Mormon Founder Had Up to 40 Wives

Joseph Smith, the founder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, wed as many as 40 women, including some who were already married and one who was as young as 14, the church has acknowledged. Smith’s marital history had been the subject of frequent historical debate, but until recently, Mormon leaders had taken pains to present the church’s founding prophet as happily married to one woman. Now the church says that “careful estimates put the number between 30 and 40.” The church banned new polygamous unions in 1890, largely as a condition for Utah to become a state.