Christine and Janelle Brown shut down Robyn Brown’s claim that she “speaks Kody” the best on part 2 of Sister Wives: 1-on-1.
“I think I get Kody pretty well. Like, I feel like I understand him,” Robyn, 45, said on the Sunday, December 3, episode of the Sister Wives season 18 tell-all, which is part of the multi-episode reunion.
Robyn noted that she thinks Kody Brown’s three exes, Christine, 51, Janelle, 54, and Meri Brown, all “have the capacity” to “speak Kody,” as Meri, 52, put it on the show. “He could be misunderstood very easily because he says everything that’s in his head. Most people filter it. He doesn’t,” Robyn said of her husband, 54. “But I think that it’s hard for other people to understand.”
Christine and Janelle, however, think they understand their former husband just fine. (Christine and Kody split in November 2021, while Janelle confirmed in December 2022 that she and Kody had been “separated for several months.”)
“Robyn says that she can speak Kody and I’m like, ‘Bulls–t,’” Christine said in Sunday’s episode. “I have known Kody for … I met him when I was 18. I’ve known Kody for a long time, and I can actually read Kody pretty well. And I can speak Kody well, too.”
Christine, who shares six children with the patriarch, claimed that Robyn “convinced all of us that she could speak Kody and that she would mediate our relationships.” She alleged that Robyn made all the wives feel like “she needed to be there in the relationship” because “she can speak Kody and we can’t.”
Janelle revealed she felt the same way as Christine about Robyn being the Kody whisperer. “I’m like, ‘Well, I don’t know if I really need someone to translate for me. We’ve been married a long time. We did OK without you,’” Janelle confessed. “I think I speak Kody. But she likes to position herself as like, ‘I speak Kody.’”
Janelle further claimed that Robyn has even pulled that line on her six children. “That one does bug me. ‘I speak Kody.’ Well, Kody can speak for himself. He’s a grown ass man,” Janelle quipped.
Scroll down to see more of the biggest revelations from part 2 of season 18’s Sister Wives: 1-on-1 special:
Janelle Plays Coy About Her and Kody’s Sex Life
“There was definitely physical compatibility,” Janelle told host Sukanya Krishnan, noting that sex was part of her connection with Kody. “I’m not someone who goes around blabbing about that. I’ll hint at it. Everything was very good in that department.”
Since the pair have parted ways, Janelle said, “I don’t think he’s holding out hope, pining for me. He’s never really come to me and said look, ‘I really love you and I really want to make this work.’ Not, like, in that very deep, intimate connection way.”
Wives Claim They Had to ‘Earn’ Kody’s Love
Janelle reflected on her relationship with Kody throughout their nearly 30-year union, claiming, “For him, it became about, ‘I needed to coparent. I needed to be less independent.’ I needed to do all these things in order to earn that relationship. And I’m like, ‘No, I don’t need to earn a relationship.’”
Christine recalled a similar experience with Kody before their 2021 split. “I always felt like I needed to do something to earn love or earn acceptance, or I had to do something a certain way and I didn’t even realize how much stress I was under,” she alleged. “Kody had really specific things that he liked. And when he came over, I’d want to [say], ‘Sure, let’s go ahead and cook the kind of dinner that you like or make sure the house is cleaned a certain way.’ I just wanted him to be comfortable in my home.”
Meri, who confirmed her split from Kody in January after more than 30 years together, noted that her ex was particular about many things. “He would ask me to do things and ask me to be a certain way or ask me to fix the situation or ask me to share some information with him or whatever, all these things to be able to fix our relationship,” she explained. “And I did every one of the things that he asked me to. And then it just wasn’t good enough. … You’re asking if loyalty was enough? And it wasn’t for him.”
Kody Says He Will ‘Always Love’ Meri
“I told her I loved her, and I chose to love her, and I chose to be romantic,” Kody said of his union with Meri. “She thinks I was madly head over heels over and it was not that experience for me. But I was always a life affirming person. I would always affirm what I wanted. And so I told her and did everything I could to love her, and she thinks we were mad about each other, and we acted that [way]. We played that out.”
Kody noted that they did “have a very romantic experience” at the beginning of their marriage but acknowledged that “there was a lot of dysfunction” over the years.
Elsewhere in the episode, he claimed, “I will always love her. I can’t be in love with her. It’s not safe for me. … Make up any bulls–t you want, but I’m telling you, I’m not going to sit here and drive the bus over her because this is sad. It’s heartbreaking. It just didn’t work.”
Ultimately, Kody confessed that anything he says will be like “ripping that wound back open” for Meri, and he doesn’t want that. “It’s like I love her and want her to have a happy life, but I don’t think [she] and I can functionally be in a relationship of marriage,” he concluded.
Meri Shares the Full Wedding Ring Story
Us Weekly previously shared an exclusive sneak peek of Christine revealing that Kody melted down his 1990 wedding band from Meri shortly after Robyn joined the family in 2010. In the clip, Meri revealed she was “frustrated” that Christine told viewers such an intimate memory without permission.
During Sunday’s episode, Meri reluctantly detailed the full story of what Kody told her when he decided to stop wearing his first wedding ring. “He didn’t think that it was fair that I had [a] claim on him. And so his way of [changing] that was to melt down [the ring],” she recalled. “The wedding ring that was a symbol … of, like, our marriage and our commitment. And he melted it down.”
Meri got choked up while recalling the heartbreaking act. “Who’s to say that he didn’t just melt down our whole relationship in that moment? Symbolically, that’s what he did to me,” she continued. “Because I remember asking him, ‘If you’re not going to wear it, can I just have it? Can I keep it?’ [He said], ‘Oh, no. I melted it down. I didn’t want you to have any claim on me.’ It was a very, very painful situation.”
Robyn, for her part, claimed that Kody melting his ring from Meri had nothing to do with her joining the family. “No, he had done that before I came along OK. It wasn’t when I came in the family,” she insisted. “It was way before that because he wasn’t wearing a wedding ring when I met him.”
Kody’s 3rd Ring
After Kody melted down his first wedding band, his then-wives gifted him a Claddagh ring. The Claddagh is a Celtic symbol of love, loyalty and friendship and was intended to be an “heirloom” passed to their daughters, Janelle exclusively told Us in November, noting that all the wives wore one as well.
Throughout season 18, Meri noticed that Kody was wearing another new band, which she assumed was from Robyn. “It was way nicer and [I] went, ‘That’s cool, I want that,’” Kody said on the tell-all, explaining how he found his current ring. “And my wedding ring was on and some things happened [in the family] and I went, ‘Those relationships are over.’ And I went like this [and took it off]. I’m done.”
Kody clarified that he made the choice to take off the Claddagh ring during his marital woes with Janelle in 2022, which viewers saw play out this season. He and Meri were also on the rocks at the time.
Part 3 of the Sister Wives: 1-on-1 special airs on TLC Sunday, December 10, at 10 p.m. ET.
