two-term Gov. Gavin Newsom, who is seen as a likely 2028 Democratic presidential contender, is spearheading the push to pass the proposition.
“If we lose here, we are going to have total Republican control in the House, the Senate and the White House for at least two more years,” Newsom emphasized in a recent fundraising appeal to supporters. “If we win here, we can put a check on Trump for his final two years.”
The push by Trump and Republicans for rare mid-decade redistricting is part of a broad effort by the GOP to pad its razor-thin House majority to keep control of the chamber in the 2026 midterms, when the party in power traditionally faces political headwinds and loses seats.
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Trump and his political team are aiming to prevent what happened during his first term in the White House, when Democrats reclaimed the House majority in the 2018 midterm elections.
Missouri last month joined Texas as the second GOP-controlled state to pass congressional redistricting ahead of next year’s elections. The new map in Missouri is likely to give the GOP another right-leaning seat.
Republican Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas in August signed into law new congressional maps that redistrict ahead of next year’s midterm elections. (Paul Steinhauser – Fox News)
But unlike Texas and Missouri, California voters need to weigh in before giving redistricting power back to the legislature in Sacramento.
“Heaven help us if we lose,” Newsom said in his fundraising pitch. “This is an all-hands-on-deck moment for Democrats.”
Proponents and opponents of Proposition 50 reported raising more than $215 million as of Oct. 2, with much of the money being dished out to pay for a deluge of ads on both sides.
One of the two main groups countering Newsom and the Democrats is labeling their effort “Stop Sacramento’s Power Grab.”
Also getting into the fight is former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who was the last Republican governor of California.
During his tenure as governor, Schwarzenegger had a starring role in the passage of constitutional amendments in California in 2008 and 2010 that took the power to draw state legislative and congressional districts away from politicians and placed it in the hands of an independent commission.
“That’s what they want to do is take us backwards — this is why it is important for you to vote no on Prop 50,” Schwarzenegger says in an ad against Proposition 50. “Democracy — we’ve got to protect it, and we’ve got to go and fight for it.”
As ballots start reaching mailboxes across California, a panel of federal judges in Texas is hearing a case in the legal battle over the passage of the new congressional maps.
If redistricting in Texas is blocked, it’s not clear how the ruling would impact California.
Newsom this summer indicated that California could continue with its nonpartisan redistricting commission if other states rescinded their efforts to change their maps. But that language was not included in the proposition now on the ballot.
Former Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger of California opposes efforts by Democrats to temporarily suspend the state’s nonpartisan redistricting commission. (Tristar Media/WireImage)
Even before Trump initiated his redistricting push, Ohio was under court order to redraw its maps. That could boost Republicans in a one-time battleground state that now leans right.
Republicans in the GOP-dominated states of Indiana and Florida are also mulling congressional redistricting. And Democrats in heavily blue Maryland are weighing a redistricting push.
Other states considering altering their maps are Democrat-dominated Illinois and red states Kansas and Nebraska.
Meanwhile, Democrats could pick up a seat in Republican-dominated Utah, where a judge recently ordered the GOP-controlled legislature to draw new maps after ruling that lawmakers four years ago ignored an independent commission approved by voters to prevent partisan gerrymandering.
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Oklahoma troopers, ICE detain 120 illegal immigrants in three-day interstate enforcement sweep
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Officials from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Oklahoma Highway Patrol recently arrested more than 100 illegal immigrants in a three-day crackdown.
In an Oct. 6 statement, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said that the operation targeted “threats to public safety along I-40 in Oklahoma.” It took place between Sept. 22 and Sept. 25.
“ICE ran records checks on foreign-born nationals that OHP encountered during patrol,” the DHS’s statement said. “As a result, 120 illegal aliens were taken into custody for immigration violations, 91 of which were operating a commercial motor vehicle with commercial driver’s licenses (CDL).”
OKLAHOMA GOV. STITT, ICE BUST 120 ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS IN HIGHWAY CRACKDOWN, SLAMS BIDEN BORDER FAILURES
Among the 120 suspects, past convictions included DUIs, illegal re-entry into the U.S. and money laundering, as well as human smuggling and assault.
ICE and Oklahoma Highway Patrol officials arrested 120 illegal immigrants in a three-day operation along I-40. (Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)
Some of the illegal immigrants were also convicted of conspiracy to distribute cocaine and possession of a controlled substance.
Two suspects were also arrested in connection to a nearby cannabis grow site.
In a statement, ICE Deputy Director Madison Sheahan said that the suspects had “no business operating 18 wheelers on America’s highways.”
Federal and state officers targeted commercial truck drivers during a multi-day immigration enforcement sweep in Oklahoma. (Getty Images)
“Our roads are now safer with these illegal aliens no longer behind the wheel,” said Sheahan. “We encourage more state and local law enforcement to sign 287(g) agreements to help remove public safety threats and receive reimbursement funds available to our law enforcement partners.”
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The arrests came just weeks after a suspect, who was deported several times before, allegedly caused a DUI-related crash in California.
The DHS described the Oklahoma operation as part of a broader effort to address threats on major freight routes. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)
Norberto Celerino, 53, faces six counts of murder in relation to the Sept. 7 crash. He is accused of driving under the influence in Napa County.
Fox News Digital’s Adam Sabes contributed to this report.
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Abbott deploys ‘elite Texas National Guard’ after Trump calls for reinforcements: ‘Ever ready’
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Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced Monday on X that the Lone Star State’s elite National Guard units are deploying “now” after receiving a request to help protect federal property.
In the brief post, Abbott wrote, “The elite Texas National Guard. Ever ready. Deploying now.”
The short but commanding message underlines the governor’s confidence in the state’s ability and willingness to act in defense of the nation.
Texas officials say the deployment is being coordinated with the White House’s plans to reinforce security in several cities that have seen spikes in protests targeting federal facilities, including Chicago and Portland.
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President Donald Trump called for the additional support from cooperating states, saying that the troops would “protect federal workers and property from escalating threats.”
Democratic governors, however, are pushing back. Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker called the move “an invasion,” and Oregon officials are seeking to block deployments through court orders.
“It started with federal agents. It will soon include deploying federalized members of the Illinois National Guard against our wishes, and it will now involve sending in another state’s military troops,” Pritzker said.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott visiting the border with the National Guard in Eagle Pass, Texas. (Raquel Natalicchio/Houston Chronicle via Getty Images)
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Texas Gov. Greg Abbott defended Trump’s decision, writing on X that he had “fully authorized the President to call up 400 members of the Texas National Guard to ensure safety for federal officials.”
He added that federal and state leaders must “either fully enforce protection for federal employees or get out of the way and let the Texas Guard do it,” while praising the Guard’s “training, skill and expertise.”
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker criticized President Donald Trump’s decision to deploy 400 Texas National Guard troops to Illinois and Oregon. (Getty Images)
Legal challenges are continuing in some states, but in Texas, officials say they are ready.
Abbott’s post has received millions of views within hours and struck a chord with supporters praising his decisive leadership.
As legal battles play out, the governor’s message remains simple: “Ever ready.”
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