Seeking Sister Wife debuted in 2018, following the trend of shows centering on polygamous families.
But unlike other series, this one followed families who were seeking, dating or transitioning
a new sister wife. Despite its popularity, there's still plenty to learn about Seeking Sister Wife.
In December 2017, TLC introduced the families who would appear in Seeking Sister Wife.
Ashley and Dimitri Snowden were described as parents to two young children who were
soon expecting a third. They were searching for another woman to bring into their relationship
and turn their couple into a "throuple." While many polygamists subscribe to a controversial
offshoot of Mormonism — which renounced polygamy in 1890 — the Snowdens are not
affiliated with any religious group, and they are not even legally married.
The second family featured on the show were the Alldredges:
husband Jeff and wives Vanessa and Sharis The three have seven children total. TLC shared
that the Alldredges were actively dating other women in search of a third wife.
Then there was the Briney family: husband Drew and his trio of wives:
April, Auralee, and Angela - Angela being the newest member of the family,
having joined the Brineys after a brief two-week courtship.
"So, Drew and I met and we had an almost instant
connection. I knew right away that this was the guy for me."
While the Brineys and the Alldredges embrace polygamy for religious reasons,
that is not the case for Seeking Sister Wife's Dimitri and Ashley Snowden.
As Dimitri explained in a clip from the series premiere, his desire for a plural family stems
from his lifelong goal to have a large family — a really large family. He claimed his own family
was spread out and not very emotionally close, and it was something he always wished he had.
For Ashley, the decision to open up their marriage to a third partner
allows Dimitri to have more babies to add to the massive clan he's
always envisioned — because she's done with childbearing. She thought a sister wife could
help Dimitri achieve his goals without putting additional pressure on her and their marriage.
The Brineys and the Alldredges were not only Seeking Sister Wife co-stars in Season 1,
but they were also longtime friends before becoming involved in the show.
The FAQ section of the Briney family website answered all manner of questions,
including their underlying religious beliefs, how they pay taxes, and why they've
decided to flaunt their illegal polygamist lifestyle by appearing on a reality show.
In the FAQ, the family also revealed that they're good friends with the Alldredges,
as well as with Kody Brown from TLC's show Sister Wives. In fact, Drew Briney apparently
even views Brown as somewhat of a hero for standing up to the laws regarding polygamy.
The Brineys also met Angela, one of their sister wives,
at the Alldredge's house prior to the start of Seeking Sister Wife.
Anyone who's watched Seeking Sister Wife has no doubt concluded that Dimitri Snowden has some
pretty unconventional views, but what viewers see on the show only scratches the surface.
For example, Snowden has described himself as an ontological architect,
and he laid out precisely what that means on his website. He says he is:
"[Designing] epic experiences with an acute focus on human behavior."
However, Dimitri also acknowledges that no one understands him when he explains it. He is also
an inventor. Among the products he's devised are the Hypervolt, a USB-rechargeable AA battery,
and the AWSM, a.k.a. Autonomous Working Smart Machine, an 800-pound, seven-foot-tall robot.
The Snowdens' relationship took a dramatic turn early in the first season of Seeking Sister
Wife when Dimitri went on a date with a potential sister wife and things got a little steamier than
expected. He admitted that he was nervous to tell Ashley what happened in a preview of the episode,
but he eventually told her everything, causing her to nearly choke on the tea she was drinking.
Text on screen about the couple meeting up after the crew left.
Despite what appeared to viewers to be a clear-cut case of cheating,
Ashley later revealed she didn't see it that way. Speaking with Newsweek, she said,
"I thought it was interesting, because cheating is when you're not aware that the person is
going to have sex [...] I was completely aware that Dimitri would have sex with this woman,
it just happened out of order."
It must be difficult to know what to do when you catch your partner cheating...
if your definition of cheating is flexible.
There's a lot about Drew Briney's personal life that didn't make it into Seeking Sister Wife.
One thing that viewers didn't see was that the former attorney is also the author of
numerous science-fiction/fantasy novels, with titles such as Moon 514 and Unproven.
But Drew has another hidden talent. According to his bio on the Briney family website, he's
also an accomplished juggler. He was apparently awarded Utah's Best Professional Juggler award
in 2001 and still holds the title – because they stopped having the competition. According to his
bio, he can juggle eight balls at once and even performed at the 2002 Olympics.
Drew has actually melded his two passions into something he calls Story Juggling,
in which he regales an audience with a story while simultaneously juggling.
After searching a bit through the beginning of Seeking Sister Wife, Dimitri and Ashley
Snowden welcomed Vanessa Cobbs into their polygamous relationship. In an interview,
they addressed an episode in which Vanessa had to detox before she'd be able to sleep with Dimitri.
They claimed that, because Vanessa's diet was so different from their own,
her body's pH levels wouldn't match and that could cause problems. For Vanessa, this meant
completely giving up some of her favorite foods. However, she claimed she had always wanted to get
on a diet more like the Snowden family's, and this was the perfect reason to do it.
"And so, we're ready for this next stage, which is intimacy for you guys."
The Snowdens thought they had met their ideal third in Vanessa Cobbs,
even tying the knot in a spiritual ceremony on an episode of Seeking Sister Wife. However,
a long-term plural marriage was not to be.
In a since-deleted Instagram post, Vanessa wrote that she had done some serious soul
searching before coming to the conclusion. She also said that she loved the entire family,
but she was not being true to herself by continuing a relationship with the Snowden family.
Vanessa also insisted that, despite leaving the Snowdens,
the love and life she experienced with them was very real, and that her openness to a polygamous
lifestyle remained unchanged. She said that polygamy could still be a beautiful thing,
but the relationship she was in was no longer the right fit.
When Seeking Sister Wife returned for a second season, viewers noticed some changes.
While the Snowdens and Alldredges were back, the Brineys were no longer a part of the show.
In their place, two new families joined the fray: the McGees and the Winders.
Paige and Bernie McGee had been seeking a sister wife for several years,
yet stopped their search due to Paige's jealousy. TLC made sure to play up the
fact that Paige's jealousy would be a central focus, even naming their potential new partner:
Brandy. However, they teased that Paige was still having a hard time with the arrangement.
The other family consisted of Colton and Tami Winder, along with their wife of a year,
Sophie. The Winders had been keeping their lifestyle a secret but had started being
a bit more open about their polygamous relationship. And, by a bit more open,
they apparently meant going on an extremely popular television show to announce it.
One of the most memorable moments on Seeking Sister Wife took place when father of five
Bernie McGee had a man-to-man talk with his then-14-year-old son,
John. While a father sharing wisdom with his teenage son is hardly out of the ordinary,
the topic of conversation certainly was — since it involved Bernie's rather unorthodox
intimate relationships with someone who wasn't John's mother.
Discussing his plans to bring a sister wife into the family,
Bernie filled John in on what the proposed sleeping arrangements would be like if
prospective sister wife Brandy were to move into the McGee family home. He explained that, right
now, he sleeps in bed with Paige and Paige alone. But, if another sister wife came into the family,
he would switch back and forth each night. He even conceded to his son that the two
of them were probably not talking about the same thing as John got more uncomfortable.
"What are you talking about spending different days… what?"
"Might be a little too much information for you."
Seeking a third wife, the Alldredges met Jennifer Linnerth, leading to a date at Niagara Falls.
Jennifer cut things short, explaining she had to leave because of a family emergency. Detailing
what took place in a lengthy Facebook post, the Alldredges admitted they were skeptical of her
excuse, but they later invited her to their home when Jennifer insisted that she wanted to move
forward with the arrangement. However, their guard was up as they suspected something was fishy.
They were correct: Jennifer never showed, claiming she had ruptured her appendix. After
a little digging, the Seeking Sister Wife family discovered she had lied,
and agreed that they were done with Jennifer. Things soon took an even
weirder turn. They found out that Jennifer had died from her ruptured appendix.
Except she hadn't. Jennifer had lied about that detail and was still very much alive. After even
more investigating, much of Jennifer's life story that she had told the Alldredges seemed
to be a fabrication: she had never been a model and she did not grow up in a polygamous family.
"I mean, does she honestly expect us to believe she's dead when she's clearly not dead?"
"Nothing makes an awful lot of sense anymore."
During the Seeking Sister Wife Season 2 reunion special, simmering tensions between Bernie and
Paige McGee bubbled over when they reunited with their prospective sister wife, Brandy.
According to InTouch, Bernie found himself in the hot seat when asked if he and Brandy had
ever been intimate off-camera. He said he doesn't kiss and tell, so his answer was no.
Brandy, however, told a different story after she was brought onstage, detailing kissing,
a hickey, and a claim that Bernie had tried to sleep with her. Paige was livid, claiming
that Brandy was a liar and that her husband, despite dating other women, had never cheated
on her. The two women continued to exchange barbs until they finally both stormed off.
Seeking Sister Wife's McGee family appeared to be volatile,
given their on-air argument at the Season 2 reunion special,
and a subsequent off-camera incident proved they weren't just acting up for the show. That was
demonstrated in March 2019 when TMZ reported that Paige and Bernie McGee were arrested for stalking.
According to TMZ, the two were arrested on misdemeanor stalking charges. Paige's brother
Patrick claimed that the couple was harassing his work, home and cell phone with nonstop calls.
Documents obtained by TMZ indicated that the couple had also been allegedly
targeting Patrick's girlfriend, reportedly harassing the couple with a barrage of abuse
to the point that both claimed they were in fear for their lives. The charge against Paige
McGee was later dropped, but she told local Mississippi news outlet WDAM7 she was going to
seek a restraining order against her brother, as he was now harassing her on social media.
When Seeking Sister Wife's Paige McGee appeared in court in July 2019,
she had some sad news to share. As she was leaving the courthouse, she told
WDAM7 that her husband, Bernie, had recently passed away. According to the news outlet,
Hinds County coroner Sharon Grisham-Stewart stated that Bernie had died of natural causes on June 15.
In a statement from TLC, the network confirmed that Bernie McGee had
passed away at age 41. As Paige recalled, he had been outside riding his bike on a hot day,
and he'd suffered heat stroke and a heart attack.
Bernie's obituary said:
"Bernie loved the outdoors especially camping, hiking and riding his bike [...] He never met a
stranger and loved his family and friends very much. Bernie was full of life."
Family and friends said goodbye at funeral services held on June 18,
2019, before he was laid to rest at Crossroads Cemetery in Pelahatchie , Mississippi.
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