Fans first met Sister Wives' Maddie Brown when she was just a teenager, one of 13 offspring
produced by polygamist Kody Brown and his trio of wives. Since the TLC show's debut
in 2010, viewers have watched her grow up onscreen. Here are some things you may not
know about reality TV star Maddie Brown.
When her family's TLC show launched in 2010, Maddie was one of six children shared by Kody
and his second wife Janelle.
"I'm Maddie, I'm Janelle's oldest girl and I want to be an auto mechanic"
She had 12 siblings total at the time, but she's been joined by a few more since then.
Kody later added a fourth wife to the family, Robyn, and adopted her three children from
a previous relationship. In addition, Kody and Robyn then had two biological children
of their own, for a total kid count of 18, just one shy of fellow TLC family the Duggars
from 19 Kids and Counting — although, to be fair, Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar had all
19 without the help of sister wives to share the childbearing load.
One particular 2014 episode of Sister Wives focused on Maddie's teenage dating. In one
of the confessional interviews, she declared she had no intention of following the plural
marriage path of her polygamist parents. She also admitted that she sensed disappointment
from her father about her decision, saying,
"I think my dad is sad that I won't be a polygamist, but I think he's also kind of just come to
the realization that it's not gonna happen."
In the same episode, Kody said,
"You know, I would never impose plural marriage on my children. I might advise it for some
of them, might not for others."
"I believe in my marriage system but I don't believe that it's for everybody."
Janelle chimed in as well, saying,
"Maddie for a long time has expressed that she's not interested in a plural marriage.
Her opinion is that she loves the family that she grew up in, [...] but she's like, 'It's
not for me.'"
"So that's where she is and she's very vocal about that."
In 2015, Maddie announced that she and her boyfriend, Caleb Brush, had gotten engaged.
She told People magazine,
"We are making plans for a wonderful outdoor wedding, hopefully in the country."
Before the engagement, Brush asked Kody for his daughter's hand.
"I just want to let you know that she is an amazing, amazing woman. She is my missing
soulmate."
Once he received Kody's approval, he took Maddie for a ride on his ATV. After pulling
up at a particularly scenic spot, he surprised the TLC star with a blue diamond ring and
popped the question. Maddie told People,
"It was cold and we were huddled in jackets and I thought he was crazy to stop. He said
to come look over here. So I walked with him to the edge. He told me he could never express
how much he loved me, but he wanted to spend his life trying, and went down on one knee
and pulled out a box. I started kissing him and saying, 'Yes, yes!'"
Shortly after their wedding ceremony in June 2016 — which was performed by her father
Kody — Maddie told Us Weekly,
"I'm pretty excited. It doesn't feel real."
Having so many siblings to wrangle definitely caused some stressful moments during Maddie's
wedding. At the rehearsal, she told the large, chatty clan,
"Family, you are more than welcome to be here. However, I'm going to ask that you remain
quiet. I don't care about your input right now."
Maddie and Caleb didn't wait long before starting a family. In May 2017 — less than a year
after their wedding — they welcomed their son Axel. The new parents said in a statement
to People magazine,
"We're feeling both excited and exhausted at the same time. We're looking forward to
having a family. Now that he's here we're excited to grow our family a little bit more
and spread our love even more."
Axel's arrival, however, was not an easy one — Maddie was in labor for an excruciating
72 hours during the home birth at the Brown family house. Kody's sister wife Christine
said,
"She's taken such good care of herself during the pregnancy, so not to have a fast labor
— so hard."
In a special video in which he and Janelle introduced their first-ever grandchild, Kody
admitted,
"Having Maddie give birth in our home was pretty intense. It was 72 hours of labor and
12 hours of hard labor. [...] It was interesting because we were all there together. Everybody
was kind of cheering her on."
"I think honestly she was drawing strength somehow from all of us being there."
After Maddie welcomed her son Axel, rumors began to circulate that TLC was looking at
creating a new Sister Wives spinoff show focusing just on the newlyweds. In 2017, Life & Style
reported that plans for a spinoff were in the works. An insider told the magazine,
"Viewers adore the pair and TLC is getting lots of sponsorship offers, so they want to
do a show with Maddie and Caleb. People love Maddie because she is so down-to-earth and
Caleb because he is such an outdoorsman. They make the perfect couple."
According to Life & Style's report, the spinoff would focus on, quote "their lives as a married
couple and their experience as first-time parents." Despite the report and the insider's
claims, by the end of 2019, a spinoff had yet to arrive, and, when TLC announced the
2020 season of Sister Wives, there was no mention of the new show.
When Kody decided the family would move to Flagstaff, Arizona, the drama played out during
the 2019 season of Sister Wives. Maddie's mom, Janelle, in particular, was not thrilled
about being separated from her grandson — and Maddie was similarly irked. She said,
"I think it's funny because our family is sitting here trying to convince us so hard
to move. They're acting like we're leaving them, and we're the ones that are taking Axel."
