In a 14-month span, Sister Wives star Kody Brown has gone down from four marriages to just one, making him as monogamous as the average American. Christine Brown was the first to leave the polygamist Brown family sect in late 2021, followed by Janelle Brown a year later. Most recently, Meri Brown announced her separation from Kody at the beginning of 2023.
Reflecting on his recent divorces in an interview with People, Kody has opened up about a tough two years. Kody claims that his relationship with his three ex-wives, who he had been married to since the early 1990s, became troubled when “trust started to erode in the family”.
“I felt like I became cynical about the future and I just couldn’t see it. It’s very complicated and nuanced relationships and there’s so many different angles with the different people of these iterations, It was challenging and it was sad. The unraveling of our family was just me in that leadership position stopped seeing the optimistic future.” Brown recalled.
When did he realize things had gone too far? According to the Brown family patriarch, it was when Christine left, calling the event “a wake-up call”.
“I wasn’t managing it right,” Kody said. “I was saying to Janelle, ‘We got to have a better relationship. We got to dig into this.’ But I wasn’t feeling compassionate and loving and stuff like that.”
Seeing as Christine was the first wife to leave out of three (so far), it seems that Kody did not change his behavior as a husband, as the sister wives all left in swift succession. So what lies in the future for ex-polygamist?
“I feel like I’ve hit the bottom in a deep, deep swimming pool and I’ve pushed off the bottom and I’m headed to the surface,” Kody said. “That’s the optimism of today. Hoping that we move forward with a lot of forgiveness and finding that place where love and grace prevail again. I feel like my confidence is coming back.”