SALT LAKE CITY — Charlene Jeffs smiles as she talks about finding her personal freedom since leaving the Fundamentalist LDS Church.
"I've been free," she said in an interview Friday with FOX 13 News. "I don’t have to ask permission to drive a car. I don't have to ask permission to do anything. I can come and go as I please and it’s great."
She has now published a memoir of her life growing up in the Utah-based polygamous church. "Tell Your Heart to Beat Again," describes her life within the faith and how things took a dark turn under the leadership of Warren Jeffs.
"Growing up, I had a fairly normal childhood other than having another mother," Charlene said.
She became the first of Lyle Jeffs' wives at age 18. He became a bishop in the FLDS Church.
"Warren started taking control and started controlling our Sunday schools and our churches and started implementing different revelations in how to dress, how to eat, how to pretty much walk, talk, how to do your hair," Charlene said. "That’s when things started changing and more abuse started happening."
In her book, Charlene describes how it didn't happen overnight.
"I've been asked so much, how could somebody follow so blindly?" she said. "But it's those little steps that happen and being told that if you do not do this or you do not do that, then you’ll lose your salvation. You’ll dwell with the Devil instead of Heaven and not God. Out of that fear, you comply and you obey."
Charlene eventually left her husband and her faith. She described an abusive marriage where she was forced to lose weight and other wives were favored.
"It took a long time to realize that I was never good enough for him," she said.
She took her ex-husband to court in a custody battle as Utah, Arizona and federal authorities intensified investigations and scrutiny on the FLDS Church. Ex-members had been speaking out about abuses they claimed they suffered while in the polygamous sect. The state of Utah had moved to have the courts take control of the FLDS Church's communal property arm, alleging FLDS leaders mismanaged it.
Charlene was questioned as part of federal case against members of the FLDS Church alleging food stamp fraud. Her ex-husband, Lyle, went on the run during that time before being captured and sentenced to prison. But asked whether that case should have been brought, Charlene said she disagreed and said her family lived like many others who described going without.
"I don’t think they should have gone after him for the food stamps," she said. "They should have gone after him for other things."
But Charlene said she supported the U.S. Department of Justice lawsuit against the town governments of Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Ariz. The towns were accused of discriminating against non-members of the FLDS Church. The police department was accused of acting as a de facto private security force for Warren Jeffs. (The police force has since been overhauled and is now recognized for its reforms.)
"That, they needed to be gone after," she said. "They needed that education of you treat everyone equal because that’s your job. That is part of what you are required to do as a police officer. You don’t single out anybody. You don’t pull over certain people for traffic violations because they’re not FLDS. That’s wrong."
Warren Jeffs is serving a life sentence in a Texas prison for child sexual assault related to underage "marriages." He still leads the FLDS Church from his prison cell, but Charlene said it is through a son now and she has concerns about the direction the group is taking.
She and other ex-members have sounded alarm about a revelation calling ex-FLDS members back into the fold, referencing death and resurrection. Many parents with children still in the church have urged law enforcement to help find their missing children. FOX 13 News first reported on that revelation in 2022.
"Some of the revelations he has put out there are very concerning because the one that I have in my hands is literally talking another Jonestown," she said. "And the FBI, Homeland Security, they're like, 'yeah we’re monitoring it.' How are they monitoring it? When we have a death? And then go 'Oh, maybe we should have done something but it was religion. Stop using religion as an umbrella. That is wrong, this needs to stop."
Charlene said she hopes her book inspires others in abusive situations to leave and seek help. She advocates for Holding Out HELP, a group that works with people in and outside of polygamous communities.
"You can survive abuse. You can go forward," she said. "You don’t need to go through that abuse. You have the rights as a human being to have freedom. To feel safe, be safe and feel love and acceptance."
