Bogota (AFP) - Three gay men say they have gained legal recognition as the first "polyamorous family" in Colombia, where same-sex marriages were legalized last year.

"We wanted to validate our household... and our rights, because we had no solid legal basis establishing us as a family," said one of the men, actor Victor Hugo Prada, in a video published by Colombian media on Monday.

He said he and his two partners, sports instructor John Alejandro Rodriguez and journalist Manuel Jose Bermudez, signed legal papers with a solicitor in the city of Medellin, establishing them as a family unit with inheritance rights.

"This establishes us as a family, a polyamorous family. It is the first time in Colombia that has been done."

Lawyer and gay rights activist German Rincon Perfetti said there are many three-person unions in Colombia but this was the first one to be legally recognized.

"It is a recognition that other types of family exist," he told AFP.

A ruling by the constitutional court in April 2016 made Colombia the fourth South American country to definitively legalize same-sex marriage, after Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay.