The Sister Wives family was a little confusing, even before all the shuffling around they have been doing lately. Now between figuring out who is legally married to whom, who is now spiritually divorced, and which wives are talking to which other wives it is pure chaos. So we have decided to break it all down for you.
We will go through the Sister Wives family(or what’s left of it) person by person, to sum up, who is talking to who, who is married to whom, and who is no longer part of the madness at all.
Christine Brown
Christine Brown was the third wife to join the family and the first one to leave it. She was married to Kody for 26 years and they have six kids together. Kody and Christine were “spiritually married” as polygamy is technically illegal. Therefore, the husband generally only legally marries the first wife and enters into “spiritual unions” with the other wives. If they want to get divorced or separated they are supposed to gain permission from their church and go through a sort of ceremony.
However, since Christine left the family church some years before, she was able to simply separate or “divorce” Kody when she was ready to leave. She moved back to Utah to be closer to her adult children and she and Kody are working out visitation with their 12-year-old daughter Truely. So Christine is no longer spiritually or otherwise, in a relationship with Kody.
Christine’s relationship with her former sister wives is mixed. She is very close with Janelle Brown, Kody’s second wife, and her children. Christine is not on good terms with the other wives, Meri or Robyn, Kody’s first and fourth wives. She has stated in interviews that she feels a relationship with Meri is no longer “emotionally safe.” She felt that Meri would often publicly humiliate her and call her out on things. She felt that Meri would be nice to her “for a while” but that eventually, the “other side” of Meri would always come out.
As for her relationship with Robyn, while they might not have ever been exactly best friends, the pandemic really brought the tensions in their relationship to a head. Christine felt Kody favored Robyn as a “favorite wife” and found it absurd that Kody could not see his children with Christine due to Covid restrictions but that Robyn was allowed to have an outside nanny. The rift only grew deeper throughout the pandemic and when asked by Robyn how Christine wanted the relationships to look following the divorce, she stated she wanted to stay close with the people she was already close with aka Janelle and she wanted “space” from the others aka Meri and Robyn.
Christine currently has her own spinoff cooking show Just Christine, is currently dating again and feels she will never enter a polygamous relationship again. She is currently in Utah living her “best life.”
Janelle Brown
Janelle Brown is Kody Brown’s second wife. They have been married for almost thirty years and share six children together. They are now officially separated. As they are spiritually married they are able to be spiritually separated without any legal hassles.
Janelle and Kody had a fairly stable relationship prior to the Covid chaos, during which Janelle balked at what she felt were Kody’s overly restrictive regulations. They also began to butt heads over their two older sons, Gabriel and Garrison who Kody felt weren’t following the rules and should therefore move out of Janelle’s home.
Kody and his sons had several disagreements followed by a falling out. After the falling out Kody told Janelle that in order for them to come to Thanksgiving they would have to apologize to both him and Robyn. Janelle obviously did not agree and tensions between the two continued to rise.
The couple had also already been living separately with Janelle moving into the RV on the property and then into a small apartment in town. So the official separation was no big surprise to fans.
Janelle is on fairly good terms with all the sister wives. She and Christine are the closest and while Janelle has her suspicions about Robyn’s genuineness she is not openly hostile toward her. She and Meri are civil also although not particularly close.
Robyn Brown
Robyn Brown is Kody’s fourth and only legal wife and they have been married for ten years. The couple has two biological children together. Robyn was previously married in a monogamous relationship and had three children with that husband before subsequently getting a divorce. She is fairly tight-lipped about the situation other than to say that the children had to come first and there was a “bullying” situation between the father and the kids. It was so bad in fact, that the father had no visitation or legal rights to the children.
In fact, according to Kody that was what prompted him to legally marry Robyn, so that he could legally adopt Robyn’s children from her first marriage. So he legally divorced Meri and legally married Robyn. Although there seemed to be a legitimate reason to do so, many of the other wives and fans thought it was at least in part because Kody favors Robyn and would rather be legally married to her than Meri.
Robyn’s relationship with the other Sister Wives is somewhat strained. When Christine left the family she and Robyn were not on the best of terms and hadn’t been for years. When asked Christine admitted she would prefer to only stay close to the people she was close to and “have space” from the others, meaning Robyn and Meri.
Robyn and Janelle are civil to each other but not particularly close and tensions have definitely been on the rise since Kody issued the Thanksgiving ultimatum that he and Janelle’s sons either apologize to Robyn or they are no longer invited to any family functions. Yikes. Robyn and Meri are reportedly close although their individual relationships with Kody are vastly different.
Meri Brown
Meri is Kody’s first and previously legal wife. Kody and Meri have been married for 32 years and share one now adult daughter together. The two legally divorced so that Kody could marry Robyn in order to adopt her children from her first marriage.
Kody and Meri’s relationship has been on the rocks for years but things really took a turn for the worst following Meri’s catfishing incident. As Kody and Meri’s relationship declined Meri went looking for love elsewhere, which turned out to be in all the wrong places. She got caught up in an online romance that turned out to be nothing more than a scam when she realized the man she had been talking to, was actually a woman and a con artist. The scandal rocked the Sister Wives family as the catfisher revealed intimate details of the family disclosed to her by Meri.
While Meri apologized for the indiscretion, her relationship with Kody never really recovered. Kody admitted during an interview that he did not consider himself in a relationship with Meri and that if she wanted to “go and marry another” she would not get any objection from him. Meri recently revealed during her own shocking interview that she and Kody’s marriage was over and that he had “made the decision.” Meri went on to say the marriage had been over for a while and that he had simply not disclosed it to the public.
Meri is on civil terms with her former sister wife Janelle, is close to Robyn, and is estranged from Christine.
Kody Brown
Kody, the leader of the Sister Wives clan is now a monogamous man, technically anyway. He initially, as is the norm for polygamous families, legally married his first wife Meri and entered into what is called “spiritual unions” with the others. Then however when Robyn joined the family, he divorced Meri and legally married Robyn, in order to be able to adopt her children from a previous marriage.
So, — if you are keeping track — Kody is now only legally or otherwise, married to his fourth wife Robyn. He and Christine are spiritually divorced, and he and Janelle and Meri are now spiritually separated. He has been married a total of 30-plus years to various women along the way.
His relationship with Christine is estranged, his relationship with Meri is civil but distant, and his relationship with Janelle remains to be seen. He and Robyn seem to be the only couple on good terms, although Robyn claims his strained relationships with the other wives have affected theirs negatively as well.
Kody’s relationship with his children has also been in decline over the past few seasons with Covid really driving a wedge between some of them, especially his and Janelle’s two oldest sons Gabriel and Garrison.
The new Sister Wives family is starting to look quite different than the original crew. Many of the children grew up and moved away, and three of the original wives left or were in the process of doing so. America’s favorite polygamist family is starting to look a lot more monogamous these days. It is unclear how much longer the show will go on with only one wife left remaining, and not exactly a fan-favorite one at that. Hopefully, this loveable but chaotic crew will find a way to continue telling their story however splintered, as the show rounds into its 18th season.
