She grew up “Between a Third World and a First World existence.” Carrie Sheffield shares her shocking childhood.

Growing up, Carrie Sheffield attended 17 public schools, in addition to being homeschooled at times. She and her seven siblings spent much of their childhood living in a motor home, a challenging reality that inspired the title of Sheffield’s book, Motorhome Prophets: A Journey of Healing and Forgiveness. Pictured: Sheffield is seen on the set of Candace Owens’ podcast in Nashville, Tennessee on May 3, 2022. (Photo: Jason Davis/Getty Images)

Carrie Sheffield is known in conservative journalism circles as a talented columnist and broadcaster. She is a graduate of Harvard University and a senior policy analyst at the Independent Women’s Forum, but many who have followed Sheffield’s work have been surprised to learn about her harrowing childhood detailed in her new memoir.

Growing up, Sheffield attended 17 public schools, in addition to being homeschooled at times. She and her seven siblings spent much of their childhood living in a motorhome with a father who believed he was a prophet, a challenging reality that inspired the title of Sheffield’s book, Motorhome Prophecies: A Journey of Healing and Forgiving”.

Sheffield reveals on ‘Troubled Women’ podcast that her family often lived in ‘Third World’ conditions in the US

I describe existence as “interruption between a Third World and a First World” quite frequently. So sometimes we had houses and lived in a regular house. But then we went back to living in the caravan, and then sometimes we lived in a tent.

So my mother gave birth to my brother when the family was living in a tent. When I took the ACT to go to college, I was living in a shed with no running water. It would be brought in from one of those greenhouses, so it was really unstable. I would say that is probably the strongest – or the most consistent word was inconsistency.

And the reason I lived like this is because my father claimed to be a prophet. He was excommunicated from the official Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints …. But his philosophy and kind of theology are part of the larger type of Mormon diaspora.

There are a lot of different groups, and my dad kind of became a self-proclaimed, self-proclaimed Mormon prophet.

Through a series of events, including her brother trying to rape her, Sheffield made the decision as a teenager that she needed to leave home.

“I told my dad I wanted to go to college and he raised his right hand … like he was swearing,” Sheffield recalls, “and he said, ‘Prophesy in the name of Jesus that you will be raped and killed if you leave So at that point, it was a crossroads. Do I stay and face potential physical violence from my brother again or do I leave and have the potential for this prophecy to come true? I decided to take a chance and left home and my father.”

Sheffield’s road to becoming a successful professional wasn’t instantaneous after leaving home. In her memoir, she details many of the challenges she had to overcome and how her childhood affected her as an adult.

Sheffield’s determination in the face of hardship and abuse and her desire for the truth have rightly earned her the title of ‘Problem Woman’.

Watch the conversation with Sheffield on this week’s edition of Troubled Women podcast below: