next meet Jess a woman with five different identities I'm really worried that you'll meet some people in my head they'll come forward and talk to you all living in the same body I've got Jamie Jake and honor you around so it's busy when I first heard about Jess I really didn't know what to think here was a young woman who was said to have five distinct identities five different people all in the same body and four of them were male what's more any one of them could appear at any time even when she and her husband were at their most intimate naturally I wondered how could all this happen how could it possibly work then I was invited to spend a week with Jess and her extended family this interview brought within a few unique challenges Thank You Jess lovely to meet you I was expecting to meet Jess but not quite sure who would actually be in the chair across from me did you have to get approval from everybody to talk to me kind of yeah I mean well I mean just to do this entire thing is very much about everyone's comfortability factor the everyone that jess is referring to are the four other identities that live inside her she calls them alters and they are all male jess has dissociative identity disorder or D ID there's Jamie a 27 year old country doctor so Jamie's the only one with prescription lenses jamie has a very upper class British accent she's heading home now to finish one of our essays Jamie is very intelligent he's very charming Ollie a 14 year old boy who has been inside a Jess since he was seven he's a bit of a moody teenager strong opinions for Virginia moon he wanted to grow up and be a dinosaur Edie a 29 year old punk rock hairdresser it is very artsy he's very creative I think I'm a bit of a dark horse I think that's what a lot of people describe me as and he does all of this left-handers you know so the rest of us are right-handed and Jake 25 year old Californian popstar Jake is about five foot six and he's like quite slim and lean and muscular Wow keep tripping over my words I think I'm just too excited he is this brilliant Hollywood white smile and he's very good-looking and although Jamie Jake Ali and Ed all see themselves as individuals they all exist inside Jess I think I would describe myself as quite girly I quite love my pink and I love like you know my maker and and I adore my pets too how do you manage your day so that everybody has their own time and their own space there is a structure you know it would be that one of us whoever it may be is up in the morning generally its shape that likes to take the dog out for a walk and go out for a bit of a run in the morning and then it maybe add that'll be out a little bit to make lunchboxes and to set everything out for the week and then I'll go into work 9:00 to 5:00 allowing them to have their own space in the room time is incredibly beneficial to our overall mental house of course living in the one body means they all look the same to you and I but venture into their inner world and this is how they see themselves these are the actual images they use to depict their appearance and personalities your alt as a male jess is female you have a female body now there were ever times when your alters are uncomfortable with that yeah so I mean Jake is very self conscious of the fact that he doesn't appear male to the outside world Jaime is I think just ask that cavers role he's very good at taking care of me you know me Jaime is very good at that and it's very much I think he's quite detached from the body Rudy as is Eid and Isis Ali I think they don't really feel that this body belongs to them just developed her male identities as a way to protect herself after a traumatic event as a child something she won't go into detail about is it unusual for all of your alters to be male I think having males around all day every day and my brain really helped me desensitize myself to being afraid of man and I thought if I was a boy what happened to me wouldn't have happened despite her disorder jess lives a normal life in wales working full-time and studying at university and happily married for a year now - gasps what first attracted you to her I mean the typical thing is was her looks I thought this is one of the most beautiful women I have ever seen in my life but after I started getting to know her she had the most beautiful - personality Hey well personalities well he asked me to be his girlfriend three times before I accepted was so frightened of him seeing that side of me but he was insistent and eventually when I explained that the reason why I keep saying no is because of this and I'm really worried that you'll meet some people in my head they'll come forward and talk to you and she explained to me she had people living inside of a hedge you'd have conversations with and I just looked at her I went that's fine that's awesome that's really really cool I was just sort of one of those expanding things just made her more unique and much more of an interesting person here we are nearly 10 years later and it still seems to be okay it's a hard concept to understand but I went in open-minded and came to learn more about this strange condition what do you say to the doubters you need to actually meet someone who has the condition to really understand it properly not only does Jess have a loving husband she also has a strong supportive circle of friends who accept her and her identities Sam who did you meet first so I think I met Jamie first no great they'd already met all these people in my hope they've never had a problem with any of them Jess and her identities operate like a family they all have relationships with one another and exist in what they call their inner world Jake and Jamie are brothers Jamie and Edie are partners and Ollie is Jamie and Ed's son like most families it's complex it's not as scary as people make it out to be and it's not about you know the axe wielding murderer and the corner Jess and her identities often find themselves misunderstood ever seen a case like this before misrepresented three identities live in Kevin's body