My father, his 27 wives, 150 children: Teen's revelation on world's largest polygamist family goes viral

Canada’s Merlin Blackmore belongs to the world’s largest polygamous family based in Bountiful, British Columbia. His father, 64-year-old Winston Blackmore has 27 wives and 150 children. After nearly 21 years, Merlin, 19, has opened up about how it feels to live in a huge polygamous cult.

Merlin posted on the TikTok account @merlins.life, revealed he used to try and hide his upbringing and only recently decided to speak out now. He lives in the US now and 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 children went to their own school, while instead of living with their mothers, the teenagers all lived in a "motel house" together.

Merlin and his two brothers – Muray also 19 and Warren, 21, have taken to social media platforms to share their story. There were 27 wives but only 22 had children with Winston. Out of those 22, 16 still remain married to him. The children were trained to call their biological mother “mum.” They called the other wives of their father a “mother” followed by their first name.

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."

Warren also said, "There were two groups of three different sisters and there were four groups of four different sisters from another family.”

Merlin considers himself 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 of whom 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.

Merlin and his dad 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-month house arrest.  

All three of the brothers have now left the community, but they continue to remain on good terms with their siblings back home.