Bridie Pearson-Jones wrote this article in the Daily Mail:
Three brothers from a family of 150 siblings have revealed what it's like to grow up in a polygamous cult, including how birthday parties happen and what it's like to be in the same school class as your nieces and nephews.
Merlin Blackmore, 19, who was born to 'Canada's most famous polygamist' 64-year-old Winston Blackmore in Bountiful, British Columbia, has built a huge social media following for his open and honest discussion about life in his unconventional family which includes '27 mothers'.
Alongside his half-brother Murary, also 19, and full-brother Warren, 21, Merlin has taken to TikTok to share stories about growing up in the closed community.
The trio, who have all now left Bountiful and are close to their mothers, say they hope the next generation will be a 'family not a cult'.
In one video, Merlin, who now lives in the US and has seven full siblings, reveals how he 'had to get out the community to talk about his experience.
'I wanted to talk about it but I had to get out because I feared someone would show up at my doorstep and do something to me just for talking about how I was raised as a kid,' he says.
'I've wanted to talk about this for years. Now I'm in a position I can, the world is going to know,' he adds.
In another video, Merlin describes how he is a 'triplet' because he has a half-brother and a half-sister born on the same day as him - but to different mothers.
'My brother and sister are both married into the religion now, but I don't have much contact with them anymore,' he adds.
In another, he explains the huge age range between his siblings. His oldest brother is 44, while his youngest is only one.
He also says that the birthday parties are 'pretty normal'.
'It wasn't like 150 people show up to every person's birthday party. It was more as your closest friends and the kids that closest to you in age.
'It was mainly your biological siblings that came and got your birthday presents and your closest friends.
'Sometimes if there were a whole bunch of birthdays close together we would celebrate them as one big birthday party, but that didn't happen very often.
'For the most part, each kid would celebrate his birthday as any kid around the world would'.
His brother Warren Blackmore, who still lives in Canada, also lifted the lid on his time in the church.
'Me and Merlin are full brothers and actually best friends. And then Murray we grew up in the exact same house and did everything together, our moms are sisters.
'Instead of hating each other like a lot of siblings do, we build each other up and we let each other know we could do whatever we put our minds too,' he added.
Warren further explains how the wives are related in another clip.
'This is pretty wild, but my father had 27 wives at one point. There were six different groups of sisters.
'There was two groups of three different sisters and there was four groups of four different sisters from another family.
In another clip, he says how he has 19 students in his class at school, which was run by his father. All the children were born in 1999.
'I had five brothers, four sisters, seven cousins and two nephews in my class. I went to school with my nephews, we were the same age,' he said.
He also explained that they would grow most of their own food - such as potatoes, corn and tomatoes - to pay for the upkeep on 150 children, many of whom would farm the land.
Meanwhile Murray revealed how he left the private school and went to a public high school for his final year of education, where he learned about his own family in a history class.
'A lot of people have been saying they learned about my families in class, and so did I'.
'During my last year of high school, I went to a public school nearby in my nearest town and I signed up for a law class.
'And I'm there, minding my own business, doing my law s**t, and we come across this chapter about polygamy.
'There is an entire section in the law book about my family.
'And everybody knows I'm from that family. So yeah, I learned about it too.'
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