portrayed in Hollywood as something to be afraid of something dangerous someone's coming for you the Beast nobody's going to hurt you alters are very very unlikely to harm you and as with any mental health condition the likelihood is that people with mental health issues and more likely to be victims than perpetrators but for years it also confused and terrified her I'd end up in places that I didn't know I didn't know where I was I didn't know how I ended up there and I remember one day I was like in a dress with the highest of heels on I had blisters all over my feet it was raining and I had no idea where I was or how I gotten there Jess struggled to be believed and to get the help and diagnosis she needed until she met dr. Remy a karoli a psychotherapist who specializes in D I D the condition is you could say it's the most primitive fundamental survival system which nearly always applies to overwhelming experiences for children growing up usually from a very early age those extreme situations where you are powerless when you are in extreme life-threatening situations which the brain in the sense can't deal with meeting Remy was honestly the biggest relief I've ever had in my life and when he basically said you know yes you without doubt without a doubt have di D and this what you've been suffering with hopefully that means I'll be taken seriously from now on and people will start to recognize that this isn't just something made up this isn't just something on television this is something in real life that I have to suffer with daily with Remy's help Jess learn to manage her identities and create a healthy functioning family she had an awareness of different alters inside she was having to negotiate with them because it's a bit like a family if you ignore them if you've got a family and you keep ignoring your children they will eventually start making life difficult for you Kane to meet the members of Jess's unique family the next morning Jamie invites me over hi I'm Jamie I'm Mel nice to meet you come on in thank you it's striking how very different Jamie is to Jess his accent guys was telling me that you were devastatingly handsome his mannerisms yeah describe yourself to me physically about five foot ten blond hair green eyes a bit of a Prince Charming type I think my role is basically sort of like a caretaker so I'm also like a number two it suggests like I sort of make the decisions make the choices and I just look after us the youngster in Jess's in a world is Ollie I like I like I like video games and I like YouTube people he's a teenager I like I like taking my bike out at the moment but this boy is living inside the body of a grown woman and what do you see when you look in the mirror um I see Jess but I but I don't know like if I don't look anymore I know it's I know it's me but if I'm looking at me or I see someone else it isn't me can you paint me a picture of your inside world yeah we live in this really nice big house I go to a private school and yeah it's just it's just really nice now Jess and her alters for the most part operate like a well-oiled machine but that doesn't mean that sharing her life and body with four other men isn't challenging who has control who makes decisions who has memories of things that have happened and who doesn't they are all present to varying degrees and jess has a simple way to explain it yeah so I always say dige is very much like driving a car imagine your car is the body and whoever's in the driver's seat is driving the body right Co consciousness is where there is more than one of you in the car I can either be driving and be taking control of it I could be in a passenger seat and sort of have an idea of what's going on or it could be in the back seats where I can sort of I have much less control and much less idea of what's going on or I can be in the boot where I have like no memory at all of what's happened or what's gone on are there signals can you feel that one of your alters is maybe coming forward you've got that ping of some things not quite you it can be even the fact that maybe if heads around and realized I'm using my left hand a lot more or it could be with Jamie's around I my eyesight starting to go a little bit blurry or it can be even cravings for food that I don't really like and that meat that means to me oh well somebody else must like that and I don't know maybe I don't know who it is or maybe I do but those are sort of the clues that I look out for coming out how are you feeling right now a new identity starts to emerge on camera I've got Jamie Jake and Ollie you're around so it's busy and a delicate question about the marriage moments of intimacy hmm is there any control over who is with gas [Music] [Music] in most ways jess is a normal happy young woman she's a newlywed has a job she loves and is studying at university but jess has dissociative identity disorder or di D which means she shares her life with four other people her alters all male identities that live inside her I've absolutely have full faith that I've been speaking to Jess this whole time yes yes yes and yeah so it's been Jake around very close it meant at times but yes still been me Jess started to display some of the signs of a switch during our interview how are you feeling right now yeah a little trying them out fine fine um very very foggy headed like it's a lot of a buzzing around not talking so I guess it's been quite hard to concentrate a search equipped to make sure I'm saying the right things so because I know that Jamie I've got Jamie Jake and Ollie you're around so it's busy who's the closest oh gosh at the moment I couldn't tell you it's just like chatter so I couldn't tell you at the moment would anyone else like to talk to me today um yeah I just I just yeah so like see and I know I'm doing it now so I'm like I'm not making much eye contact my eyes are to the floor I'm sort of that's like those are they and I tend to rub my try know I've got makeup on so I'm not trying to rub my eyes but one of my things I do I tend to rub over my eyes - witchy so yeah I know that there's yeah there is them there is whoever that's around now Jess leaves the room to have a moment to herself the privacy she needs to allow whoever wants to meet me next the chance to come through hi the American accent tells me Jake is here how are you doing okay just it's startling how different Jake is to the woman who was sitting down just minutes before not only the accent but body language mannerisms everything about Jake is Jake so introduce me to Jake oh gosh I guess I'd start with the fact that I'm really happy go-lucky I'm more of a definitely more of an optimist I try to have a good time no matter what we do what does Jake do um in a world I am a Hollywood actor actually and I I'm also like a singer just general general teen idol the best way to see how Jake imagines himself is on his social media describe yourself to me physically I'm not particularly tall I am like a pocket of fun I guess I'm like five and six and I have like all of II colored skin like always in the Sun Tan kind of look I have like bright white teeth and bright blue eyes and brown fluffy hair that's kind of always spiky at the front I'm not quite sure how to word this but you've described yourself to me and the person I see is quite different what do you see when you look in the mirror do you only see Jake when I looked down and I concentrate I know that you know I can see that the wedding rings and stuff that aren't certainly aren't worn by me and that it's almost like a reality check it's like if I don't think about it I see me jess has a friendly relationship with her male Altos Jamie Jake and Ollie but the one who has always caused her anxiety is Ed he's the only one I haven't been allowed to meet yet has Edie ever tried to hurt you yeah and sometimes I come back and I would have self-harm scoffs maybe my arms wrists legs thighs mainly on the thighs and I I said I just started I guess to put two and two together and yeah I think that was the start of things not being very well it was only after days of getting to know Jess and her alters that Edie was ready to meet me once again I had to introduce myself well it ed nice to meet you nice to meet you know what's your relationship like with Jess my relationship with Jess is a bit of a rocky one but we've been working on living harmoniously getting there you doing all right what makes it difficult what makes a lucky we've just got different ways of we don't really see eye to eye but we're trying to at least be humble and at least being on the same wavelength when it is in control is there ever that fear that he has the potential to harm you yeah particularly when I was younger it was very frightening and it's taken me years to get to a point where I understand how to manage him now and it actually wasn't until my diagnostic mic diagnostician said to me you need to stop calling at a bad alter he's not a bad alter he's just misunderstood [Music] no one should be locked out everyone has to be a negotiated way because if you try and lock anyone out ultimately it'll backfire that was probably the best advice I'd ever been given in terms of how to manage and how to look at my alters for the sake of family harmony jess has found a way to keep both herself and her four male alters happy do I have to like each other but you do have to respect that each part of you is there for a reason but it's navigating her real-life relationship with husband Ayers that brings unique challenges how does that sit with you that you've married a woman and the alters are males it actually sits quite well I am bisexual myself so that incident in itself doesn't bother me in the slightest I'm in a relationship with Jess she's my wife I do have a lovely romantic relationship with that as well I've never asked anyone this before whether it's on camera or off moments of intimacy hmm is there any control over who is with gasps actually intimacy is a big trigger of mine so it means that I I want to be as far away as possible from it and it's something that I'm still working on and I have had therapy for that side of things and it's something that I am improving with but it has been up to Ed as his role also to be intimate with my partner but given Jess can switch at any moment it can get awkward if I noticed that she's switching i when we are being intimate in any manner and then everything gets stopped and pulled back because I don't know if Jake's gonna come out I don't if all he's gonna come out so everything gets pulled back but yeah we're doing quite nicely I've had nine years of it so in Jess's tiny Welsh village she also has the support of a close circle of friends who seem to get along with all of her inner personalities tonight they're out with Jamie who are you closest to cuz he's so to the point Jamie can I ask you how important is your group of friends exceptionally important I think it's quite an isolating disorder I think a lot of people like us who used to being pretending to be one person to satisfy everyone if everyone they meet thanks to our friends really we're in a much better place now than I think we ever would have been vision cheers to that [Music] this is really nice today Jess and her alters have found a way to share their lives and keep the peace so unsettling oh my god a view though oh that's gorgeous I'm just being accepting of whatever happens happens and I'm hoping for the best and that we can work together and live together together harmoniously weave gasps by their side they have a bright future ahead of them again ready do you feel very loved Oh massively I've got five people loving me at once and it's do the most beautiful thing as opposed to me just nice actually having five people come out that respect you as a person and actually love you and that is the most beautiful thing no wonder you married you together they can face whatever challenges life throws at them [Music] all six of them you think I'll keep you [Music] and if you want to know more about Jess and her altars they have their own YouTube channel the details are on our website and Facebook page