Fans have been wondering whether Kody Brown, star of the “Sister Wives” TV show, is actively seeking a new partner or partners for his formerly polygamous marriage. That’s right—Kody only has one wife as of 2023 because three out of four wives have left him. Kody’s marriage is now technically monogamous, going against his views, previous statements, religion, and lifestyle. Despite all that, his Instagram bio still states, “Father of eighteen, husband to four. I love ‘em all” which confused many uninformed viewers. After all, he is quite active on social media and Cameo, a platform for ordering personalized videos from TV stars, meaning he could have updated the bio. Additionally, all three (now ex-) wives have publicly announced their split at this point. We will get into that in greater detail.
First, fans who follow the “Sister Views” show know that Kody stated that he considers his relationship with all four wives to be beyond the legal restrictions; he is spiritually married to them all, calling it “plural marriage”. With that in mind, the burning question after recent news is – “Is Kody Brown still married to Meri, Janelle, Christine, and Robyn?” We have to clarify that Kody is now legally and spiritually married only to Robyn Brown, who joined the plural family dynamic in 2014. The way things ended barely astonished some people, because the three now ex-wives have hinted or claimed over the years that Robyn has been his favorite wife.
Interestingly, for the marriage with Robyn to happen legally, including adopting her kids, Kody had to divorce Meri, his first wife whom he married in 1990. However, they remained spiritually married, but she still struggled with the decision, but we’ll get to that.
The fact of the matter is, after three separations, the turbulent romantic life of Kody Brown became less complicated and more focused on individual happiness with Robyn and all his children. The joint message with Meri and his struggles show his desire to focus on family, however, unconfirmed scoops from those in the know suggest otherwise. An insider revealed, “He’s a proud polygamist, that’s the lifestyle he’s accustomed to and in his mind.” The same person remarked that Kody wouldn’t feel happy in a monogamous marriage just with Robyn. In contrast, Kody once confessed he’s “on the verge of not even being a [sic] polygamous” due to recent experiences. He also questioned his faith after Christine left, which we’ll delve into shortly.
Robyn publicly agreed with the insider, hinting that she was “scared” Kody would give up on the polygamous lifestyle because of how poorly it ended, and that it’s something she wants. She elaborated that she feels she would ask Kody to “try this again” and that she desires a big family. In her statement about monogamy, she tearfully said, “I don’t know what to do with it. It’s messing with my identity,” promptly adding, “It’s not the future I wanted. I want that house with us on the porch in the rocking chairs with our grandkids and our kids around us. You know, the grandparent ranch. That’s what I want.” Robyn also commented that she feels as though Christine and Janelle handed him to her. Christine rebutted, claiming Kody “no longer has the capacity” for polygamy, and that in her opinion, he should remain monogamous with Robyn, his “soul mate”.
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The truth is—no one knows whether Kody is looking for a new wife, since there are arguments for both sides. Robyn Brown seems to desire that outcome, while his ex-wives are unsure or in favor of monogamy. but how did it all happen? What prompted Kody to become doubtful about his convictions and faith? We have to analyze the breakdown of his marriages starting with his first wife to get to that.
The drama about a split began during an episode from October 2022. Viewers saw cracks in the armor of a joint dynamic when Kody proposed that Meri move to Lizzie’s Heritage Inn, a bed & breakfast establishment that she operates. In December 2022, in the clip of the upcoming “Sister Wives: One on One” episode, it was revealed that she’d decided to leave, although she previously thought she could work on the whole relationship. Kody responded, “No, I don’t consider myself married to Meri. If she wanted to move on and marry another, she wouldn’t get an argument with me. I don’t believe that we can ever be functional, and I don’t believe that I will ever be emotionally safe with her.” After more than 20 years married, viewers are naturally somewhat disbelieving.
Her mystifying Instagram posts roughly a week after the clip aired, also suggested that she may prepare a tell-all expose to shed light on her view of the story. Fans expressed interest since Meri had a catfishing scandal in 2015, in which a female fan pretended to be a man to court her, and Kody revealed their marriage was on a downhill since then. During the special, “Sister Wives Tell All”, Meri also revealed her emotional battle with the decision to restructure the family, stating, “It’s an end of something that we had had, in a way, for 24-and-a-half years, but at the same time, I know it’s not, because I have eternity with him; I have eternity with the family. I know it’s not the end.”
The two officially ended their relationship in January 2023, with a joint statement on his Instagram account: “In light of recent unapproved press release, we feel compelled to share our own truth, in our own way, and in our own timing. After more than a decade of working on our relationship in our own unique ways, we have made the decision to permanently terminate our marriage relationship. During this process, we are committed to kindness and respect toward each other, and to all members of our family, and we are also committed to the continued healing of any and all relationships within the family so that we can move forward with forgiveness, grace, and love. In kindness, Meri and Kody.”
Set your reminder now! We are less than three weeks away from the explosive new season of #SisterWives, premiering Sunday, November 21 at 10/9c. pic.twitter.com/K5IhPsu5l3
— TLC Network (@TLC) November 3, 2021
Going back a year, in November 2021, news broke that Christine Brown, one of four wives of Kody Brown, star of the “Sister Wives” TV show, is divorcing him. She updated her Instagram audience with a statement, “After more than 25 years together, Kody and I have grown apart and I have made the difficult decision to leave.” Christine promptly moved to Utah, her home state, after selling her share of the Arizona land they lived on, Coyote Pass, for a mere $10 on 28 July 2022, which was announced in August. To paint a clearer picture, you should know that the land’s value is estimated to be over $213,000; that shows she didn’t have any ill will or wanted to burn the bridges between them but rather focus on moving on. Christine later revealed that she wanted to date again, but reiterated her decision to co-parent their six children and stay in touch with Kody.
However, according to some insiders, problems arose with Kody’s absence in raising Truely, the daughter they shared. Due to his paranoia about COVID and Christine moving back to Utah, transports were one-sided, and he didn’t make an effort. This conflicts with his statement on the show, “I’m disgusted by this idea that she’s moving, and she’s gonna take Truely and move to Utah,” he told the cameras. “Truely’s my child.” The show didn’t choose to focus on happenings behind the scenes.
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Kody accepted Christine’s decision, remarking on Instagram: “Christine’s decision to leave comes with a great deal of sadness. We enjoyed many years together, and I have a large amount of respect and admiration for her. Although we are moving forward on different paths, we will always remain committed parents.”
Despite the turmoil and apparent bad blood from not being there for key moments in their children’s lives, the TV show showed him in a different light in Season 17. Although he didn’t seem torn immediately after Christine left the plural marriage, Kody bravely revealed his struggles afterwards. During one of the episodes, he came out with a deeply personal question of faith: “It’s a weird thing to be getting left. It’s made me question getting into plural marriage. It’s made me question my faith, and especially question my religion.” He even went as far as to say that his message to the world about living in a functionally polygamous marriage now seemed dysfunctional to him. “I’ve been sort of in the anger phase of divorce, and so I’ve not been addressing it very well,” Kody said.
This startled some fans, because his resolve over the years seemed unaffected. Kody even said that the primary reason he decided to become a TV personality was to fight prejudices in society about polygamy, specifically his spiritual union with multiple wives. Besides raising awareness of polygamist unions, and dispelling worries about unfaithfulness in such a dynamic, he wanted to paint a rosy picture of daily life and collective happiness for himself, his wives, and their children. His doubts and shaken confidence combined with hints from his ex-wives that he put Robyn ahead of them made some fans think that he may consider living as a monogamist from now on.
However, in an episode released on September 18, 2022, Robyn chimed in on those claims, stating that she was aware of others noting that she had preferential treatment in the household, but discarded it as “assumptions” about Kody’s behavior in the home. She acknowledged the struggles of bringing her four kids and herself into the dynamic, and called plural marriage hard. Robyn pointed out that laziness was the reason they drifted apart, not an imbalance in Kody’s time and energy.
All this uncertainty about commitment to polygamy seemed to be absent during most of his marriage to Janelle Brown, which began in 1993. She divorced Meri Brown’s brother, Adam Barber, before entering the family union, resulting in Meri being reserved at first. Regardless, the two seemed to make it work, and Janelle seemed happy and adept at handling all his antics by staying level-headed and working through problems.
Important to note, Janelle didn’t come from a polygamist family as all three other wives, saying on the show, “I was from a monogamous faith. I began to look at their faith objectively, and I became intrigued by it.” Nevertheless, she managed to fit into the daily lives alongside their six children. They shared good and bad times that fans witnessed throughout the show, until it all came crashing down in Season 17, as with Christine.
Years of quarrels and frequent rumors about the breakup of Kody and Janelle weren’t enough for the couple to cut ties. It was the COVID pandemic, during which he quarantined with Robyn and didn’t see his other wives in person for a while. that made a big difference. He seemed unsupportive of the need for closeness despite saying otherwise, which was not unusual. Fans remember that his marriage with Meri was referred to as a “non-sexual relationship” and Christine had already questioned his desire for intimacy. Those that noticed and enjoyed a close relationship with Christine and Janelle, and saw the cracks starting to form between Janelle and Kody for a while, speculated on whether Janelle would be next to leave.
The show fueled the fire, airing disagreements on whether their relationship was still viable. Janelle stated that her gut was telling her to do everything she could to make it work. However, she remarked that she’s “not even sure it’s possible to come back from where we are.” Kody said he felt “so rejected” and that he was “begging Janelle for a deeper bond”. A year after Christina left, Janelle publicly revealed her separation from Kody in December 2022, which Kody confirmed in the last episode of Season 17, and an independent source for the press added, “Janelle is a strong independent woman, and realized she can do it on her own.”
That brings us full circle to January 2023, and Kody’s current living situation and arrangement: relationship and spiritual and legal marriage to his only wife, Robyn Brown. The future is uncertain and there is no conclusive proof that Kody is or isn’t looking for a new wife. We can only surmise that if Kody gives polygamy another chance, he has to heal the hole in the heart left by the three wives that left the plural marriage in late 2021 and December 2022. We’re awaiting an official statement from Kody or further developments in “Sister Wives” and its specials. We may also see hints in Meri’s potential tell-all project, or even YouTube videos his daughter, Gwendlyn Brown, posts on her eponymous YouTube channel, funnily self-described as owned by “SisterWives child #11”.
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