Polygamy is a civil right, says TV star

THE POLYGAMIST star of a US reality-television show is challenging Utah’s bigamy laws, calling for his way of life – and that of thousands of fellow Mormon fundamentalists – to be decriminalised.

Kody Brown, who has four wives, wants the law against having more than one marriage, and banning several lovers from living together, overturned.

Mr Brown, who has 17 children, features in Sister Wives on US TV. He claims polygamy is part of his religion and freedom to practice it is enshrined in the US constitution.

“What they are asking for is the right to structure their own lives, their own family, according to their faith and their beliefs,” said Jonathan Turley, a lawyer for Mr Brown and his wives Meri, 39, Janelle, 40, Christine, 37, and Robyn, 31.

Mr Brown and his family fled Utah in January after police began a bigamy investigation, alerted to their lifestyle by their television appearances.

Mr Brown, 43, maintains he is not breaking the law because he only has one marriage licence, which relates to his first wedding, and his three subsequent marriages are only “spiritual unions” forged during religious ceremonies.

But while bigamy is illegal in all US states, under Utah law the term also applies to sexual partners who cohabit, opening him to legal scrutiny because he has lived with multiple wives for 16 years.

Polygamy is prevalent among Mormon fundamentalists, but is not accepted by the mainstream Mormon church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, based in Utah.

Prosecutors said that no charges had been filed against Mr Brown and his wives, but added that the police investigation was ongoing and that it extended beyond the issue of bigamy.