Who is "The Man With 80 Wives" Warren Jeffs?

In June of 2022, Netflix released the documentary series "Keep Sweet: Pray and Obey" which introduced the world to Warren Jeffs, president of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS Church), a polygamous denomination.

Warren Jeffs was born in Sacramento, CA in 1955. He was raised in Salt Lake City, Utah. He was a school principal for over 20 years at a FLDS school. At the time, church members claim he had as many as 87 wives and 60 children.

Warren's father Rulon was president of the FLDS from 1986 until his death in 2002. At that point, Warren succeeded his father and became "President and Prophet, Seer and Revelator". He then married all but 2 of his father's 19 wives - as one refused, and one fled.

He was a proponent of the FLDS and Mormon fundamentalist tenet that men must follow the doctrine of plural marriage in order to receive exaltation and to go to heaven in the after life. More wives were seen as a man being closer to heaven.

As the only member in the FLDS church authorized to perform marriages, Warren assigned wives to husbands and could discipline male church members by reassigning their wives, children and homes to another man.

In July 2004, Brent Jeffs, Warren's nephew, filed a lawsuit alleging in the late 1980's Warren Jeffs had raped him at age 5. Brent's memoir Lost Boy also recounts sexual abuse by Warren's brothers and other family members. Warren's own children have publicly made similar claims.

In May of 2006, Warren was charged with sexual assault on a minor and for arranging a marriage between a 14 year old girl and her 19 year old first cousin. Additional similar charges stacked against him, placing Warren on the FBI's Top Ten Most Wanted Fugitives List.

In August of 2006, Warren was pulled over in Nevada for obstructed license plates and was arrested. In 2007 he was indicted in Nevada, Utah, Arizona and Texas on numerous counts including sexual misconduct with a minor and incest.

In August of 2011 Jeffs was convicted and sentenced to life in prison. He will be eligible for parole in 2038 when he will be age 83.

In prison, Jeffs tried to hang himself and had to be force fed due to lengthy hunger strikes. He had a mental breakdown in 2019 which left him unfit for deposition for another sex abuse case against him. To this day FLDS members view him as their wrongfully convicted leader.