When Sister Wives first premiered in 2010, audiences were introduced to Kody Brown, his three wives, and their 13 children, but the family has fallen apart since then. During the inaugural season, Kody met and courted Robyn Brown, who later became his fourth wife. Kody adopted her three children, and they later had two of their own, swelling their numbers to 18 children in total.
The dissolution of the Brown family started with Christine Brown’s split from Kody during Sister Wives season 17. Christine was Kody’s third wife for 25 years and left Kody in 2021. In 2022, after 30 years of marriage, Kody’s second wife, Janelle Brown, decided to leave too. Finally, Kody’s first wife, Meri Brown, was tired of being neglected by Kody and left the plural marriage. This leaves Robyn, Kody’s fourth and newest wife, as his last remaining wife, and Kody deserves the blame for destroying his family.
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8
Power Struggles With Christine And Janelle
Kody Resented Janelle & Christine
Over the years, Kody would often lament that, in a plural marriage, each wife becomes the head of her own household. With a husband only around every few days, the wives naturally grow more independent and get used to making decisions for themselves and their biological children. Kody grew to resent Christine and Janelle for making unilateral decisions without consulting him, which frustrated the wives and created tension between him and the kids. It didn’t help that Christine felt she wasn’t getting the intimacy and physical connection she needed from Kody, while Janelle kept trying to make the marriage work with little help from Kody.
7
Coyote Pass
Tired of moving around so much and living in separate houses, the Browns eventually bought a large plot of land at Coyote Pass in Flagstaff, Arizona, with the goal of building a home where they could finally be together as a family. However, the land purchase only caused trouble for the family. For one thing, not all the wives were interested in living in one giant house together. Kody divided the land into lots for each woman to build her own house, but this only created more problems as there were resentments about who got the best lot.
6
Leaving Utah
Janelle Wanted To Move Back In 2021
When we first met the Browns, the three wives and 13 children lived in a large house in Utah. Built by a polygamist, the house featured a suite with its own kitchen for each of the wives. Afraid of the state coming down on them because polygamy was illegal there, Kody decided to move his family out of Utah and into four separate homes. Living in separate homes was the beginning of the end for the Brown family. When Utah decriminalized polygamy in 2021, Janelle begged Kody to move back, but he refused, which made it harder to reunite the family.
5
Leaving The Cul-De-Sac
The Last Time The Brown Family Was Close
Eventually, the Browns settled down in four separate houses on a cul-de-sac in Las Vegas, Nevada. This was the ideal situation, even better than the shared house in Utah. Here, each woman could have her own home, and Kody could easily cross the street to see every single one of his wives and children. However, much like in Utah, Kody got paranoid about Nevada coming after them for polygamy, so he uprooted his entire family again and headed to Arizona. Kody’s decision was a huge mistake because the family would never live close together again.
4
Favoring Robyn Over The Other Wives
Christine Was Aware Robyn Was Favored
Bringing a new wife into his plural marriage changed the dynamics between Kody and his other three wives. He made the awkward situation worse when Kody openly favored Robyn and spent more time at her house. It became clear to the other wives that what he had with Robyn was different from what he shared with them. His favoritism of Robyn triggered his falling out with Christine, who became increasingly jealous of their relationship. Also, spending more time with Robyn meant spending less time with his other wives, and the neglect wore on all of his relationships, including with his children.
3
Neglecting Meri
Kody Put His Relationship With Meri On The Backburner
Kody’s neglect of Meri was a problem even before he married Robyn, but once they moved into separate homes, Kody saw less and less of his first wife. With their only child together grown and out of the house, Kody had increasingly little reason to spend nights at Meri’s house, and he took advantage of it. Instead of valuing the marriage and working to make Meri happy, he increasingly ignored her and would reject her repeatedly.
His mistreatment of his first wife helped set the tone with the other wives he had been neglecting so he could spend more time with Robyn. Despite Kody’s mistreatment of Meri, she stayed loyal long after he told her he was no longer attracted to her. Kody could never treat her like a real wife.
2
COVID-19 Caused Even More Issues
Kody Had Strict Rules
The Brown family was already in trouble when COVID-19 came along. The pandemic exposed deep rifts within the family and tore them apart. Different households had varying opinions on risk tolerance, and Kody was the most risk-averse, so he would go for long periods of time without seeing different family members. The issue came between Kody and several of his sons, who he accused of not being cautious enough. He even skipped his daughter Ysabel Brown’s scoliosis surgery because he was too afraid to travel.
When the holidays came around, Kody refused to see family members unless they followed strict COVID rules, which included wiping down groceries, changing clothes when entering the house, and leaving mail outside for 24 hours. When several members of the family said they couldn’t follow his rules, Kody refused to see them on Thanksgiving and Christmas. The pandemic led to the family splitting up during the holidays for the first time, which changed their culture and dynamic forever.
1
Marrying Robyn
Kody & Robyn Are Now Monogamous
When Kody married Robyn, it had been 16 years since the Browns brought a new wife into the family. It was to be expected that the status quo would be upended, but Kody didn’t do enough to make the addition of a fourth wife work. For years, he struggled to be enough for three women. It’s no surprise that bringing in a fourth wife left even less of Kody to go around. Kody should have been more realistic about his capabilities before expanding his already strained plural marriage. As Sister Wives season 18 came to an end, Kody and Robyn accidentally found themselves in a monogamous relationship.
