TLC's hit show Sister Wives follows the lives of wives Meri, Janelle, Christine, and Robyn
and their shared husband, Kody Brown. As the very first wife of Kody, Meri has lived quite
an interesting and dramatic life. This is the truth about reality TV star Meri Brown.
While plural relationships aren't the norm for most people, they're kind of all Meri
has ever known. Considering the reality TV star grew up in a polygamist family, having
sister wives isn't exactly unusual. In an interview with the Las Vegas Sun, Meri explained
that she was free to make her own choices growing up, even though her family members
were polygamists. She said,
"My family was in the LDS faith but converted [to the Fundamentalist Mormon faith] when
I was about 6 or 7 years old, so I grew up in a plural family with five mothers and 25
brothers and sisters. My parents never pushed me into this lifestyle though."
Meri added that as a child she quickly learned it was normal for her dad to have more than
one wife, saying,
"My dad had a few plural wives, and so I did see him, you know, through the courtship process
a little bit. [...] It's somewhat normal for me, it's a lifestyle that I grew up in."
Though the entire principal of polygamy rests on the idea of being with more than one person
in marriage, there ultimately has to be a first wife. And in the Brown family, that
was Meri. For a time, she was also Kody's only legal wife. Meri explained to TLC how
she and her hubby first got together, saying,
"Kody and I met through his sister, she introduced us. I was 19 and he was 22. It actually was
a very short courtship, I guess I was just young and in love, and 20 years old."
Kody and Meri were legally married in 1990, according to ABC News. This meant that Kody's
other three relationships were, quote, "recognized as 'spiritual unions' by their church," according
to the outlet.
And, as all the sister wives noted, if it hadn't been for Meri and her willingness to
enter into a plural marriage, none of them would be with Kody. That also means fans of
the series have Meri to thank.
When you share your spouse with someone else, let alone three other women, it has to be
pretty hard to not see them all as the competition. But for Meri, it comes with the territory
of the lifestyle she's chosen, and she's actually very close to her sister wives.
In their interview on The Oprah Winfrey Show back in 2010, all four of Kody's wives along
with Kody himself were questioned about their relationship. At one point in the interview,
Winfrey noted,
"In being in the same family, you have to sort of develop a sister relationship or friendship
in order to all get along."
At that, Meri heartily agreed, admitting,
"It's definitely a very bonding experience. We're sisters in that sense, and we're very
close."
"Would you say you're all friends?... yes, absolutely."
Being in a plural marriage certainly has its complications, but Meri enjoys getting to
spend her life with her sister wives, regardless of what others may think.
Since polygamy isn't as normalized as monogamy or other types of relationships, people tend
to have a lot of questions about it. After all, there wouldn't really be a show about
the Brown family if people weren't interested in their day-to-day lives. But as strange
as a plural marriage might sound to a lot of people, Kody, Meri, Janelle, Christine
and Robyn have set the record straight about their arrangement.
In their 2010 interview with Oprah Winfrey, Meri explained that they were all living in
one large house together. She revealed,
"Christine and Janelle and I each have our own bedrooms, and Kody is welcome in each
of those bedrooms alone. That's just how it is. We don't go weird."
Basically, Meri made it clear that the wives don't get in on each others' intimate time
with Kody — and they don't cross that line.
Even though there are 18 children between all the wives and Kody Brown, Meri just has
one daughter. She's been open on camera about her fertility struggles — and shared some
of the heartbreak associated with that — but she and Kody happily welcomed their one and
only daughter, Mariah, in 1995, about five years after the couple's wedding.
At the time, Kody had already entered into another marriage with Janelle, his second
wife who he married in 1993. Before long, the Brown family was bustling with wives and
babies. Janelle and Kody have welcomed six children together.
Throughout the years, Meri has had a complicated relationship with her only child, but it's
clear how much she loves Mariah. When Meri and Mariah had a disagreement in a March 2020
episode of Sister Wives, Meri shrugged it off, having gotten used to life with an only
daughter. She admitted,
"Let's be real. Mariah pretty much thinks anything I think is weird."
Considering the polygamist lifestyle is controversial, you may have been surprised that a family
was willing to star in a show like Sister Wives and put themselves — and their relationship
— in the spotlight. When the Las Vegas Sun asked the family about being "out," Meri revealed
that going public wasn't actually all that easy for her. She explained,
"We did keep very quiet before we went extremely public. There was a time when some co-workers
and friends knew, but there were some co-workers who never knew. The decision to go on the
show wasn't that quick and easy for us. It took time for all of us to get on board."
Ultimately, though, the sister wives were able to dispel some myths about their lifestyle,
which is something Kody's wife Christine hoped would happen. She explained,
"We have a story that needs to be heard. We're a normal, healthy and happy family. That's
why we decided to show you our family."
Had Meri not gotten on board, though, that may have never happened.
