Sharing her truth. Mariah Brown of Sister Wives gets emotional while discussing her sexuality and her family upbringing in a new exclusive sneak peek of the TLC series.
In a clip from the show’s new episode airing on Sunday, March 15, Brown chokes up while discussing intimate details from her personal life. All the while, the reality star received support from her fiancée, Audrey Kriss.
“In my teens, I felt very devoted to the church that I was raised in,” Brown, 24, begins. “I wanted to live polygamy. I think it was a way to protect myself from, like, coming out to myself, really.”
Now crying, Brown continues, “I’m very grateful [for] the way my parents raised me. I’m very grateful for my upbringing and at the same time, it was very painful. And it was really hard for me to, like, be gay and be religous at the same time.”
Brown admits that she’s often “considered many times” how different her life would be if her family hadn’t moved to Las Vegas. “My guess is what would happen is I would get married to a man with a few wives, be there a few years, hate my life and eventually leave,” she therorizes.
Brown then opens up about her experience revealing her sexuality to her father, Kody Brown, and how he reacted. “Right after I came out, my dad, he told me this before but he reiterated to me that he had a conversation with God many years ago and God said, ‘You love, I judge,’” she recalls. “And so all dad did was love. That’s all he does with everybody.”
Mariah continues, “Religious institutions are spaces where there’s rules and if you are not following these rules or guidelines, you can feel pretty marginalized and I did feel that way with my church. But with my family, I found so much comfort and they love me anyway. They love me and they love Audrey, and they love our love.”
Mariah, who is also the daughter of Meri Brown, came out to her family during a July 2017 episode of Sister Wives. At the time, the then-21-year-old received warm reactions from her loved ones and fans of the show.
Since sharing her truth, Mariah went on to propose to Audrey at the Women’s March in Washington, D.C.
Sister Wives airs on TLC Sundays at 10 p.m. ET.
