Remembering past abuse. Escaping Polygamy‘s Andrea Brewer reveals the pain she and her sisters endured while growing up, as seen in Us Weekly’s exclusive sneak at the A&E unscripted series’ season 2 premiere on Sunday, July 10.
In the preview clip, Andrea recounts a time when she was 12 and her dad, John Daniel, flipped out after she and her older sister Jessica Christensen, then 15, pierced their ears without his permission. The polygamist Salt Lake City-based group that her family belonged to does not permit people to pierce their ears, believing that human bodies are temples from God.
“We were terrified because he’s beaten us plenty of times in the past,” Andrea tells the camera. “He jumped over his desk, and he lunged at us. And he grabbed Jess’ head, and he was pushing her down and said, ‘I’m going to rip your earrings out — take your earrings out. I’m going to rip them out if you don’t take them out.'”
In 2004, Andrea and Jessica began a long court battle to separate from their dad and mom, Heidi, which required them to drag up long-dormant memories.
“During the trial, Jessica and I had to testify, and I had to relive all the abuse that my dad put us through,” Andrea says. “He would hit us with boards, he would force us to eat rotten food, and if we’d throw it up, he’d force us to eat that.”
A previously released clip, which was also exclusive to Us, showed Jessica revealing that her uncle, 42, was courting her when she was 14, which her parents approved of.
Watch the harrowing clip in the video above. Escaping Polygamy‘s season 2 premiere airs on A&E Sunday, July 10, at 10 p.m. ET.
