Despite rather recent comments about having no plans to re-marry, Sister Wives star Kody Brown is now speaking about a potential new relationship with ex-wife Janelle.
Janelle and Kody Brown split in late 2022 after 29 years of marriage. The couple had six children together. Kody’s first ex-wife, Christine, left a year prior, and he split from fellow ex-wife Meri in January 2023. His remaining wife, Robyn Brown, was his only legal wife, the rest being non-marital unions in the eyes of US law.
Speaking on his new life of monogamy, Kody Brown told People on Aug. 16th that he was “pushed” out of polygamy. “The idea of ever marrying again after the experience I’ve had, there’s no reason for me to do that,” Kody said. “I feel like I’ve hit the bottom of a deep swimming pool, but I’ve pushed off and am headed to the surface.”
Kody ended his sentiment on a more optimistic note, but even fans who know him well will be surprised at his apparent U-turn regarding picking up polygamy again. Speaking again to People the following week, Kody opened up about re-igniting his relationship with Janelle as a throuple alongside Robyn.
As part of a major People cover story with Kody and wives of past and present, the Brown family patriarch revealed that he would be “very interested” in getting back together with Janelle, his ex-wife, for almost one year.
“I’m still looking for reconciliation with Janelle. I won’t say she’s been wishy-washy about the departure,” Kody revealed. “But I keep thinking, ‘This isn’t a reason for us to break up. We can work through this. We can find trust again and negotiate an agreement on that trust if we’ll just work on it.’”
Hmm, did he ask Janelle? It seems she has a different view on the matter. In a video interview for the People cover story, Janelle revealed her side of the story.
In the interview, Janelle summarized the relationship as “really hard” and that she clashed with her fellow sister-wife Meri on multiple occasions. While Janelle stated she and Kody had a “great relationship” when it was just the two of them, as Christine put it, they “butted heads” quite frequently.
Janelle revealed that this tension caused her and Kody to separate multiple times, even staying behind when the family moved to Utah. When they did get together, it was “for the sake of the kids” to provide them “stability.”
Janelle said that during the Covid-19 Pandemic, Kody was “funny” about the rules, noting that she sided with seeing her adult children overseeing her husband, which angered him. “That really started to twist our relationship to the point of breaking, and so he started to be away more,” she said. “I thought, ‘Wow, you know, I could do this on my own.'”
Even Kody can admit that should he and Janelle get back together, he would have to change his ways. “I have to find a new normal with Janelle because even if Janelle and I reconcile our marriage, it’s still going to be a new normal because it’s going to be different from where we’ve been before,” he explained to People. “Because how it was working for us didn’t seem like it was quite right. It wasn’t whole.”
Kody explained that he thinks his relationship with Janelle has improved overall since the low point that caused their breakup. He says they are still working things out, but he hopes they can “negotiate [a] reconciliation,” adding that “It’s been a dark time, but I’m moving forward.”
When asked again about the prospect of finding new wives, Kody’s perspective seemed to shift a little from his last statement. “Any effort I would ever think in that direction would need to be put into my relationship with Janelle, and certainly my relationship with Robyn, to maintain that relationship as well,” he said. So, if he marries again, just familiar faces?
On the prospect of re-marrying into polygamy again, Janelle, raised in a polygamist family from childhood, was much more ambiguous. “I’m open to plural marriage, but I don’t know if there’s really a lot of men who can pull it off,” she said in the video interview, laughing with Christine. So perhaps that’s not a no to polygamy, just a no to Kody. Ouch.