(CBS) Mitt is not the first Romney to run for president. His father, George, tried to win the presidency in 1968, after serving three terms as governor of Michigan and running American Motors. He lost the Republican nomination that year to Richard Nixon.

Willard Mitt Romney grew up the youngest of four in Bloomfield Hills, a posh suburb of Detroit. His parents, both Mormons, raised their children in that faith and today he is still a devout Mormon, who doesn’t drink, smoke nor swear.

"One out of three people would worry about you as president because you are a Mormon. Why?" Wallace asks.

"There is part of the history of the church’s past that I understand is troubling to people," Romney says. "Look, the polygamy, which was outlawed in our church in the 1800s, that’s troubling to me. I have a great-great grandfather. They were trying to build a generation out there in the desert. And so he took additional wives as he was told to do. And I must admit I can’t imagine anything more awful than polygamy."

He believes that Americans want a leader who is a person of faith. The particulars of that faith are irrelevant. What matters, he says, are values.

"What’s at the heart of my faith is a belief that there’s a creator. That we’re all children of the same God," he says. "And that fundamentally the relationship you have with your spouse is important and eternal."

"This isn’t just some temporary convenience here on earth, but we’re people that are designed to live together as male and female and we’re gonna have families. And that, there’s a great line in the Bible that children are an inheritance of the Lord and happy is he who has or hath his quiver full of them," Romney says.

And Romney’s quiver is very full: 60 Minutes met all 22 members of his family at the Romney lake house in New Hampshire.

Romney has been married to his wife Ann for 38 years. His five sons range in age from 37 to 25. There are five daughters-in-law and ten grandchildren.

Romney mandates that they all get together at least twice a year. This time, at the lake house, they came together to celebrate Ann’s birthday. She is known as the CFO – Chief Family Officer.

Mitt and Ann fell in love in high school in Bloomfield Hills. She converted from Episcopal to Mormon while Mitt did missionary work in France for over two years. But later he joined her at Brigham Young University. And while he was away, Mitt says, he was terrified that he’d lose her to somebody else.

"You get all these Mormons out there with strict prohibition against premarital sex. They’re young and they’re attractive, the hormones work very well and people decide it’s time to get married," Romney says.

Asked if he had premarital sex with Ann, Romney tells Wallace, "No, I'm sorry. We don’t get into those things. The answer is no."

Three months after returning from France in 1969, Ann and Mitt were married. In 1975, Romney got joint degrees from Harvard Law School and Harvard Business School and he became a business consultant in Boston while Ann raised their five boys.

In 1998, Ann began to feel numbness in her right leg. It was multiple sclerosis.

But for over a year, the numbness and weakness progressed up her right side and debilitating fatigue set in. "I was no good. I couldn’t shop. I couldn’t cook. It took too much energy to even open the mail. And at that point I went into a very deep depression. I know you know all about that," she says.

"It was at that point that Mitt said, 'As long as you’re here with me everything’s ok and we can do everything together. What matters is that you’re with me.' And it made me turn the switch and say 'It’s time to start crawling out of this hole,'" Ann adds.

So she started riding horses, and she says with the help of both western and eastern medicine, her MS has gone into remission. Both Ann and Mitt agreed that her disease would not stop Romney from running for president.

"We’re now in for keeps," Romney says. "If I'm lucky enough to become president of the United States, the country has to come first."

"I’m gonna be fine," Ann adds.

Their five boys support their decision.

"Three of you went to Harvard Business School, one to medical school. All married. Nobody seems to have rebelled, gone off the rails. How come?" Wallace asks.

"Where a lot is given a lot is expected. So we have to live up to that standard," Craig Romney tells Wallace.

While all of them have served their church doing missionary work around the world, their answers vary about putting on a uniform and going to war.

"I feel guilty having not done it," Josh Romney tells Wallace.

"I’ve seen a lot and read a lot that has made me say, 'My goodness, I hope I never have to do that,'" Ben Romney says.

"Not one agreed or thought about serving in the military," Wallace remarks.

"There are other sacrifices to make as well. And I hope to be able to make a sacrifice of that caliber at some point in my life," Matt Romney says.

"Did you ever serve in the armed forces?" Wallace asks Mitt Romney.

"I did not," Romney replies.

Why not?

"I was at college. Then I went off and served my church for two and a half years in a mission," Romney replies.

And because of his high lottery number, he was never drafted to serve in Vietnam, something he says he regrets to this day.

Produced By Ruth Streeter
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