What Is the Cast of ‘Escaping Polygamy’ up to These Days?

The Gist:

• Lifetime's Escaping Polygamy details the struggles several women have had in leaving forced/coerced marriages during their time in the Kingston Clan religious cult.
• Many of the women were pressured into incestuous marriages.
• Several of them are now advocates for helping other women leave similar situations.

The Lifetime series Escaping Polygamy follows the lives of three sisters — Andrea, Shanell, and Jessica — as they navigate life outside of the Kingston Clan (also referred to as the Latter Day Church of Christ or The Order). The show details how the women were able to extricate themselves from their former lifestyles and features them reflecting on their pasts as they work to free others from the group. So where are they now?

As per IMDb, the show ran for four seasons between 2014 and 2019. Initially, there was some debate as to whether or not the events of the reality TV series were real, and it appears that their stories are in fact, genuine, as is the nonprofit group launched by the women who work to provide services and care for those looking to leave The Order and start new lives for themselves.

The show also features several other women, in addition to the three sisters mentioned above, as they deal with transitioning to lives free from the polygamous relationships they were groomed from a young age to be a part of, oftentimes incestuous relationships with first-cousins, half-brothers, and uncles.

Upon leaving the Kingston Clan, Andrea studied law at the University of Washington and is an attorney who is dedicated to helping other women leave the lifestyle that she herself was able to free herself from. She continues to dedicate her efforts to running Hope After Polygamy and is an active advocate for women who are in the same situation she was once mired in.

Engaged at just 14 years of age to her 42-year-old uncle, Jessica was helped by her aunt to escape The Order. She now has a master's in social work and advocates online for Hope After Polygamy. She's married with three kids and gushes about her family, including her husband (who also earned his master's) on Instagram often.

While Shanell's Instagram is currently set to private, she says that she is "happily married" and is a "proud mom" after leaving a marriage to one of her "verbally and physically abusive" first cousins she was coerced into having at just 18 years of age. She's featured several interviews with her brother online, and like Jessica and Andrea, also advocates for Hope After Polygamy. She continues to spread awareness on child marriages in America on X.

Featured in six episodes of Escaping Polygamy toward the end of the show's run, Kollene got married to her second cousin at just 16 years of age and when her husband said he wanted more wives, she tried to get him to leave the religion with her. He declined, but she went on her way to become a successful makeup artist while advocating for other women to leave The Order and religious groups like it.

In a recent post she listed that she's teaching Yoga at a local gym, and she shows off various modeling looks on her social media as well.

Distractify has previously covered Ava's difficult road to emancipation — the young woman made her decision to leave her family at just 17 years of age. A bright student who was years ahead of her peers, Ava was being pressured from just 8 years old to marry her cousin. Hope After Polygamy helped in extricating her from her situation, and shortly after being emancipated she earned her associate's degree at just 18 years old.

Amanda recently went in depth about her experiences with The Order and how she was able to free herself from the group when she was just a teenager. Now she's currently involved in a massive lawsuit along with other women accusing members of the church for forcing them and others into marriages. The suit "also alleges the children are forced to work unpaid for Order-owned businesses, which it claims violates child labor laws," as Wonderwall reports.

She posts regularly about her struggles in leaving the cult and has dedicated her life to advocating for other women to escape.