Mormon founder Joseph Smith had 40 wives, church acknowledges
Church leaders acknowledge prophet Joseph Smith's prolific polygamy for first time, signalling new openness for an often-secretive religion

Mormon church founder and prophet Joseph Smith took as many as 40 wives, at least one as young as 14, leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have acknowledged for the first time.
The confirmation of Smith's polygamy is made in a series of essays posted as guides for the Mormon faithful.
Multiple marriage was one of the church's public attributes in its early days. It formally abandoned polygamy in 1890, but the practice continues to be a cultural identifier in film, television and theatre.
The acknowledgment is significant because it signals an openness on the part of the religion, which has been wrapped in secrecy and whose practices involving women and minorities have raised questions among some of its own adherents.
In that sense, Mormons are following in the footsteps of other Christian religions seeking to address once-taboo issues, such as sexuality or same-sex marriage.
Born in New York state in the 1820s, nurtured in its early combative days in the Midwest, the Mormon religion went west. Adherents settled in Utah, which is still the religion's spiritual centre.