Does Kody Brown have a favorite wife? What was the deal with that catfishing scandal?
And which of Kody's wives have decided to ditch him? Keep watching to find out!
When Kody and his first wife, Meri Brown, first crossed paths,
she didn't hear wedding bells right away. Meri recalled to TLC:
"On October 20th, 1989, I met up with my new friend who was visiting from out of town.
At that time, she introduced me to Kody, her brother. [...] After she went home,
I figured that would probably be the last I would see of Kody for a while."
Meri and Kody were married just months after their initial introduction.
Unlike her fellow sister wives, Meri's wedding and reception were big,
classic affairs — likely because she was the first and, for a long time, only legal wife. On
an episode of "Sister Wives," Meri reminisced about the couple's wedding day, saying:
"I wore a white dress, he was in a white tux."
Five years after their big day, the couple welcomed their only daughter, Mariah.
It was Meri who introduced Kody to his second wife, Janelle. The two women had been friends for
some time, so it was natural for Meri to bring her new man around to get her girlfriends' approval.
What was a little less natural was Janelle's response to her friend's boyfriend.
She wrote on the official "Sister Wives" website:
"I looked at him and had that feeling of remembering something I had forgotten.
It was a singular experience."
Janelle didn't act on her feelings right
away — in part because she was already married. She explained,
"It didn't occur to me when I met Kody to think of him in any other way than as
Meri's fiance. I even attended Meri and Kody's wedding reception."
But eventually, things shifted a little bit.
"When I finally decided, it really didn't seem so strange."
In a behind-the-scenes interview for TLC,
Kody recounted how he and Janelle got closer and closer as friends, and eventually,
after having a single conversation about Janelle joining the family, they tied the knot.
Both Kody and Janelle admit that their relationship wasn't romantic at first — they
never actually had an official courtship, and being in love was something they had to work at.
"It gives me a great sense of security to see him taking care of the needs of my sister wives."
For some polygamists, having two wives is just not enough.
"I like marriage and I'm a repeat offender, so."
Despite having Janelle and Meri, Kody was open to adding another into
the mix — enter Christine. When Kody first crossed paths with Christine,
she was 18 years old and he was helping to lead the youth group at their church.
In their book Becoming Sister Wives: The Story of an Unconventional Marriage,
Kody shared that he was immediately attracted to Christine upon meeting her,
describing how he was, quote, "awed with how adorable and upbeat she was."
He also noted that he and Meri weren't ready to bring in another wife just yet — at that point,
Kody wasn't yet courting or married to Janelle, either.
After a few years of getting to know each other as friends, Kody was ready to begin a relationship
with Christine. As he recounted in the book, he sent her flowers with a note that said:
"Let's get the ball rolling."
Apparently, that was romance enough for Christine, who invited him to visit that weekend and accepted
his proposal a mere 48 hours later. Less than two months after that, they were husband and wife.
Although their big day should have been a joyous occasion, Kody described it as "hard"
in an interview on "Sister Wives”. Christine agreed that it was quote, "sad" because they
weren't connected — and because of the stigma surrounding polygamous culture in general.
After Christine joined the family, the gang entered into a period of relative stability.
In "Becoming Sister Wives," Kody wrote that his first two wives, Meri and Janelle,
were "miserable with each other" — and he didn't know how to negotiate a truce between them.
"The thought of like going somewhere with you for a couple of days terrifies me."
The tension at home made him apprehensive about bringing Christine into the family,
but as he went on to explain:
"Her kindness and her positive nature brokered a peace in our household."
Once the interpersonal relationships were hammered out,
the Browns all moved into one big house together in Utah and focused on growing their family. And
grow the family they most certainly did — as of 2022, Kody is the father to 18 children.
For 16 years, Kody, Christine,
Meri, and Janelle lived in relative harmony, having, as Janelle put it in an early episode,
"learned each other's quirks." Unfortunately, the peace didn't last forever.
In 2009, Kody met and fell for a woman named Robyn Sullivan.
Kody and Robyn were introduced by her cousin, who attended the same church as the Browns.
Initially, neither party was seriously interested.
Robyn had just finalized a difficult divorce from her first husband,
and Kody was apprehensive about courting a divorced, single mom because,
as he said in a TLC interview, he didn't want to have to work too hard in the relationship.
However, they both felt an undeniable chemistry, so they decided to take things slow and get to
know each other a little better. But slow in Kody's world is a relative term — as he
shared in "Becoming Sister Wives," he told Robyn he loved her on their first date.
This is where things stood in the Brown household when the family began taping the first season of
"Sister Wives." Kody was courting Robyn, who lived about four hours away from the Browns,
and the other wives were trying to come to terms with the fact that
a new wife joining the crew seemed inevitable.
"This is the lifestyle that we've chosen, and the more the merrier really."
The first three wives had different reactions to the family update — in their book,
Kody claimed Meri was totally on board, but on the series Janelle fretted about how it
would change everything, and Christine admitted she was more unsure about the idea in general.
"I haven't met her, I don't know what she's like, I've never even
seen her before, and I thought it was horrible."