"I'm kind of bitter because I moved here so they could be closer to their grandson, to
be closer to family."
She noted that she would be shocked if Flagstaff was their forever home, and added,
"What happens if I move to Flagstaff and follow them, and they get bored and leave? I can't
do that again."
After the Brown family's move from Las Vegas to Flagstaff — amidst rumors that Kody was
on the hunt for a fifth wife, according to In Touch Weekly — Maddie, Caleb, and their
youngsters also made a move. Maddie, who was pregnant with her second child at the time,
revealed on Instagram in January 2019 that she and her husband were moving far away from
the Browns and their Arizona home. She wrote,
"This is what moving pregnant looks like."
According to the TLC star, with the rest of the family leaving Las Vegas, she and Brush
decided to head to North Carolina. While she initially didn't offer any reason for the
move, she provided an explanation a few months later. In July 2019, Maddie returned to Instagram
to post a photo of herself cradling a large baby bump, posing with Caleb and their son
Axel. When one fan asked in a comment why they had made the move, the Sister Wives star
offered a straightforward answer, saying,
"My husband got a job out here."
While pregnant with their second child, Maddie told People,
"I am really excited. This pregnancy feels less real for some reason, but I am still
over the moon! I have no idea what I think it is. I'll just be happy with a healthy baby."
She also revealed how she expected her son Axel to respond to the arrival of a sibling,
saying,
"I think he'll be a little jealous at first. Our world revolves around him right now and
that's changing just a touch. [...] He'll have to share, which he's good at, but I'm
not sure about everything. I think once he warms up he will be really happy to have another
sibling."
Maddie later shared the first photo of her newborn daughter, Evangalynn, on Instagram.
She noted the child was "born right on time and just right on [August 20th]."
In October 2019, Maddie gave an exclusive interview to People to reveal that her newborn
daughter had been diagnosed with a very rare genetic disorder called FATCO that affects
bone formation. As the TLC star explained, their doctor examined Evangalynn for an extended
period of time after the birth, causing Maddie some serious stress. After more than two hours,
the doctor broke the news. Maddie explained,
"That's when he told me, 'I can't find all 10 fingers. There were lots of emotions, but
I was also relieved because there could have been a whole lot more wrong."
Maddie revealed her daughter was missing a thumb and a toe. Additionally, one leg was
missing a fibula, while her tibia was bowed. Two of the newborn's fingers were also fused
together. Maddie admitted,
"We were shocked. I was just sitting there trying to comprehend what's going on, having
just had a baby as they are bringing in all these specialists. I was freaking out. There's
still a lot of unknowns, which is hard."
The cause of FATCO syndrome is still unknown, and Maddie admitted that she immediately began
wondering if she had done something wrong during her pregnancy to bring about the rare
genetic condition. She told People,
"We got her diagnosis about 24 hours after she was born. It's a genetic disorder so it's
just something that happens and they don't know why. [....] I'm sitting there and I'm
like, 'Oh, what did I do? Did I drink too much soda pop?' And I'm feeling guilty and
freaking out [that] there's something wrong with my daughter."
in a heartfelt Instagram post along with a photo of her daughter, Maddie wrote,
"We were hesitant to share Evie's condition publicly for fear that our infant daughter
would become the target of mean jokes and cyberbullying. That said, we felt not being
open would be even worse and make Evie feel ashamed for something that makes her all the
more special in our eyes. As a family, we have decided to be open as we walk through
this journey."
When Maddie opened up about her daughter's medical condition on Instagram, her followers
responded with an avalanche of love and support. In a subsequent Instagram post, she wrote,
in part,
"Over the past 36 hours we have been flooded with love, support, and kindness! I have had
people reach out from foundations I didn't even know existed. We have been educated on
sooo much! We have learned that we are so not alone in this! Never in a million years
would I have guessed it would go this way."
Maddie concluded that she spent the day with "happy tears" and feeling "relief." She added,
"THANK YOU! With all of my being!"
Before going public about Evangalynn, Maddie faced criticism over her 2-year-old son still
using a pacifier. She wrote on Instagram that she had already weaned Axel from his pacifier,
but, when her daughter was born, that changed. She explained,
"It was the ONE THING he regressed on!"
Her efforts to get Axel to stop using his pacifier were an exercise in futility, she
admitted, leaving both her and her son completely miserable. She added,
"Adding all the stress of your opinions about my child [pacifier] does not help and it makes
me want to snap back with so much worse than I do and stop showing my life. I KNOW I am
not the only mom who receives advice that is only meant to help but it ends up not being
helpful at all. We as moms have enough guilt."
In a follow-up post, she revealed that the first post "blew up" and that she'd received
numerous messages from other moms experiencing the same issue. She wrote,
"I hope my raw and 'shove it' post helped other moms, who are in the trenches and may
be struggling, to know that we are all a mess just living day to day here."
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