The Sister Wives Stars Opened Up About Their Crumbling Relationships
Audiences first fell in love with Sister Wives precisely because it was about polygamists. A man with four wives who all supposedly lived happily together? This had to be seen to be believed! But in the 13 years and 18 seasons the show has been a hit on TLC, things have changed a lot. The biggest wrinkle is that Kody Brown no longer has four wives; he's no longer technically even a polygamist. How does this make all the members of the cast feel? Perhaps understandably, not everybody is over the moon.
First wives club
This is how the relationship status of all the cast members currently shakes out. Kody Brown is the man at the center of the show. In the early seasons of Sister Wives, he was married to Christine, Janelle, Meri, and Robyn Brown.
Christine was the first wife to jump ship, announcing their separation in November 2021. Janelle was next, revealing in December 2022 that she and Kody had decided to part ways. Then, only a month later, Meri confirmed that she and Kody had also split for good. That just left us with Kody and Robyn.
A painful times for the Browns
"It's been painful, a lot of finger-pointing and blame," Kody told People in August 2023. "But you have to hope we still have a friendship in the future. Because we're bound forever through our kids." Oh, yes, the kids.
Kody has a total of 18 kids with his four "wives." For the record, that's one kid with Meri; six kids — and two grandkids — with Janelle; six kids with Christine; and two biological children and three adopted children with Robyn. The oldest Brown offspring is 28 years old, and the youngest is six.
A domino effect
"I could have done a lot better," Kody told People. But whoever is to blame, it certainly doesn't seem like the collapse of three marriages in the space of 14 months could be a mere coincidence.
Yet perhaps there could be a silver lining. "We're all settling into the new path," Janelle said. "There's only possibilities in front of us." And Robyn confessed that she hadn't considered leaving in all the time the others had split. This is Sister Wives, though, so there was always going to be some drama.
The kids love Christine
In September 2023 when Sister Wives returned to the air, the wives were seemingly starting to wonder what effect Christine leaving would have on the whole family. "Christine has left, and so many kids gravitate to her," Meri said to Robyn.
Meri explained that some of the kids seemed to be so close to Christine that they said, "Whatever Christine does for Christmas or Thanksgiving, we'll do that." The wives appeared to be worried that this would lead to tension. And this was not a fact lost on Christine, either.