Has this divorcée been banished from her own plural family?
From catfish bait to lonely nights, Meri Brown might just be all-in on a dead-end marriage.
Meri Brown is no stranger to plural marriage.
Like her fellow sister-wife, Robyn, Meri grew up fully-immersed in the unconventional lifestyle.
In the Brown family memoir, "Becoming Sister Wives," Meri recalled her upbringing in the
LDS faith.
Following her parents' conversion to polygamy, she was soon surrounded by five mothers and
27 siblings.
Meri recalled being excited at new moms or sister wives joining her growing family.
As Meri remembers it, the wives and children were all happy, and her father was fair and
kind-hearted.
Meri met her future husband, Kody Brown, when she was just 18 years old.
She explained in her memoir,
"He was definitely cute and had a great attitude.
He was talkative and engaged me in conversation, and made me feel comfortable around him.
[…] When we were talking about marriage and stuff, at that point, [Kody] and I both
knew that eventually, we would take another wife or wives into the family."
Three years after their wedding, Janelle became Kody's second wife.
Kody and Meri have been together for over 30 years, and have welcomed one child into
the family.
And while they adore Leo, they had hoped for more children.
Meri has been open about her challenges with infertility.
It was five years into her marriage before she had her child.
And also during that time, Kody had a son with wife #2, Janelle, and a daughter with
wife #3, Christine.
"I always expected that I would have a bunch of kids.
And that just hasn't been in the works for me."
It would be 12 years before Meri got pregnant again, only to suffer a miscarriage at 10
weeks.
As she explained on the show,
"I completely assumed that after I had Mariah, it would be very easy for me to conceive."
When the opposite soon became the couple's devastating reality, Meri struggled to come
to terms with dreams that would never be realized.
"I was so frustrated and so angry.
It was, it was really hard."
When the Brown family lived in Utah, Meri worked in the mental health industry.
And prior to landing her job, she revealed her family's lifestyle.
But things changed for the worse when "Sister Wives" hit the TLC airwaves.
Once the Browns became big-time news, Meri lost her job.
She told Oprah,
"They felt that they needed to protect the company, I think.
It actually makes me really sad because I loved my job.
It breaks my heart, definitely.
But I understand where they're coming from."
"Our neighbor's outside watching us."
"Ugh, of course."
Meri and co.
made a move to Las Vegas, where Meri ventured out on her own as a business woman.
Social media has its obvious pitfalls, and Meri learned this the hard way.
In 2015, she started connecting with people via the internet, revealing on the show,
"I got into this situation talking to one person who really made me trust him."
"He was just saying all the right things."
Meri thought she had a genuine connection with this man.
But it turned out, it was actually a woman, catfishing the TLC star.
Meri came clean with her family about the situation, telling People,
"My family has supported and stood by me.
I am grateful to them for their love and strength through this difficult time."
"You know both of us have just been avoiding any sort of anything with our relationship."
But not all of Meri's relationships bounced back to normal.
Things between her and Kody seemingly never recovered and as of 2022, it remains platonic.
Meri lost her desk job back in Utah, but that wasn't the end of her professional hustle.
After getting settled in Las Vegas, Meri and sister wife Christine dipped a toe into the
fashion industry with LuLaRoe.
Even after the company was accused of being nothing more than a pyramid scheme, Meri stayed
on board.
"I wanna run my own business my way.
I don't want to worry about you guys."
She also owns Utah-based Lizzie's Heritage Inn — one of the state's most successful
bed and breakfasts, according to Heavy.
While Kody and the other wives didn't have the same vision for the property, Meri managed
to turn her dream into a reality.
Her business ventures have paid off, and the reality star is worth an estimated $400,000.
Relationships are bound to go through peaks and valleys.
But it seems that Kody and Meri have been living in a valley for a long time.
Meri revealed on the show that the pair hadn't been physical in about 10 years, adding,
"I would love it if he would hold my hand, you know?
But that's just not where we are."
Kody sure doesn't seem interested in ever rekindling fire that once burned between them.
He admitted,
"There's a point where intimacy is just damage."
Explaining that he never felt secure within their relationship, Kody admitted he had zero
intention of ever going back to anything with Meri.
"I will be her friend.
I will do what I can to protect her.
But I'm never going to feel safe in an intimate place."
Meri and sister wife Robyn have always been close.
After all, it was Meri who truly helped bring Robyn into the fold.
The pair were so tight at one time that Robyn offered Meri what some would consider the
ultimate gift.
"I want to know if you want me to be your surrogate.
Taking pieces of you and pieces of Kody."
