A nurse has told how she managed to flee a notorious polygamous cult which makes members completely 'isolated from the outside world'.
Angela Johnson, 38, followed in the footsteps of four generations of her family and was raised as part of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS0.
People were given a chilling insight into what life was like for those who were a part of the breakaway Mormon sect, formerly led by Warren Jeffs, in a chilling 2015 Netflix series.
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Take a look at the trailer here:
In the four-part true crime documentary, titled Keep Sweet: Pray & Obey, a string of former members revealed how they were indoctrinated by Jeffs, 69, and subjected to rape, abuse, forced marriage, and unwanted pregnancies.
Angela has now opened up about her own harrowing experience in the cult, explaining that those involved with the 1,500-strong polygamous group were forced to offer 'complete obedience to whatever the church asked'.
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Jeffs - who is said to have had 78 wives, 24 of whom were underage - was sentenced to life in prison after being found guilty of two counts of sexual assault against a child in 2011.
Another 12 men were also charged with child abuse in wake of a raid on the cult leader's FLDS ranch in West Texas back in 2008.
Angela explained that polygamy 'was one of the main parts of the religion', and that men were at the top of the pecking order, while women were 'very oppressed and had to obey everything'.
"My dad didn't have multiple wives, but I grew up with polygamy all around me," she explained. "One relative had 24 wives, it was a very common practice.
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"[The cult] was very isolated from the outside world," Angela said. "We didn't have internet, TV, newspapers or anything like that. We didn't get to listen to music that wasn't created by our people.
"We were required to dress how they wanted and have complete obedience to whatever the church asked of us. Most of the girls only went up to grade 10 at the private religious school because after that, we were all married."
The mother-of-three recalled how members were taught that they were the 'chosen people' who were 'elite' in comparison to their non-practicing peers.
"It was indoctrination after indoctrination - that this was the only way," Angela said, adding that it was regarded as a 'cardinal sin to even consider leaving'.
The nurse, who now runs a clothing business, explained that she first began to toy with the idea of fleeing the FLDS after she was forced to marry a stranger when she was just 16.
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She had briefly met fellow cult member Cade Johnson, who was 19 at the time, twice before she stood next to him on the altar and vowed to spend the rest of her life with him.
"It didn't feel strange to me being told that this was the guy I was going to marry," Angela said. "I'd been raised that way. We didn't even kiss at the legal ceremony.
"For me, I was just a teenager and raised to think marriage is the way, but then reality set in and I really didn't know what I was doing. I began questioning everything and didn't know if I actually wanted to be married.
"I almost had an awakening. I started acting more rebellious and asking more questions, which doesn't go down well in the religion."
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After informing her family about her feelings towards being married off so prematurely, Angela said her relatives were 'embarrassed and ashamed'.
"It was a cardinal sin to even consider leaving, you were shunned from your family and friends," she said of the FLDS. "It's really scary because your whole life, you're taught how bad the outside world is.
"I just kept thinking 'there has to be more to life than this'. I was the first one in my family to leave the religion."
After escaping the cult, she began to try and sort out a divorce with Cade so she could 'move on' with her life - and this ended up blossoming into an unlikely romance.
She formed a friendship with her estranged husband, who also left the FLDS, and explained that the pair ended up 'trauma-bonding' over their shared experience.
Angela added: "He asked me one time 'shall we just give this a try because we're already married?'"- and the rest is history.
The couple went from strength to strength on the outside world and moved to Spokane in the US state of Washington to start a new life.
Incredibly, Angela and medical helicopter pilot Cade, 41, have now been together for more than 20 years and have welcomed three children into the world.
"It's amazing to think about what we went through together with a lack of support," Angela said. "We're really proud of what we've done."
It's certainly a love story to tell the grandkids!
Topics: Crime, Netflix, Sex and Relationships, True Crime, US News, Weird, World News
Olivia Burke