It seems Meri Brown and Robyn Brown’s close relationship has faded. As Meri shared on the final part of the Sister Wives One-on-One special on February 1st, they’re no longer as close as they once were and don’t share things with each other like they used to.
Meri explained to Sukanya Krishnan that she and her former partner had a strong relationship that was visible to others. However, over time, it fell apart due to a loss of trust.
I used to talk with her,” Meri explained. But even though she thought those conversations were private, “other people always seemed to find out what we discussed.”
I noticed it really clearly back in 2015, when she started this whole online thing with some guy she met online. It was like, a full-on virtual flirtation, and honestly, I was glued to everything about it. It just seemed… different, you know?
At the time, the mother of 30-year-old Leon was seeking some connection. However, she unexpectedly became involved in a catfishing scheme. As she later found out, the person she was communicating with online—a woman named Jackie from Oklahoma—began to pursue her and her family, as Meri explained.
Meri shared that Robyn would often come to her to discuss issues while they all lived together on their Las Vegas street – including Kody’s wives Janelle and Christine. Meri would explain what was happening, but then rumors and other problems would surface.
The way Meri saw it, those conversations became bait for her online paramour-turned-enemy.
Meri explained that the person pretending to be someone else online would sometimes learn details about her conversations with Robyn. She believes Robyn, who is friends with Jackie, didn’t mean to cause her pain, but was actually trying to fix things, though her efforts ended up backfiring and making the situation worse.
But Robyn insisted she was the only one of Meri’s sister wives working to improve the situation.
The mother of five explained that she’d seen Meri talking online about flowers, texting, music, and flirting. This prompted Robyn to urge Kody to go and support Meri. “I told him, ‘She’s clearly having a hard time, you need to go and help her figure things out,'” Robyn explained. “That’s all I was trying to do.”
So, she took extreme offense to Meri suggesting she wasn’t there for her.
Robyn was amazed, recounting how the other person was accusing her of being untrustworthy, listing reasons one after another. ‘I always had her best interests at heart,’ Robyn explained. ‘I was right there, seeing everything, and I was genuinely concerned for her.’
That fear led her to have a come to Jesus moment with Kody.
Robyn explained that she told Kody, ‘So she asked you to leave? Go stay somewhere else and talk to her. Don’t come here—you need to work things out with her. Someone is manipulating her.’ I basically told him, ‘Go back and talk to her. Fix this!’
Similarly, Robyn stressed, she was questioning Meri about her choices.
Robyn remembered asking, ‘What’s going on here? What are you two talking about? Why are you speaking with them?’ She explained that she was trying to be honest with everyone involved.
She says she has no secrets now. Robyn stated that if anyone claims she made a mistake, she’s okay with that, because she knows her own motivations were good.
Meri and Robyn aren’t the only stars of Sister Wives sharing stories about what happened behind the scenes. Here’s what other cast members have revealed this season.
The Coyote Pass deal became complicated because the family hadn’t resolved issues from their time in Las Vegas.
Okay, so you won’t BELIEVE this. Meri basically sold her gorgeous, huge house in Vegas – her FIVE-bedroom house! – and just… gave the money to Robyn. Like, Robyn used it to buy her OWN five-bedroom place out in Arizona. And get this, Janelle helped too! It’s just… everything always seems to go to Robyn, doesn’t it? It’s crazy!
Meri explained that the people featured in the January 18th One-on-One special purchased a home which quickly increased in value when they sold it, a situation she celebrated.
Which is when she and Janelle made clear that their loan wasn’t exactly on the house.
When it was time to sell their land in Arizona, Kody explained there were unresolved financial issues. Janelle and Meri had previously given him and Robyn money to help buy Robyn’s house, and Kody owned half of the profits from Meri’s former Las Vegas home. They wanted their share – 25 percent – of the Coyote Pass property, but Kody had invested extra money into it. They also wanted to be reimbursed for the money they’d gifted for Robyn’s house, but he hadn’t been compensated for his contributions, and they couldn’t reach an agreement.
Robyn mentioned they reached an agreement with Janelle. Janelle confirmed they had no outstanding issues, but said Meri did.
Despite the situation, Kody kept assuring Meri she would eventually be paid. He stated, “Meri will get her money, and everyone else will too.” However, he added he’d be upset about the fact that people had been criticizing him throughout the process.
Robyn and Meri, who used to be close, are still facing tension. When asked why she didn’t warn Meri that Kody and Janelle might be making plans without her, Robyn explained on a recent special that she didn’t want to betray Kody’s trust.
Robyn explained that if she and Meri had maintained a good relationship, she might be willing to talk things through. However, because of past issues and broken trust, she doesn’t see that as possible right now. She feels hurt and doesn’t understand why Meri damaged their connection.
Robyn believes the problem is that Meri was secretly upset with her, without Robyn understanding why. She felt their friendship ended abruptly. “I really don’t know what changed,” Robyn explained. “It seemed like Meri suddenly became angry with Kody, and for some reason, I got caught up in it too.”
Turns out even Kody said “I do” to seeing his former bride marry her now-husband in October 2023.
He confessed on the January 18th episode that he attended their wedding and was happy for them the whole time. Seeing Christine so happy felt like a dream come true for her, and he enjoyed witnessing it.
Now that her divorce from Kody Brown is final, Janelle Brown shared in the season 20 premiere of Sister Wives that she’s taking a similar approach to Meri Brown.
Though they were married for 29 years, Christine was never legally married to Kody. She explained that she’d considered ending their relationship spiritually a long time ago but didn’t know it was possible. When Meri pursued a spiritual divorce, Christine asked her who she needed to contact to do the same.
Janelle’s former sister wife—who had previously been released from their church due to being abandoned—was glad to offer some information. Janelle explained, ‘She’s been helping me reconnect with everyone.’
Madison Brush is still dealing with the fallout from her father’s actions. Despite being estranged from Kody, Madison—one of his six children with Janelle—shared on the September 28th episode that she continues to struggle with the family split.
The mother of four admitted she hopes her husband’s father will be present, and that she wants them to mend their relationship. She acknowledged her own role in the situation, adding that she’s frustrated because she’s still learning to cope with disappointment.
She’s finding it difficult to accept him as he is. She explained that she’s working on understanding that he may not have known how to be there for her, and that he could be dealing with his own pain.
He also might not be willing to cede too much ground.
Kody expressed wanting to repair his relationships with Meri, Janelle, Christine Brown, and all of their children. He believes, however, that any progress depends entirely on whether they are willing to try, stating, “It feels like we’re stuck because healing can only happen if they want it to.”
Robyn Brown, Kody’s last remaining wife, says she always desired a family, not just a relationship with him. She shared on the September 28th episode that she had received marriage proposals before – not formal proposals with a ring, but several men had told her they would marry her quickly if she’d have them.
She consistently stated she was open to the idea of plural marriage, saying something along the lines of, “I would have said yes to living in a plural marriage.” She added that if Kody hadn’t already been married with three wives, she would have given him the same answer.
Kody explained that, despite not planning to be exclusive, he and his partner had unintentionally become a monogamous couple, playfully declaring, “It’s just you and me now.”
Though he admittedly had one concern.
As someone who studies relationships, I’ve seen a lot of different dynamics, and Kody Brown’s perspective is… interesting. He recently shared with Robyn that he feels a core difference between polygamy and monogamy is about fulfillment. He believes a man in a polygamous relationship gets more of what he needs, while someone in a traditional, one-partner relationship often feels like something is missing. It really boils down to his feeling that his lifestyle offers a greater sense of satisfaction, particularly when it comes to intimacy.
Meri is actively dating and has a clear idea of what she wants in a partner. She’s looking for a tall man who loves to travel and, crucially, prefers dogs over cats, as she shared on the October 5th episode.
And she definitely needs someone who won’t scare easily.
She described a difficult dating experience where a man ended their conversation as soon as he learned she practiced polygamy. He told her he wasn’t interested in continuing the conversation, and she felt very hurt by his immediate rejection simply because of her relationship style. She wondered why he would dismiss her so quickly based on that alone.
Meri explained that it was the first time she truly understood that some people wouldn’t even bother talking to her because of who she was.
Honestly, I always got the feeling Janelle was the only one of her family who really wanted to get that land on Coyote Pass. It felt like a personal dream for her, and the rest were just along for the ride.
On the October 3rd episode, Janelle revealed she wasn’t sure she ever truly wanted the whole family to live on their 14-acre property, Coyote Pass, which they bought before moving to Flagstaff, Arizona in 2018. She was discussing the disagreements the family had about the land.
Although Kody’s second wife thought living there could work – she said it was a nice property and worth considering – she believed her ex-husband and his other wives were only briefly interested in the idea.
She explained that no one was keen on living there, especially not Christine. Meri would have agreed to move if everyone else had been willing.
Janelle observed that Kody and Robyn’s former property, a five-bedroom house on two acres that they recently sold for $1.7 million, felt unfinished despite being mostly built.
Despite their initial agreement to divide the land into four pieces, Janelle quickly realized it wasn’t going to work after they moved to Flagstaff. She said, “I knew very soon after moving here that it wouldn’t happen.”
Kody believes he knows why his relationships with most of his adult children – excluding Robyn’s oldest kids, Dayton, Aurora, and Breanna – aren’t very good.
He admitted on October 5th that he feels distant from his grown children. He explained the relationships are difficult because of constant teasing and subtle jabs, which have created problems with trust and loyalty for everyone involved.
And these days, not many of his grown kids are on Team Kody.
Even though Mykelti Padron, one of Christine’s six children, had seemed the most publicly supportive of her father, she shared her thoughts on the family split several months after she, her husband Tony Padron, and their three children moved to North Carolina.
She believes that if he simply took responsibility for his actions, at least some of his children might try to reconnect with him. During a fan Q&A in October 2024, shared on Instagram (@withoutacrystalball), she explained that instead of blaming his children, his other wife, their parents, or rumors, a simple apology and willingness to discuss his mistakes – like saying, ‘I understand I messed up. I’m sorry. Can we talk?’ – would make a huge difference.
When Coyote Pass was sold in April 2025, Janelle and Meri finalized their separation from Kody and received a financial benefit from the sale. Christine had previously traded her share of the land to keep the money from selling her house in Arizona.
On the October 5th episode, Janelle playfully told Meri it felt like saying, “Goodbye, and I don’t expect to see you again.”
But she certainly wouldn’t have waved off an even nicer present.
She stated that if she had been legally married to Kody, she would have rightfully claimed half of his possessions, as they would have been considered jointly owned.
Kody and Robyn had to finalize the purchase of their new $2.1 million home before they could give up on their plans for Coyote Pass. Kody explained on the October 12th episode that selling Coyote Pass only became possible when they found a different house they preferred. After months of discussions with his former wives about selling the large property, they were finally able to move forward.
The father of 18 children is also looking forward to leaving behind the painful memories associated with their old house. He explained, “We’ve gone through a lot of difficult times here, and we’re hoping for a fresh start – a completely new chapter in our lives.”
Kody believed that loving multiple wives should mean his love simply expanded, but in reality, he didn’t give each wife equal attention. As he explained on the October 19th episode of the show, he struggled to fully commit to each individual wife, and he also felt they weren’t fully committed to him or to each other as a unified family.
Looking back, he believes one of his mistakes was giving Robyn a lavish lifestyle – a $1.65 million, five-bedroom house – while his other wives had more modest living arrangements. He admitted he doesn’t understand why his marriages to Meri, Janelle, and Christine ended, but he thinks providing Robyn with such a nice home created jealousy and resentment. He felt he had gone to great lengths to ensure Robyn’s security, and his other wives struggled with that disparity.
Christine found it difficult to relax around Kody. As she explained on the October 26th episode, he was a very demanding husband with many specific needs and preferences – from what he ate to how he groomed himself.
Bottom line, she noted, “It was a lot.”
Honestly, after everything with Kody, I completely understand why Janelle isn’t rushing into anything new. She told Christine and David Woolley that Kody was a lot to handle, and she feels like relationships, in general, are just really challenging. It really resonated with me – she’s so right, and it’s good to see her being honest about how much work it all takes.
She’s really pushing back against David’s suggestion that she join FarmersOnly. She explained to the cameras, saying, “David just doesn’t understand that I’m not interested in dating right now. I keep telling him, ‘No, no, no!'”
Kody was generally careful about remembering which wife he was talking to. As Christine explained on the November 2nd episode, he almost never miscalled them. She described those moments when hearing another wife’s name would be particularly hurtful, saying, ‘That never happened.’
Though there were some close calls.
I often found myself starting arguments,” Kody confessed. “I’ve definitely done that – I’d sometimes initiate a conflict and then quickly change the subject or deflect blame.
To hear Christine tell it, she felt quite stabbed in the kidney by her former sister wife.
Honestly, dealing with Robyn has been really tough for me. I shared some personal things with her, thinking it would stay between us, but it ended up causing problems with Kody and making things worse for me. It completely eroded my trust, and I just couldn’t confide in her anymore. It’s a really painful situation, but I had to protect myself.
But Robyn insisted she was just trying to play marriage counselor.
Oh my gosh, Christine used to tell me exactly what was going on with Kody. She’d be like, ‘I just wish he got it, you know? If only he understood what I was going through!’ And honestly, I was so new to all this, I thought I could somehow fix things, be the one to make him see. Looking back, I was such a fool – I should have just let them work it out themselves. I really should have.
Meri used to be flattered by the idea that Kody favored her among his former wives, but when he tried to chat over video about selling their house in Arizona, she wasn’t interested in being friendly.
Honestly, I’m just as confused about what happened with Meri as everyone else. I remember when we all helped her move to Parowan, Utah – it was a really good time, everyone was getting along and being friendly. But since then, things have just gotten… strange. It’s hard to understand how it went from being so cordial to what it is now.
However, Meri maintained she was only interested in business matters, especially after hearing Kody’s comments in earlier seasons of the show.
I had to be firm and set clear limits with him,” she said. “It’s frustrating when he acts like everything’s okay on these video calls, being friendly as if nothing happened, especially after some of the hurtful things he’s said about me and my friends. I won’t tolerate that behavior.
Christine happily said yes when David proposed last year, but her ex-husband believes he should have been consulted first.
As you know, things have been changing with my family, and Christine and I’s youngest, Truely, is currently living with David. It just feels right that I get to know him better, given the situation.
In fact, he mused, he “should have had the right, even, to discriminate David.”
Janelle was happy to get her part of Coyote Pass back and wasn’t upset about the money she’d already given to Robyn and Kody for their house in Arizona.
She explained on the November 2nd episode that her children think she should try to recover the money she invested in Robyn’s house, but she anticipates a difficult legal battle to do so.
She explained that trying to get money from Kody is difficult because he always has a long list of excuses for why he doesn’t owe it.
He felt he’d already paid Janelle back for her help with the house. He explained, “Janelle helped Robyn and me buy our home, and I took care of that debt in January.” He recalled that she’d told him shortly after, “We’re even, you’ve more than covered it.”
Should Kody still be interested in having his love multiplied, there’s no shortage of options.
Oh my gosh, you won’t BELIEVE this! I was watching the show, and Kody told Robyn about another email he got – seriously, another one! – from some woman who’s, like, obsessed with the idea of plural marriage. It’s just… constantly happening, and it’s so wild to see how often he deals with that!
He told Robyn that his former wife was upset with his decision to end polygamy. Then, surprisingly, she offered to become part of their family, essentially asking if she could join him, Robyn, and their children.
To be honest, Robyn didn’t immediately reject the idea. She later confessed that for a moment, she wondered if it could actually be what she’d always dreamed of, and if it would be a good fit.
Ultimately, though, it was a no.
She was upset they contacted Kody directly. She believes it’s generally considered inappropriate to pursue a man without going through his wives first.
Even though Kody now admits his strained relationship with his child is a major family issue, he needs to make significant changes to improve things.
On the November 9th episode of the show, Janelle revealed that Maddie didn’t tell her father, Kody, about her fourth pregnancy. Janelle explained that there was no need to inform him, as they hadn’t spoken in two or three years. She added that he would eventually find out.
Janelle didn’t just want a relationship with Kody; she wanted to be part of the whole family. Meri recalled that when Janelle married Kody three years into his marriage with Meri—and after a short marriage to Meri’s brother—Janelle seemed very considerate. “She always seemed to try and include me and avoid hurting my feelings,” Meri shared.
Meri admitted that she felt jealous and confused as they navigated the challenges of adding another wife. She also said it made her feel cherished that her husband was willing to work through those difficulties with her.
Meri is known for speaking her mind, but things became difficult when her family decided to sell Coyote Pass – the 14-acre property they bought after relocating to Arizona.
During the November 16th show, Meri said the main problem seemed to be properly listing everyone’s names on the property documents. She added that she didn’t understand why the paperwork couldn’t have simply been signed and finalized.
She was also puzzled by another of Kody’s moves.
She explained, clearly upset, that he was blaming her for the delays, claiming she was the cause of the problem. She clarified that the real issue was their insistence on her signing a confidentiality agreement, which she refused to do. She questioned their motives, asking why they were trying to prevent her from speaking openly about the situation.
To hear Robyn tell it, though, their discussions were nothing to howl about.
“Meri and I have always been able to talk pretty frankly with each other,” she explained. “I was really just trying to find out what she needed and it really, like my intention is always in her best interest.”
Christine says having more money has actually made life easier. As a mother of six, she clearly remembers the stress of not having enough money for even basic groceries.
She explained that it’s really awkward when you get to the cashier and discover you’ve spent more money than you have. You might be able to pay with a check, but it would likely bounce, forcing you to return some items.
Other times they had to walk back plans to pay for certain essentials.
Meri explained that they used to have regular meetings – either weekly or monthly – to decide which bill was the most urgent to pay.
Robyn was determined to ensure everyone received a fair share when it came time to sell Coyote Pass. On the November 23rd episode, she explained that she wanted to make sure Kody, Janelle, and Meri each received a quarter of the profits, and she didn’t hesitate to strongly advocate for this, even having several disagreements with Kody about it.
Ultimately, Kody explained that when the 14-acre property was sold in April 2025, they decided to simply divide the proceeds equally – giving each person 25 percent.
Janelle didn’t explicitly say Kody had a mid-life crisis, but she mentioned on the November 23rd episode that his behavior changed after he turned a significant age.
By the time Kody turned 50, he was married to Robyn, his fourth wife, and started complaining about the burden of supporting the entire family. Janelle explained that he seemed to believe Robyn was his true soulmate and that juggling four wives was simply too much for him.
But Kody took issue with the idea that he didn’t put in the work.
He firmly stated that he’d always fulfilled his duties within the family. He felt he consistently went above and beyond, but didn’t receive the same level of commitment in return from other family members.
He joked that dealing with his three divorces felt like everyone was going through menopause at the same time. He explained it by saying men can experience hormonal changes too, and he likely lost motivation because his testosterone levels dropped and he wasn’t up for the challenges anymore.
When Janelle Brown’s mother, Sheryl Usher, first discovered her daughter was considering plural marriage, she initially tried to intervene. Janelle explained that her mom “came to save me from the polygamists” because she didn’t want her daughter involved in what she considered a dangerous group. However, in a surprising turn of events, Sheryl ended up marrying Kody Brown’s father, Winn Brown, just three months before Janelle and Kody tied the knot in October 1992.
Their marriage definitely made the family relationships more complex. Janelle admitted she initially thought it would be difficult to understand, but she accepted it. It felt strange at first, but she ultimately felt good about having another person to share things with.
Ysabel Brown says she wishes she’d had more one-on-one time with her father, Kody. On a recent episode of the show, she explained that she and her dad aren’t particularly close.
Ysabel explained that her mom is wonderful at being both a mother and a father, and her stepdad, David, is also great.
Despite their difficulties, Ysabel didn’t say her relationship with Kody was broken. “He’s still my dad, and I love him,” she explained.
Though Janelle still feels the family had something special, that spark wasn’t apparent early on.
Janelle felt hurt that her first husband, Meri, didn’t always support her, often siding with others instead. Combined with existing issues like jealousy and insecurity they were trying to overcome, it created a difficult situation in their relationship.
Janelle Brown became pregnant with her first child, Logan, less than a year after marrying Kody, and around the time he was frequently traveling for work. She recalls that his absences meant she had to focus on maintaining harmony and, in the process, she felt she lost touch with who she was.
If Kody wants to have a good relationship with Meri after their split, he needs to get along with her friends. He helped her move after they separated, hoping they could remain amicable – as he explained on a recent episode, they agreed to be kind to each other. However, he was disappointed to find her friends were openly critical of him.
He explained that he confronted her aggressively over the phone, telling her to make her friends stop talking. He admits he scolded her friends, and believes she was deeply hurt by it.
Kody explained that conversations with his ex-wife often quickly turned into arguments. He said they were unable to have calm discussions during their marriage and that if they want to have any kind of connection going forward, they’ll need to learn to manage their volatile interactions.
Even though Christine and Kody are no longer married, they’ll remain family due to their surprising genetic connection. As Christine revealed on December 28th, they are actually third cousins once removed, making their familial tie official.
Janelle explained that the distant family connection became a running joke. “It’s almost absurd how distantly related they are,” she said. “This kind of thing seems to happen often in polygamous families.” While they weren’t close enough to see each other at gatherings, they always playfully referred to each other as cousins, simply because it’s a small, interconnected community.
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2026-02-02 07:23