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A teenager and his two brothers have revealed what it’s like to live in a family of 150, while their dad has a staggering 27 wives.
Merlin Blackmore, 19, comes from “Canada’s largest” polygamist family and has spoken out about his unusual upbringing on TikTok.
Merlin and his two brothers, Murray, also 19, and Warren 21, are the sons of 64-year-old Winston Blackmore, leader of the giant Mormon family in the town of Bountiful, British Columbia, The Sun reports.
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Posting on the TikTok account @merlins.life, the teenager said he used to try to hide his upbringing – only recently deciding to speak about it.
Merlin now lives in the US and finally feels comfortable talking about his experiences online.
He said, “’I’ve wanted to talk about this for years. Now I’m in a position I can, the world is going to know.”
The family was so big, the kids went to their own school, while instead of living with their mothers, the teenagers all lived in a “motel house” together.
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Each child referred to their biological mother as “mum”, calling the rest of their 27 mums “Mother” followed by their first name.
Only 22 of the 27 wives had children with Winston, while Merlin also revealed that only 16 of those women remain married to his father.
In a video on his page, @warrens.life, older brother Warren Blackmore said: “Typically there would be two mums and their kids per house, one on the top floor and one on the bottom.”
He added: “There was two groups of three different sisters and there was four groups of four different sisters from another family.
Meanwhile Merlin says he is a ‘triplet’ born on the same day as two other family members who have different mothers, while Murray had 12 siblings with the same birth year, all who have a name beginning with the letter “M”.
The family celebrated each family member’s birthday like any other but family reunions and thanksgiving parties were a huge affair, with the entire family piling into a huge hall.
Warren, who still lives in Canada, has spoken out about his experiences in the polygamous community.
He said: “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 mums 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 to.”
The family grew most of their food and the kids would pitch in with farming duties, preserving some of the yield into jars to be eaten at a later date.
Merlin revealed he supported and tried to win the approval of his dad for years, but the two no longer have a relationship.
In 2017, Winston Blackmore was charged with practising plural or “celestial” marriage in the fundamentalist community and was sentenced to six months’ house arrest.
All three of the brothers have now left the community, although they remain on good terms with their siblings.
This article originally appeared on The Sun and was reproduced with permission
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