A woman who escaped a polygamist cult after being told she has to marry her cousin has laid bare the horrors and ‘creepy’ practices in the ‘Kingston Clan’.
Priscilla Tucker, 27, who is now based in Las Vegas, grew up being part of extreme religious organization known as The Order – a faction of the Mormon church – which believes they are direct descendants of Jesus Christ.
On social media, she has been documenting her past experiences and revealing the incestuous, sexist and racist confines of the rules she was raised in.
In one TikTok clip, the influencer recounted being pressured to wed a family member as a teenager.
‘When I was 17, my whole entire family wanted me to marry my first cousin but I didn’t want to marry my first cousin,’ she explained.
‘So I told him not to propose to me and he said he wouldn’t but then a few weeks later, my mom wakes me up at five in the morning and says she has a surprise for me. So I get ready, I go outside – and it’s my cousin there to pick me up.
‘We drive for an hour to go on a hot air balloon ride with a bunch of random strangers and he waits until we get to the very top where I can’t possibly jump out without dying to propose to me. And because I don’t want to ruin all of these people’s experience I say yes.’
However, when the pair were back on the ground, Priscilla told him she’s not going to marry him.
Priscilla Tucker, 27, (right) who is now based in Las Vegas , grew up being part of extreme religious organization known as The Order – a faction of the Mormon church – which believes they are direct descendants of Jesus Christ
‘I take off the ring to give it back to him and he’s like, ‘well I already told everyone you said yes’ and now I’m getting all of these text messages congratulating me on my engagement,’ she continued.
‘I kind of just put the ring back on and accept that I’m going to marry my cousin.’
In August, speaking to Cults to Consciousness podcast host Shelise Ann Sola, Priscilla revealed how her family pushed her to tie the knot to her cousin for months after.
Priscilla’s parents were not married, but her father’s parents were half siblings. The social media star also revealed that after her dad passed away, her mother married his half-brother.
‘They were trying to get me to marry him for about six months before and, for a while, I actually just went along with it because everybody in my family wanted us to,’ she explained.
‘It was such a weird feeling for me because his mom is my mom’s sister and then my dad is his dad’s uncle so I was related on both sides.
On social media, she has been documenting her past experiences and revealing the incestuous, sexist and racist confines of the rules she was raised in
‘Normally in The Order, when you marry your cousin, you don’t grow up playing with them and doing everything with them but I did because it was our moms that were sisters.
‘It was just so weird because his mom would be like, ‘Oh my gosh I’m so happy because I know that you’re going to be so amazing and I already know you.’
‘And then our grandma said, ‘Oh my gosh I’m so happy that my two grandkids are getting married.”
Priscilla noted that she went through multiple phases where she just tried to do everything that was asked of her so that her family ‘didn’t hate [her].’
But, a few weeks later, she decided to put her foot down and refused to say “I do” while at the altar alongside her cousin.
‘My mom was just yelling at me she said, “How could you do this? You’re going to make him so sad. How can you do this to my sister? How can you do this to me?”,’ she continued.
‘She was just trying to guilt trip me and I said, “I’m not going to, I’m leaving The Order,” so she kicked me out of her house said I couldn’t come home anymore so I moved in with my grandma.’
However, after that, she explained her grandmother started ‘talking to her about marrying a different guy who was already married he was actually her dad’s half-brother’.
In August, speaking to Cults to Consciousness podcast host Shelise Ann Sola, Priscilla revealed how her family pushed her to tie the knot to her cousin for months after
Following that incident, Priscilla realized that no matter who she was with, they would try to wed her off to a family member.
‘It’s very incestuous,’ she explained in another TikTok. ‘It’s very very common for people to not us marry their cousins but also like their half siblings or uncles… they just all marry within each other.
This is to ‘keep the bloodline pure’, with young women in the cult encouraged not to ‘marry outsiders into the group’.
In other clips, she and Amanda Rae Grant – another ex-member who made her escape – also spoke about how The Order would attempt to hide the fact that children were products of incest from the law if state officials ever demanded a paternity test.
The pair revealed that leader Paul Elden Kingston – officially known as the ‘Trustee in Trust’ of the ‘Davis County Cooperative Society (DCCS)’ – would also allegedly send the wives he’s most related to (among the 27 women he is married to, there are said to be some who are his sisters and nieces) to a different state.
They also explained that children’s birth certificates sometimes don’t list a father – or a fake name is used – to hide incestual links.
Priscilla and Amanda have also spoken about how racially intolerant The Order was.
‘Obviously its a racist cult,’ Amanda explained in one video.
A woman who grew up in a polygamist cult has lifted the lid on the horrifying experiences she went through as she was pushed to engage in incestuous relationships
The influencer – who is white – went on to say that even she was called the N-word at the Order’s private school if she caught a little bit of a tan in the sun.
‘Just imagine how they treated actual kids who are not white,’ she added.
They also added that ‘no one keeps assets’ – as everything from money to property ‘foes back to the order’.
‘You have to buy it back if you want it,’ Priscilla said in another TikTok clip.
After years of being forced to abide by the strict rules, the young woman was desperate to get away.
‘I definitely was trying to leave for a very long time,’ she admitted in a post. ‘And I saw Amanda leave with my cousin… and she didn’t end up on the street!
‘I had reached out to a producer of Escaping Polygamy [a TV show Amanda and Priscilla eventually appeared on] and asked if there was anything they could do.’
At the time, Priscilla said the team said no because she was still underage.
Eventually, she found a way to get ‘brought into a safehouse’ – but ended up ‘thrown into rehab’.
‘It was an inpatient center for kids with behavioral issues,’ she explained. ‘I’m pretty sure it was owned by the Mormon church because all the staff members were Mormon.’
Priscilla then reached out to the producers of Escaping Polygamy once again – who this time were able to help.
In previous interviews, she recounted how she attempted to flee The Order multiple times throughout her childhood but never had any success as she was always found by her family.
However, her escape was interrupted when her mom orchestrated her ‘kidnaping’ to take her to facility in which they taught women the teachings of The Order.
But, Priscilla was determined and began once again thinking of her freedom.
‘I ended up running away in the middle of the night and I took a bus to Las Vegas,’ she told Cults to Consciousness.
The now 27-year-old also explained that one of her cousins and her cousin’s friends – who were already out of the cult – helped her escape.
She noted that they told her to get her stuff together and helped her get a bus ticket.
Now, Priscilla is focusing on her own ‘peace’ and happiness while raising her own seven-year-old daughter.
In the same interview, she candidly explained: ‘I had filed for emancipation and five days before my court date my mom reached out to me.
‘She said that she just wanted to have lunch with me one more time and after that she was she wasn’t going to talk to me anymore, I wasn’t going to be her daughter anymore.
‘My older sister came and picked me up and brought me to my mom’s house and my mom was acting so sketchy.
‘Then, right as we decided we were going to leave, the doorbell rang and my mom opened the door and it’s just these two people.
‘She said “I told them they could take you,” my cousin had disappeared a few months prior and her boyfriend at the time found out that she was at this impatient facility. I just knew that that’s where they were sending me.
‘They shoved me in their car and my older sister she was crying.’
She noted that she and her mom often send each other messages on birthdays and special holidays – adding that she is not in contact with her family frequently.
It’s not the first time an ex-member of the clan has come forward about their experiences.
Other young women who fled the cult have spoken about their own instances of being pushed to marry family members when they were teenagers – and being dissuaded from leaving – as well.
The Order – which was started during the Great Depression and promotes polygamy and incest to keep bloodlines ‘pure’ – is typically based in Salt Lake City, Utah.