After the success of Sister Wives, a show that documents the lives of Kody Brown and his four wives, TLC debuted a similar program in 2018 – Seeking Sister Wife. The new TLC series documents the lives of three polygamous families in different stages of their relationships. While some members of the show are searching for another sister wife to bring into the family, others are already welcoming new ones into their home. Though it may seem unusual to the average person, these families have their own beliefs and reasons for living the way they do.
Polygamy, for the average person who is unfamiliar with the practice, is often associated with the Mormon church. Members of the congregation of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints at one time supported plural marriage as a tenet of their faith. Although the church moved away from the practice years ago, some believers continued to embrace the idea of a polygamous lifestyle as an important part of their faith. However, polygamy isn't limited to the Mormon church and is oftentimes not the result of religious beliefs, as Seeking Sister Wife shows.
On Seeking Sister Wife season 3, there's only one Mormon family – the Winders (via Cheat Sheet). Tami Winder shares her husband, Colton, with her sister wife, Sophie. Tami said she had always wanted to become a sister wife, even before she and Colton got married. To her, they are preparing to become gods and goddesses of their own worlds. She said, “There’s no better way to become like God than plural marriage because we believe God lives plural marriage.” Unlike the aforementioned trio, Jarod Clark practices polygyny, which focuses specifically on the male having more than one wife, rather than multiple people in one relationship. His first wife, Vanessa, was skeptical at first, but changed her mind once she realized having another wife, Kaleh, would give her extra help around the house.
Jarod's reasons for embracing polygamy are based on his own interests, rather than any kind of religious beliefs. Garrick and Dannielle Merrifield, on the other hand, claimed God called them to engage in the way of life. “We don’t come from a polygamous background but we believe in the Bible, and multiple people in their had multiple wives...I realized God wasn’t against that,” Garrick said. Like Vanessa Clark, Dannielle was hesitant at first, but now the two are in the process of bringing a Brazilian woman named Roberta into their marriage.
The Snowdens – Ashley and Dmitri – said religion had nothing to do with their decision to have a plural marriage. Ashley previously studied anthroplogy and thought polygamy was a “beautiful representation of family.” “[T]he fact that women get to work together and raise a family together and just built this nation up and we have a supportive husband at the head of that always seemed too beautiful to me,” she said. To her husband, Dmitri, women in a polygamous relationship “can express their creative freedom,” which is something that interested him.
Source: Cheat Sheet