The 13th Wife: Is Josie Ortiz Based on a Real Reporter?

With Lifetime’s ‘The 13th Wife: Escaping Polygamy’ delving deep into the extraordinary tale of polygamist cult survivor Rena Chynoweth, we get a two-part film absolutely unlike any other. Also titled ‘The Thirteenth Wife: Escaping Polygamy,’ it chronicles everything from her early years in the LDS Church to joining a secluded Mormon settlement in Mexico called Colonia LeBaron to being the wife of group leader Ervil LeBaron. She eventually did part ways with him as well as his teachings, but it was already too late since he had allegedly managed to manipulate her and many others into doing his dirty work for him. Rena only ever publicly addresses all this once, to reporter Josie Ortiz (a role taken on by Jessie Fraser) in the movie – after all, she prefers never to talk to the media out of privacy concerns.

Josie Ortiz is Partially Inspired By a Real-Life Fellow Survivor

When Josie Ortiz suddenly knocks on escapee Rena Chynoweth’s door following the massacre of 3 women and 6 children connected to the LeBaron family in Mexico, the latter is terrified. She quickly arms herself, thinking the members of the group she was once a part of have come to kill her for breaking away, just to breathe a sigh of relief when the reporter identifies herself. The young woman is subsequently confirmed to be with the Houston Record, yet it isn’t until she confides that she, too, is a polygamist group survivor that the elder agrees to speak with her. After all, this connection makes her believe Josie wouldn’t sensationalize any aspect of her complex story, so she candidly spills all the details of her experiences for the first and only time.

Coming to real-life Rena, even she never gave an interview to protect the new, stable life she built upon gaining freedom, that is, until she was given a chance to do a proxy one with Doris Hanson. This was 2009, and her former sister-in-law through marriage, Ervil’s brother Verlan LeBaron’s ex-wife, Susan Ray Schmidt, served as her proxy in this session with the fellow polygamous community survivor. Like Josie, Doris was born and brought up in the Mormon fundamentalist sect before managing to flee, yet there are some clear differences in their familial backgrounds and overall experiences. Therefore, it’s evident that while creators of this Lifetime original production concocted the character of reporter Josie from the ground up, they did take a lot of inspiration from podcaster Doris.

Doris Hanson Left Her Fundamentalist Group at the Age of 18

It was reportedly in the 1950s that Doris Hanson was born into the Latter Day Church of Christ’s Kingston polygamy clan to a sect leader and one of two concurrent wives (not three, like Josie). However, she was raised only by her mother, who concealed her father’s identity from not just her and her siblings but also everyone else by lying whenever asked about the children’s paternity. Nevertheless, according to Doris’ own accounts, she still witnessed enough of the group’s fundamentalist operations/teachings that when she was promised to a fellow leader at the tender age of 18, she knew it was wrong. That’s when she realized she’d had enough and carefully fled Kingston, only to gradually begin laying the foundations for a new, happy life, far away from everything and everyone she had once known.

As per Doris’ own accounts, she subsequently struggled with her relationship with Jesus and the entire notion of God to such an extent that it took her 25 years to even accept that she had faith. This journey wasn’t easy for her in any way, shape, or form, yet she was ultimately able to recognize that power-based polygamy was and can never be a real thing for salvation in religion. “[My mother] believed in work salvation, polygamy, sexuality for heaven, sexual favors, sexual exchange for heaven,” she once said before adding it was all untrue, based on deceit and lies.

Doris Hanson Has Long Been Dedicated to Spreading Her Truth and Helping Survivors

Doris reportedly evolved into a Southern Baptist over time, following which she really came to understand her own views on polygamy and became the Director of A Shield and Refuge Ministry. This Christian outreach program was established in early 2008 to offer refugees of Mormon fundamentalism and polygamy some support so as to help them embrace their newfound freedom. This same year, owing to the rising number of such groups coming to light, KTMW Channel 20 Station Manager Denny Ermel got the idea that maybe this issue should be openly discussed.

Denny subsequently reached out to Doris, who immediately said yes to leading this project since she had actually been searching for such opportunities, and it gave way to ‘Polygamy: What Love Is This?’ As a weekly internet program or audio podcast that often also interviews fellow escapees, it underscores all the aspects of fundamentalism as well as polygamy that one may not see from the outside. In fact, Doris’ proxy interview with Rena in 2009 was for this program itself, and since then, she has even established a refugee safe house, making it clear her primary goal now is to help others who are in the position she once was. For this, the proud 70-something-year-old resident of Salt Lake City, Utah, and loving family woman has even featured in the 2008 television series ‘Lifting the Veil of Polygamy.’