The current season of the long-running reality series Sister Wives is easily the most dramatic yet. Season 17 ended with the shock twist of Christine Brown departing from the family home in Flagstaff, Arizona, after deciding to end her marriage to Kody Brown, after over thirty years of marriage. Season 18 deals with the fallout from this loss, as well as Kody’s troubled remaining relationships.
Those up-to-date with the world of Sister Wives will be aware that Kody Brown has involuntarily stopped practicing polygamy. Over the course of just above a year, the reality TV star has dropped down from four wives to just one — despite all three of his former marriages starting in the early 1990s. Christine (married 1994) announced that she and Kody were no longer together in November 2021. Just over a year later, Janelle (married 1993) separated from Kody in December 2022. Just weeks later, Meri (married 1990) announced in January 2023 that she had dissolved her union with Kody. That’s quite the domino effect in such a short span of time.
It should be noted that all three of Kody’s now ex-wives were not legally married to him at the time of their divorce. Due to bigamy laws in the U.S., something that was tightened across the Brown family’s home states of Utah and Nevada during the course of Sister Wives, Kody has only been able to legally marry one of his wives at a time. The rest are described on the show as “spiritual” unions, recognized and blessed by the Church of Latter-Day Saints, as polygamy is a prominent part of many sects of the Mormon faith. As of October 2023, Kody is still with his sole legal wife, Robyn Brown.
Still, Kody’s separations were described, both by the Brown family and in news reports, as divorces. As shown in the latest season of Sister Wives, Christine’s split from Kody in the previous season is frequently referred to as a divorce, and they have reunited to discuss their post-divorce living arrangements. In addition, the current storyline over the breakdown of Kody’s marriage to Janelle is portrayed as a decision over whether or not the two should divorce.
Wait, how did Kody Brown divorce his wives if they weren’t legally married?
Given that all three of Kody Brown’s now-former marriages were not legally binding, the Brown family would not have had to go through any formal divorce proceedings that the average monogamous person would be forced to engage with. However, there were likely some legal agreements, such as the sale of the property that belonged to Kody’s former wives on their joint land, as well as custody agreements over their younger children. Last year, Christine sold her share of the “Coyote Pass” property back to the Browns.
Long-time viewers of Sister Wives will remember that Meri Brown was legally married from 1990 to 2010, before legally divorcing during season one. However, the couple stayed together as husband and wife, with the divorce occurring in order to allow Kody to marry Robyn Brown, the newest wife to be introduced into the polygamist family, and adopt her children from her previous marriage. Aside from legal divorce proceedings, there was probably little change to Meri and Kody’s everyday lives as a result of the end of their marriage in the eyes of the law.
Speaking after their separations from Kody, Janelle, and Christine Brown did a joint interview with People about their lives after polygamy. When asked about how they identified themselves and their separation, Janelle explained that she does not like the term “divorced,” preferring to say “I’m no longer with my partner,” or that she and Kody “split up.”
Christine revealed that “I say I’m straight up divorced”, in contrast to Janelle’s personal view on the end of her marriage. “I love that title. I LOVE saying I’m divorced!”
This week, Kody Brown claimed that his separation process from Meri brown started nearly a decade ago. “We started a breakup seven years ago and have been going through just a process of trying to figure out what to do,” Kody told US Weekly, describing his current family situation as a “civil war.”
Meri has not commented on Kody’s claims about their split. Still, given the dynamic of Kody’s relationships with his now ex-wives on recent seasons of Sister Wives, this story probably has two sides.