Following the birth of Kody and Robyn's first child together, Solomon, Robyn offered to
carry Meri and Kody's baby next, in hopes that it might bring Meri some peace.
But Kody and Meri ultimately declined the offer.
Meri said,
"I don't want to have a child just to feel like I'm included."
Sharing a husband comes with its own unique set of challenges.
And even though Meri and Kody always knew more wives would enter their family, that
doesn't mean the transition to plural marriage was entirely seamless.
Meri has admitted to faults in how she handled Janelle's entry into the clan, writing in
their book,
"I never took the time to think about how I should open up my space — both physical
and emotional — to accommodate a new wife.
The biggest mistake we made when we married Janelle was us all moving into a house together
and not giving Janelle and me the space we needed to develop and nurture our own relationships
with Kody.
Having us all in the same house brought Janelle face-to-face on a daily basis with the romantic
relationship Kody and I had."
"Like, even this conversation, it's coming off as very accusatory."
Meri and Christine have also experienced tension over the years, primarily due to insecurity
and jealousy.
But for the most part, Robyn has championed Meri, even ticking off Kody in her unwavering
support.
Meri has always dreamed of having another kid of her own.
And thanks to her child Leo, that dream is finally coming true!
No, Meri isn't pregnant.
But she is gaining a child-in-law: Audrey Kriss.
"I've always wanted to share special experiences with my daughter and, for the first time,
going to a gay bar, I guess this is our experience."
When the couple got engaged, Meri couldn't have been more thrilled.
And even though Leo's initial coming out caught their mom a little off guard, Meri has since
talked about her own disappointment in her knee-jerk reaction.
Meri continues to look forward and has been nothing but loving and supportive of her child's
relationship.
Meri and the couple often spend time together, and Meri championed both when Audrey came
out as transgender in March 2022 and when Leo came out as transgender in June.
Three out of the four Brown family wives have been divorced.
Second wife Janelle was briefly married before joining the family.
And Robyn was previously wed to her oldest children's father.
Then, as fans know, Meri has also been divorced, albeit technically.
"The divorce is final."
Meri made it official with Kody in 1990, six months after they first met.
From their "I do's," Meri remained Kody's legal wife — with the other three women
joining him in a spiritual union — until 2014.
That's when the couple legally divorced so that Kody could marry fourth wife Robyn.
The swap was agreed on in order for Kody to legally adopt Robyn's three older children.
It was an emotional time for the whole family.
But while the reason was a happy one, Meri felt the deep pain of the end of her long,
official marriage.
"I feel like I've dealt with it enough that I can see a bigger picture."
Meri might only have one biological child, but she considers herself blessed to have
so many Brown family kids in her life.
She once posted a picture with Ariella — Robyn and Kody's youngest child — to Instagram,
singing the little one's praises.
When someone asked about Ariella being a stepchild, Meri corrected the fan, saying she didn't
have any stepkids.
The comment made what many already knew crystal clear.
In Meri's eyes, all of the family's children are equally precious to her.
Fans of the show have witnessed just how much love Meri has for her sister wives' kids when
she and Robyn's children finally got to spend some long-overdue time together in 2022.
Once reunited, it was plain as day how much Meri missed the family during their separation,
and the kids clearly felt the same about Meri.
The Brown family has certainly moved around quite a bit, with each wife feeling a different
connection to a different space.
In 2018, the Browns finally said farewell to Las Vegas and headed to Flagstaff, Arizona,
for a fresh start.
Some wives, like Janelle, fell in love with Flagstaff.
On the other side of the spectrum, former third wife Christine begged to leave before
calling it quits on her marriage.
For the record, she now calls Utah home.
"I had to picture myself in the end where I needed to be, and then I just made the steps
to get there."
For her part, Meri has found a balance between her new home in Flagstaff and her old stomping
grounds — and even some new ones.
When she's not in Arizona, she's likely at her bed and breakfast in Parowan, Utah.
The place is sentimental to Meri, and it's been in her family for generations.
Meri has also been willingly bitten by the travel bug, like some of her other sister
wives.
Christine and Janelle took their kids to the "happiest place on earth" in March 2022.
And Janelle and her sister set sail for bright and beautiful Portugal in May of that year.
But Meri found her inner peace and rejuvenation in the state of Oregon.
She took to Instagram to note the breathtaking beauty of the west coast, writing,
"Days by the beach, nights by the fire, all of it surrounded by people I love!
The time I spent on the Oregon coast last weekend was fulfilling, relaxing, invigorating,
rejuvenating, all the things my body and soul needed."