In 2010, 10 months after they met and began courting, Robyn married Kody in
a spiritual ceremony. Kody described it as a "coming out party," and went on to say:
"This one event was where most people were going to meet us as we
were — polygamous — in a setting where we were abiding as an entire family."
Her marriage, like Janelle and Christine's, wasn't valid in the eyes of the law,
since polygamy wasn't decriminalized in Utah until 2020. In a different episode of "Sister
Wives," Kody had explained that wedding days for polygamous grooms "aren't necessarily easy."
He went on to say that balancing the feelings and emotions of multiple wives on a big day like that
is "a challenging act," and that having all of one's other wives in attendance makes it:
"Almost impossible to feel an intimate relationship with your new bride."
Robyn seemingly agreed with Kody's remarks,
admitting that while she found their legal wedding day celebratory, she did miss her groom.
The new arrangement suited everyone involved just fine — at first. But things got a bit more
complicated when Kody decided he wanted to adopt Robyn's three children from her first marriage.
"I mean there are so many emotions that have been flying everywhere."
In order to adopt Robyn's kids, Kody needed to be legally married to her.
Which meant he and Meri had to get a divorce. So they did, much to Meri's dismay.
"The divorce is final."
"It's final?"
"It's done."
"That sucker's done, huh?"
"Yeah."
On an episode of "Sister Wives," Meri admitted to having many emotional moments about what she lost,
but was committed to going through with it for the sake of the kids. She went on to say,
"I'm realizing now that while the divorce process was really hard, leading up to it
and going through it, I feel like I've dealt with it enough that I can see a bigger picture."
Very shortly after Kody's divorce from his first wife was finalized,
he legally tied the knot with Robyn. Some fans have taken issue with this
whole situation. Many believe that Meri was much more heartbroken over
losing her legal wife status than she ever let on. Others think the divorce
was Kody's way of pushing Meri out of the family because he'd lost interest in her.
Given the way things have gone since the divorce, they may not be too far off.
Following her legal divorce from Kody, Meri entered into an online flirtation with a Chicago
businessman named Sam. Or, at least a person she thought was a Chicago businessman named Sam.
In reality, Meri had been catfished and was actually chatting with an
unnamed woman who was a fan of the show.
Understandably, the situation took a toll on the Brown family,
and on Meri in particular, who told People magazine:
"I didn't know how to get out of the situation without putting myself,
family, and friends at greater risk. It was a very difficult time. I had a lot of anxiety."
"They have no idea how bad it is, they don't know what I brought into the family."
Eventually, she came clean to both her family members and the public.
The scandal put so much strain on Kody and Meri's relationship that it's
never fully been able to recover. Still, just after it all happened,
Meri maintained that everything was fine between the pair, writing on Instagram:
"I love him. I love my family. I'm committed. I have 30 years in this."
But three years later in a TLC interview, Kody said that he and Meri claim to be
married but don't live together — and that he has no desire to be intimate with her.
"My relationship with Meri is at best just distant and amicable."
In a 2022 "Sister Wives" episode,
Meri admitted that things had gotten so bad she felt like an outsider,
before revealing to Robyn that Kody had told her he can only be friends with her, nothing more.
Given the status of Meri and Kody's relationship,
fans have long believed that she would be the first wife to end the marriage.
But it turns out Christine would actually be the first sister wife to publicly call time on
the relationship. In November 2021, she posted a message to her Instagram feed that read, in part,
"After more than 25 years together,
Kody and I have grown apart and I have made the difficult decision to leave."
According to People magazine, Christine admitted in a Cameo video sent to a fan
that the divorce had been "a long time coming" and
that she "felt like a much better person" post-separation than she ever had before.
Regular viewers of the series aren't likely to be surprised by Christine's admission;
in a 2021 episode of "Sister Wives" she confessed,
"My marriage to Kody is sad."
"I never wanted the kind of marriage that I have now."
That wasn't the only time she'd dropped a hint that there was trouble in paradise, either.
Speaking to Us Weekly in early 2021, she said she didn't often feel
"important" or that she had a say in the familial relationship,
adding that she doesn't feel like an equal partner in her relationship.
So what about the rest of the wives? Well, fourth wife Robyn seems to be on good terms with her
husband — and some even call her the favorite. As an unnamed source claimed to Us Weekly,
"The other wives can't compete against Robyn. [...] They're still very much in love."
Meri and Kody have hit a significant rough patch, though publicly they remain in a
spiritual marriage. However, some fans speculate that Meri and Kody separated a long time ago,
and only pretend to be in a relationship for the sake of the show.
As for Janelle? In a 2022 episode of "Sister Wives," she reflected on
her decision to choose plural marriage and her willingness to remain in one, saying:
"I've had to really think. My children are almost grown and there's not a huge
necessity anymore to stay. [...] With Kody and I right now, our relationship is pretty strained.
And you know, it's easy to walk away."
Following Janelle's revelation, an insider told the magazine,
"Janelle meant it when she said she would leave Kody. It's going to happen."
According to the source, Janelle has seen how happy Christine has been following her own split
from their mutual husband, a change that has inspired her to "strongly consider" a split.
Whatever the case, it sounds like there's a lot more drama to come on "Sister Wives."
"I don't know how to deal with it."
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