Child Bride: 'Alaskan Bush People's Ami Brown Was Just 15 When She Married Billy— Who Was 26!
Nov. 25 2015, Updated 6:04 p.m. ET
In his memoir One Wave at a Time, Alaskan Bush People patriarch Billy Bryan Brown recalled first locking eyes with his wife of more than 30 years, Amora Branson Brown.
"She was the beautiful young woman I had ever met," the 62-year-old outdoorsman gushed of his girl, called Ami for short, adding that the relationship was "love at first sight."
Sounds romantic! However, Billy left an important detail out of his tale.
Ami was just 15 years old when the couple met and quickly got married, RadarOnline.com can exclusively reveal. Billy was 26, a shocking 11 years older than the young teen.
According to a Tarrant County, Texas marriage certificate obtained exclusively by RadarOnline.com, the pair tied the knot on June 16, 1979.
Ami was born on August 28, 1963, Alaskan court records state. (Like her husband and four of her sons, she was recently charged with making false statements and theft in regards to her residency on government applications.)
RadarOnline.com can also reveal that the Brown family matriarch was an original teen mom.
According to court records, second eldest son Joshua "Bam Bam" Brown was born on August 23, 1983, when Ami was just 19.
Billy wrote in his book that son Matthew Brown is one-and-a-half years older than Joshua, meaning Ami was barely 18 at the time of his birth.
The couple went on to welcome seven children in total, including five boys and two girls.
Though the Browns are currently in serious legal trouble, Billy and Ami stayed on the right side of the law in this case. A woman could wed as young as 14 with parental consent in Texas during that time.
As RadarOnline.com reported, Billy and Bam Bam are facing jail time after a judge rejected their plea deal in Alaskan court last week.
The men, along with Ami and other family members, were accused of claiming to be Alaskan citizens in order to receive government checks when in realty they were living out of state.
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The court case threatens to tarnish the Browns' reputations as born and raised Alaskans, as authorities say they have lived in both Texas and Colorado between 2009 and 2012.
