Kody Brown didn’t mince words over his issues with Christine and Janelle Brown’s newfound friendship on part 1 of season 18’s Sister Wives: 1-on-1.
“I’m jealous because they’re behaving the way they should have for 25 years now,” Kody, 54, said on the Sunday, November 26, episode of the TLC series.
Kody explained that Christine, 51, and Janelle, 54, getting even closer after their respective splits feels like a dig at him. “I see it as a big F— you to Kody,” he said. “It’s like we’re going to get along now because this will really piss Kody off.”
The patriarch further alleged that his blowout fight with Janelle, which fans saw on season 18 and was filmed in December 2022, was partially because of Janelle “siding” with Christine.
“I think they’re trash-talking me because … if I’m small [it] makes them feel OK for how they treated me,” Kody said, referring to Janelle hanging out with Christine after her November 2021 breakup with Kody. Janelle, meanwhile, confirmed in December 2022 that she and Kody were separated.
Meri Brown announced in January that she and Kody had also ended their romantic relationship, leaving only Robyn Brown married to the head of the family.
Scroll down for the biggest bombshells from part 1 of season 18’s Sister: Wives: 1-on-1:
Kody Says He ‘Wasn’t Vetting’ Wives to ‘Be Compatible’
Kody told host Sukanya Krishnan that “divorce messes with you” after splitting with three of his four wives. He revealed in the tell-all, which was tapped after season 18 ended filming in December 2022, that he was only ever “in love” with Robyn.
“I look back and because I was so anxious to be living the principle of plural marriage, I wasn’t vetting who I was marrying to be compatible with me,” Kody explained. “The blame lays on one thing and one thing only. If you’re going to marry and you’re going to marry for eternity, you should start out in love.”
He noted that he had blinders on going into his first three unions. “I thought I could make up the difference. I thought everything in this situation with all three wives, this isn’t about being, like, in love,” he continued. “This is about growing a family together. We love each other. We’re required. The gospel requires us to love each other. But I never really actually suffered in a fit of passion in this place.”
Robyn Didn’t Know Kody Cried With ‘Joy’ After Their 1st Encounter
“I met Robyn and there was a safety and a vulnerability that I had never experienced in my life,” Kody revealed. “And I met her, and I started weeping for joy and didn’t stop for months. Let’s just say the two of us had a click. Whereas I was working for years with these others to get them to get this place. Never had the click.”
After learning about Kody’s remarks, Robyn told Krishnan during the sit-down, “I did not know that until just recently. I wonder if it’s just the rewriting of history, because there seems to be a lot of that.”
She added: “I don’t know what else I was supposed to do, but I did my best to not have it be something that was painful for them. I constantly was suppressing and hiding my relationship in any kind of connection I had with Kody.”
Christine’s Heart ‘Broke’ When She Realized Kody Was ‘In Love’ With Robyn
Christine, for her part, detailed the “yucky day” when she realized that Kody was head over heels for Robyn and their dynamic was therefore going to change.
“It broke my heart. That was one of my first moments of heartbreak,” Christine said, explaining that the moment transpired before Kody was about to go on a date with Robyn prior to their marriage. She remembered Kody being nervous for the night, which led Christine to say out loud, “Oh, you’re in love with her.” While Kody was initially taken aback by Christine’s comment, he eventually agreed.
Christine, who shares six children with Kody, recalled her former spouse getting “really giddy” thinking about Robyn in her presence. “I was like, ‘Oh God!’ It hurt. It hurts so bad,” she said. “It’s so bad because you realize at that point, everything now is going to change.”
Kody Admits He’s ‘Guilty’ of ‘Not Being in Love’ With Exes
Kody looked back at his family’s shift following Christine’s 2021 exit from their family, saying that it changed how he approached all his marriages. “Here’s what’s happened, I’ve spent two years watching and seeing Christine and Janelle talk about me without me, and they’re just trash-talking me,” he alleged. “So I’m, like, going I don’t want to ask about anybody else because I don’t want anybody talking about me.”
He claimed that his exes were bad-mouthing him “because [they think] I’m guilty, actually, yes I am, of not loving them.” Kody clarified that he “got angry” over the trash-talking, but his guilt stemmed from years prior.
“I was guilty of not being in love with them. It was a guilt from the beginning,” Kody continued. “I married on a premise that was very different than [what] romantic love is.”
He then confessed that he’s “in a place” where he “would like romantic love with Janelle” if they work out their differences. “Christine was always in a place where she wanted romantic love with me,” Kody added.
Christine Says Janelle Friendship Gives Kody a Taste of His Own Medicine
Christine told Krishnan that she thinks Kody “for sure” feels “betrayed” by her friendship with Janelle after they both left him. “I’m like, ‘Well, buddy, this is what jealousy looks like. Now you see how hard it is when two people have a bond,’” she said. “Janelle and I have an awesome bond and maybe he’s jealous about that bond. Maybe he’s jealous that we coparented.”
She noted that the change in dynamic “sucks” for Kody because he finally sees what being a sister wife was like. “It sucks that sometimes [Janelle] picked me over you because she can talk to me and I will work things out with her. And because we’ve had our fights and we’ve had our disagreements, but we work them out,” Christine explained. “This is what it’s been like for 26 years. ‘Take off your blinders and look and see what it’s like for us.’”
Robyn Claims She ‘Never Wanted an Apology’ From Janelle’s Sons
Much of season 17 and season 18 surrounded Janelle and Kody arguing over their two youngest sons, Gabriel and Garrison, allegedly not respecting Kody’s COVID-19 rules. At the time, Kody said he wanted an apology from his boys, and he wanted them to say sorry to Robyn, whom he claimed they also were rude towards. However, Robyn revealed on Sunday that she “never” wanted to get in the middle of the drama.
“I understand that as a husband, that’s his right, I guess, to say it. But I also never wanted an apology. I didn’t ask for one. I never expected one,” Robyn alleged. “I was not saying this to him and I feel very frustrated that my name got brought into this because this wasn’t something I was interested in.”
Janelle Felt ‘Huge Burden Had Been Lifted’ After Kody Fight
During the beginning of season 18, viewers watched as Janelle and Kody had a blowout fight over their kids and family plans for the December 2021 holidays. It was later revealed that the argument resulted in two months of the pair not speaking and the seemingly official end of their romance.
Looking back, Janelle explained that the fight was somewhat cathartic. “I was pretty emotional for a few minutes because of the emotional shock of it. I’ve never fought with Kody like this,” she recalled. “And then I had to run some errands and I just remember feeling very relieved. It was this really strangest thing. I was sitting in this parking lot here in Flagstaff, [Arizona], and all of a sudden … I felt like this huge burden had been left lifted from me. I felt relieved. I didn’t have to keep putting effort into this relationship anymore with Kody.”
Kody, for his part, remembered feeling “so betrayed” by Janelle during their fight. However, now he can see that they were struggling well before that moment. “This is not an accusation [but] Janelle and I have both seen so little value in the relationship that we have not made those steps to bring it back together,” he said. “Janelle sees more value in the relationship with Christine than she does in the relationship with [me].”
Part 2 of Sister Wives: 1-on-1 airs on TLC Sunday, December 3, at 10 p.m. ET.
