'They Weren't Much Older Than Me': Warren Jeffs' Son Details Father's Marriages, Cult Conditions
Wendell Jeffson, one of cult founder Warren Jeffs' sons, detailed his father's marriages and cult conditions growing up in new interviews with outlets.
April 27 2022, Published 10:52 a.m. ET
One of the sons of child rapist and polygamist church leader Warren Jeffs said he had "moms" that were as young as 12 years old, according to reports.
“I grew up having moms that were 15 years old,” Jeffson told Insider. “It’s not right, but he was marrying 12-year-olds and I was told that they were my mom, and they weren’t even that much older than me.”
Wendell Jeffson, 21, was one of 50 children of Jeffs who were raised on a 1,700-acre ranch near Eldorado, Texas.
Jeffson's father was a self-proclaimed prophet of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints who was convicted in 2011 of sexually assaulting two teen girls he married. He claimed they were "spiritual" wives," according to the New York Post.
Jeffs remains jailed in Texas.
Many of Jeffs' children have spoken of their experiences on the ranch, but more a speaking out in Peacock's new documentary Preaching Evil: A Wife on the Run with Warren Jeffs.
“Warren Jeffs controlled everything from the things you eat, to the things you wear and — if he could — even the things you think,” Jeffson told The Post.
Jeffson detailed the time he and his siblings were separated from their mothers in Hilldale, Utah before being taken to the ranch in Texas.
“I wondered why I was being separated from my mom and why she was crying,” Jeffson recently told Insider. “I was very young. I didn’t understand really anything that was going on.”
Jeffson was later reunited with his mother, Vicki Thompson, at "Yearning for Zion Ranch" six months later. The children were forced to wake up at 5 a.m. to make breakfast and clean before working in the gardens all day.
“There was no music, no internet, no TV, no movies, nothing of that nature,” Jeffson told Insider. “He just created an environment where we were only were exposed to things that he wanted us to be exposed to.
“He had control over the way that we saw the outside world in every aspect.”
Jeffson was 7 when Jeffs was taken by police. He and nearly 500 other children were taken from the compound before later being returned, The Post reports.
“I remember those Texas rangers and the SWATs coming in with rifles and everything,” he told Fox News in an interview. “I didn’t know if I was going to survive. We had been taught that these people wanted to eliminate us. It felt like it only confirmed what Warren Jeffs had taught us.”
Jeffson was skeptical of his father's teachings from a young age, wondering why they were told black people were "very evil, according to Fox News. He also didn't understand why they couldn't wear short sleeves, eat candy play with toys, attend school or choose their own age-appropriate spouse.
When Jeffson was 14, he and his family were able to leave FLDS, Fox News reports. Jeffson got into construction to make money in order to rent a home for himself, his mom and his sister.
“At 18, I started to gain my own independence,” he told The Post of leaving FLDS — and of his father’s continued influence, even while he was imprisoned. “I could see how much he was controlling our life and that wasn’t what I wanted for my future.”
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Jeffson later earned his GED and started a career in insurance. He proposed to singer-songwriter Yolanda Nosakhare, 21, in October 2021. His mother went on to marry a police officer and his sister, Sarah, is set to graduate from high school this year.
“We’re very happy and moving forward,” Jeffson said. He remains very close with the few siblings who have also left the church but said he has been completely cut off from most of his family who “unfortunately” remained and believe he has been “brainwashed” and “controlled by the devil.”
Starting over, he changed his last name from Jeffs to Jeffson.
“I am moving away from the Jeffs agenda,” he told The Post. “I am blazing my own path and making my own life for myself while at the same time keeping that Jeffs name in my last name because I do want that last name to be made good again.”