It's no secret that supporting a large family is one hefty task. And while the stars of
Sister Wives are paid for their time on camera, that doesn't mean they don't have to work
day jobs to make ends meet. For Meri, that means selling clothes for the pretty controversial
multilevel marketing company LuLaRoe. Meri has her own Facebook group where she sells
the products — and she's apparently pretty successful.
However, the company has seen some problems over recent years and has been accused of
operating as a pyramid scheme. According to The Sun, Washington state filed a lawsuit
against LuLaRoe in 2019, accusing the company of making misleading claims about the products
and the benefits of selling them. Still, Meri has continued to push the products and doesn't
seem to be slowing down.
One of the most dramatic moments in Sister Wives history happened when Meri's daughter
Mariah came out as gay to the religious family. While most of Mariah's family members immediately
accepted Mariah for who she was, her mom, Meri, had a hard time with it.
In a later episode, Meri reflected on her reaction to her daughter's announcement, saying,
"I remember the day that Mariah told us that she was gay. I'll never forget my stupid reaction.
I felt like the worst mom in that moment. All these thoughts and ideas that I had in
my head of what her life was going to be like was changing. I didn't react well to it."
"I felt like a failure as a mom and as a person, as a human, for struggling with it."
In an interview with ABC News, Meri explained,
"I realize now that it's okay for me to mourn what I thought was going to be her life."
Meri felt she needed time to adjust, but she still regrets her initial reaction.
"What I've seen in Mariah over this past year or so since she came out to us is peace."
It's probably difficult for many people to imagine having to share their spouse, but
Meri agreed to do that for almost her entire marriage. And while she might love her fellow
sister wives, that doesn't mean that a certain little green monster isn't ever-present in
her life. In an interview on the Oprah Winfrey Network, Meri admitted,
"I'm not going to lie — there are jealousy issues. Those are natural. Hopefully that's
something that I can overcome."
"Those jealousies are there with every one of them."
Meri explained that she had to work through her jealousy issues with each of Kody's other
wives. She added,
"We've had a lot of time together, so I don't get them as much with them [Janelle and Christine].
I get them more now [with Robyn]."
When the Brown family decided to go public with their polygamist lifestyle and star in
Sister Wives, they expected to be met with a lot of criticism and controversy after the
show aired. But one added repercussion of going public was a hard hit for Meri specifically.
Though Kody and his wives told ABC News that they wanted to help normalize plural marriage
by doing the show, Meri revealed,
"My job, I absolutely loved. When I came out as a polygamist, and you know, became public,
I was fired. That being said, some of my friends that had no idea have been extremely supportive
of me."
In another interview with The Oprah Winfrey Show, Meri explained that she knew why she
was let go from her job in the mental health field. She said,
"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."
When you've been together for as long as Kody and Meri have, there are bound to be some
issues. Add in three more wives, 18 children, and a reality show, and the marriage essentially
becomes a pressure cooker. Fans of Sister Wives know that Meri and Kody have had some
relationship issues, and over the years, Meri has become more forthcoming about them.
"I want all the thoughts to be held for just a second, okay?"
In one episode, Meri and Kody were filmed having a very honest conversation about the
state of their marriage, and Meri was visibly distressed about how things had been going.
She told her husband,
"Kody, I just feel like I've spent a lot of years not knowing where we were [...] and
I don't know what you want anymore. [...] I need to be able to come to you with something
that I need, even if it's just a ladder or even if it's just a trying to figure out the
sprinkler system, without you saying, 'I can't do it' — without you saying, 'It's just
too much for me.'"
Meri was Kody's only legal wife for most of their relationship, as his marriages with
Janelle and Christine were only "spiritual unions," according to ABC News. However, when
Kody's fourth wife, Robyn, came along, Meri found herself in a tough situation. In an
episode of Sister Wives, Meri explained,
"Robyn has her three kids from her previous marriage that we have wanted to get adopted
by Kody. But to do that she'll need to have a legal marriage to Kody."
That meant Kody and Meri would need to file for a legal divorce. In one episode, Meri
revealed that although getting divorced was difficult, she considered herself "a team
player" for the entire family after she went through with it.
"The divorce is final."
As Meri and Kody struggled through their marriage, Meri found solace in someone else. In 2015,
the reality TV star began communicating through Twitter with someone called Sam. Meri was
swept off her feet and thought she had formed a true connection with Sam.
"I trusted him."
However, it wasn't long before Meri learned she was being catfished — and that Sam was
actually a woman named Jackie Overton, as In Touch Weekly reported.
In a later episode of Sister Wives, Meri revealed just how much the catfishing scandal damaged
her life, especially her marriage. She explained,
"This catfish was planting things in my head and telling me how horrible my family was
and specifically how horrible Kody was. That was one of the reasons why I didn't want him
around. I was just angry. I'm just angry at him. I just pushed Kody away. I did. He's
not the one I should've pushed away."
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