Historian Benjamin Park examines the surviving historical evidence about Joseph Smith's relationship with Fanny Alger in a new YouTube video, questioning whether it constituted plural marriage, an affair, or something less certain. The 1,707-view video uploaded today represents a deep dive into one of early Mormon history's most disputed episodes.

Park, an established academic historian of Mormonism, analyzes primary sources to assess competing interpretations of the relationship. Some historians and apologists argue Alger was Smith's first plural wife in the early 1830s; others contend the evidence points to an extramarital affair before polygamy was formally introduced.

The Fanny Alger case remains central to debates about when plural marriage began, how it was practiced before being formalized in Doctrine and Covenants 132, and whether early episodes involved religious ceremony or personal transgression.