All is fair in love and plural families! Kody Brown has captivated audiences for years on Sister Wives as the network explores his relationship with his four wives — but do all of the women get along?
The Wyoming native married Meri Brown in 1990. Three years later, Janelle Brown joined the family and Christine Brown followed in 1994. It wasn’t until 2010, that fourth wife, Robyn Brown, came into the fold.
Four years later, the Brown family faced another change when Kody divorced Meri to legally wed Robyn and adopt her three children from her first marriage.
“I did not sign up to be in this family to only have Kody in my life,” Robyn told Meri during a January 2022 episode of the TLC series before getting choked up. “As much as I love Kody and it is great to have him around, it is stressing me out. I’m worried about the kids that aren’t seeing their dad, and I’m worried about the wives that aren’t seeing Kody.”
Robyn, who spent a lot of time with Kody during the COVID-19 shutdowns in 2020, has been accused of stealing Kody’s attention for years.
That strain became even more evident after Christine announced in November 2021 that she and Kody had separated after more than 25 years. (Kody remains in a spiritual union with both Meri and Janelle and legally bound to Robyn.)
“I think that at the beginning it was really hard. Blending families together is really difficult,” Christine explained during the Sister Wives: One on One tell-all special, which aired in January 2022. “There were a lot of frustrations and hurt feelings on both sides of it. We all came out of [it] scarred. I never had any intention to alienate Robyn and her kids.”
Robyn, for her part, cried over how broken the Brown family has become in recent years. “It makes me angry. I just don’t know why they’re not figuring this stuff out and talking. Finding their compromise and finding the things that they love about each other,” she said. “I can’t fix it for them. I can try and persuade. I can beg. It’s my family.”
Christine’s ups and downs with Kody continued to play out during season 17 of the TLC series, which aired in fall 2022 and was filmed in summer 2021. In addition to their split, it became clear that Kody’s COVID rules were keeping all of the wives separate — causing even Robyn to become frustrated by the lack of family mingling.
“I love Kody dearly, but this is not what I chose. His other relationships are stressing him out so much that it’s not like it’s really fun to have him around much anyway,” Robyn said during a September 2022 episode. “He’s an angry man right now. What’s going on with him and Christine … I’ve never seen him like this before.”
When Christine did tell Meri, Janelle and Robyn about her move to Utah, which fans saw during an October 2022 episode, she confessed she was unsure about how it would affect all of the women’s relationships moving forward.
“I don’t want to burn bridges at the end of this,” Christine told the cameras at the time. “I can’t be their sister wife anymore. I can be their friend.”
Scroll down to see where Kody’s wives stand with each other now:
