‘Sister Wives’ Recap: Kody Brown Doesn’t ‘Consider’ Himself Married to Meri Amid Christine Split, Compares ‘Unraveling’ Romances

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‘Sister Wives’ Recap: Kody Brown Doesn't ‘Consider’ Himself Married to Meri Amid Christine Split, Compares 'Unraveling' Romances

A tangled web. Kody Brown got real about his “unraveling” relationship with Meri Brown on the latest Sister Wives episode — comparing it to the “sudden” split from Christine Brown. “I want to work on the relationship, but Kody has basically said that he doesn’t. Does that mean we’re just not married anymore?” Meri, 51, asked during the Sunday, November 6, episode of the TLC series while reflecting on Christine’s choice to leave the family. “That’s not how I consider it.” Kody, meanwhile, confessed to the cameras, “I don’t really consider myself married to Meri.” Meri and Kody tied the knot in 1990. The Wyoming native went on to spiritually marry Janelle Brown in 1993 and Christine, 50, the following year. Robyn Brown joined the family in 2010 and four years later, Meri and Kody’s romance faced a major shakeup. Kody legally divorced his first wife in 2014 to marry Robyn, 43, and adopt her three children from a prior union. Meri and Kody’s relationship has since faced many more ups and downs — and following her mom’s death in 2021, Meri appeared to be spending more time away from her spouse while running her Utah bed and breakfast. “If she wanted to move on and marry another, she wouldn’t get an argument with me,” Kody revealed during Sunday’s episode when speaking about Meri. He later told the cameras: “Meri’s relationship with the family is a strained one. There’s a whole history of struggle. From the very beginning.” [jwplayer uW7ymFsb-zhNYySv2] The father of 18 further explained, “The difference between me and Christine and me and Meri is that Meri and I have been unraveling our relationship for years. Christine found out that she would never be happy married to me, but her leaving was so sudden that I — it wasn’t unraveled for me. It was like I was being kicked to the curb.” Christine, who announced her split from Kody in November 2021, hinted during the latest TLC episode that her exit from their plural family was partially because of how her ex catered more to his fourth wife. “By leaving Kody and leaving the family and moving I’m really changing the dynamic,” she said during a confessional. “When I tell you that keeps me up at night, believe me that keeps me up at night.” Ultimately, Christine revealed that she had a “clear conscience knowing I gave it my best.” She added: “Being a mom is my most important thing. But I couldn’t with a clear conscience stay married to someone who had favorites and made it very known. And someone who was breaking my kids’ hearts. I needed to stand with them instead. And I wanted to do it for them.” Kody challenged Christine's — and the other wives' — claims that Robyn has the best relationship with him. “It’s much for nuanced than just to say, Kody favors Robyn. That’s not even a cool statement,” he admitted. “It’s that she communicates and her children communicate. They involve me.” Sister Wives airs on TLC Sundays at 10 p.m. ET. Scroll down to see the biggest highlights from Sister Wives season 17, episode 9:

Credit: Puddle Monkey Prods/Kobal/Shutterstock

‘Sister Wives’ Recap: Kody Brown Doesn't ‘Consider’ Himself Married to Meri Amid Christine Split, Compares 'Unraveling' Romances

A tangled web. Kody Brown got real about his “unraveling” relationship with Meri Brown on the latest Sister Wives episode — comparing it to the “sudden” split from Christine Brown. “I want to work on the relationship, but Kody has basically said that he doesn’t. Does that mean we’re just not married anymore?” Meri, 51, asked during the Sunday, November 6, episode of the TLC series while reflecting on Christine’s choice to leave the family. “That’s not how I consider it.” Kody, meanwhile, confessed to the cameras, “I don’t really consider myself married to Meri.” Meri and Kody tied the knot in 1990. The Wyoming native went on to spiritually marry Janelle Brown in 1993 and Christine, 50, the following year. Robyn Brown joined the family in 2010 and four years later, Meri and Kody’s romance faced a major shakeup. Kody legally divorced his first wife in 2014 to marry Robyn, 43, and adopt her three children from a prior union. Meri and Kody’s relationship has since faced many more ups and downs — and following her mom’s death in 2021, Meri appeared to be spending more time away from her spouse while running her Utah bed and breakfast. “If she wanted to move on and marry another, she wouldn’t get an argument with me,” Kody revealed during Sunday’s episode when speaking about Meri. He later told the cameras: “Meri’s relationship with the family is a strained one. There’s a whole history of struggle. From the very beginning.” [jwplayer uW7ymFsb-zhNYySv2] The father of 18 further explained, “The difference between me and Christine and me and Meri is that Meri and I have been unraveling our relationship for years. Christine found out that she would never be happy married to me, but her leaving was so sudden that I — it wasn’t unraveled for me. It was like I was being kicked to the curb.” Christine, who announced her split from Kody in November 2021, hinted during the latest TLC episode that her exit from their plural family was partially because of how her ex catered more to his fourth wife. “By leaving Kody and leaving the family and moving I’m really changing the dynamic,” she said during a confessional. “When I tell you that keeps me up at night, believe me that keeps me up at night.” Ultimately, Christine revealed that she had a “clear conscience knowing I gave it my best.” She added: “Being a mom is my most important thing. But I couldn’t with a clear conscience stay married to someone who had favorites and made it very known. And someone who was breaking my kids’ hearts. I needed to stand with them instead. And I wanted to do it for them.” Kody challenged Christine's — and the other wives' — claims that Robyn has the best relationship with him. “It’s much for nuanced than just to say, Kody favors Robyn. That’s not even a cool statement,” he admitted. “It’s that she communicates and her children communicate. They involve me.” Sister Wives airs on TLC Sundays at 10 p.m. ET. Scroll down to see the biggest highlights from Sister Wives season 17, episode 9:

Credit: Courtesy of Ysabel Brown/Instagram

Ysabel Sounds Off on Mom Christine’s ‘Emotional’ Year

“Both Ysabel and Truely are really protective of me,” Christine said after moving her 19-year-old daughter to North Carolina. “There’s nothing that can prepare you to say goodbye. I’m not ready to have her go.”

Ysabel, for her part, revealed how hard it was living with her mom amid her split from dad Kody. “That last year, like, I obviously have been very emotional. Everything was changing. Then like mom and dad’s divorce. She’s been going through a hard time,” the teen explained. “I think that she depended on me. I think it got quite heavy in the house.”

She continued: “I think it’s hard for a young kid to see their mom in such a sad state. It was really hard living at home the last year. It’s good for her to be able to live with herself. And also for me to not need her anymore.”

Ysabel confessed that it’s “hard for a kid to not be able to see a functional relationship between their parents,” noting she hadn’t seen the whole group together since her graduation two months prior. “I’m excited to see a healthy relationship between Maddie and Caleb [Brush],” she added, referring to Janelle’s 26-year-old daughter and her husband, whom she is staying with while attending college.

Credit: Courtesy of Christine Brown/Instagram

Truely and Christine Are Moving In a Week

“Is she still sad we’re moving? Yeah,” Christine said of her and Kody’s youngest child, Truely, ahead of their move to Utah. “She has the best outlook she can have. She’s just chosen to accept it and be OK with it but that’s all.”

During the episode, the mother of six revealed that she sold her Arizona house and was therefore leaving town the following week — something she had yet to tell her fellow sister wives. “I don’t know how Kody feels. He can live his own life and I’m not going to question him on his choices,” she continued. “Yes, I’m taking Truely. But I’ll bring her back.”

Kody, meanwhile, confessed that he didn’t “want to go over to Christine’s house” after she returned from moving Ysabel, but he did want to see Truely, 12.

Amid her ups and downs with Kody, Christine gushed over the next steps of her life to the cameras. “Everything that I’ve been working toward is happening now,” she explained, before pointing out that big changes were on the horizon. “I’ve been married, gosh, how what, 27 years? I’m 49 and I’m starting over again. I do know I’m moving toward something better. And that’s enough most of the time.”

The Utah native revealed that she hoped her sister wives would “listen” to where she was coming from ahead of the relocation. “I am leaving in a week and I just hope they don’t hate me,” Christine added.

Credit: TLC (2)

Are Christine and Kody Officially Divorced?

The patriarch confessed that it was “a little bit [of] news to me” when Truely informed Kody that he and Christine were “just divorced” after her mom told her the actual split was complete.

“We never went to our church leaders,” Kody said of his and Christine's spiritual union during a confessional. “All the sudden it just sank into me that she’s just like, ‘Eh, I’m leaving so we’re divorced.’” (The duo were spiritually wed in 1994, but have never legally tied the knot.)

Robyn appeared to be equally as confused that Christine just decided that she and Kody were divorced without running it by the higher-ups in their faith. “We’re spiritually married to Kody by our church,” she told the cameras. “Technically from my understanding, until Christine is physical with another man she’s technically not divorced.”

Janelle, however, pointed out that “Christine has left the faith” so there aren’t really any protocols she has to follow to be fully separated from Kody.

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Kody Doesn’t Consider Himself Married to Meri

“I don’t feel jealous of Christine that she’s leaving and I can’t. Because I can. I can do whatever I want,” Meri said, referring to her and Kody’s own issues. “My strength is sticking around and seeing if Kody would be willing to work on our relationship. So I leave that door open, but I’m not pining away for it.”

Meri noted that like Christine, she and Kody are “not legally married,” and despite their ups and downs she feels like “we’re still married.” Her spouse, however, doesn’t see things the same way.

“I don’t believe that we can ever be functional,” he told the cameras, saying he doesn’t “consider” them married. “I don’t believe that I will ever be emotionally safe with her.”

The bed and breakfast owner, for her part, admitted that there was definitely issues throughout their plural family. “We’re not functioning as a family anymore,” Meri said. “We haven’t for a really, really long time. It’s not just Kody and Christine’s relationship that has been an issue. There’s a lot of fractures.”

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The Kids Aren’t a ‘Cohesive’ Unit Anymore

During the family’s sit down, Janelle argued that Christine waiting to leave Kody ultimately helped all of the kids maintain a “cohesive” family unit. Kody, however, chimed in, saying, “They’re not cohesive.”

He argued: “[Meri’s child Leon] is not fitting in well with the family. [Christine’s son] Paedon is not fitting in well with the family. [Robyn’s kids from her first marriage] Dayton, Aurora, Breanna, they don’t fit in well with the rest of the family.”

Kody told the cameras, “Three of Janelle’s kids are close to three of Christine’s and that’s really it.” Janelle, for her part, didn’t listen to her spouse when speaking about the closeness of the kids.

“I think that there’s a lot of potential that they will be [close] through their whole lives. I think those years were valuable. To have those kids be home and have a nuclear family,” she explained to the group. “I can see being grandma to all these babies still regardless of if they’re my biological grandkids. To me, they’re still my grandbabies.”

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Robyn Claims Christine Is Lying About Kody Split Timeline

Christine alleged during a family meeting that the couple’s six children — she also shares daughters Aspyn, 27, Mykelti, 26, and Gwendlyn, 20, with her ex — voiced their concerns over her happiness well before she separated from Kody.

“They saw how separate we’ve been in Flagstaff. They also saw that Kody and I have been struggling for a long time,” she told the group. “The kids were like, ‘It looked like in Vegas that you and dad weren’t very close anymore.’” (The family moved to from Nevada to Arizona in 2018.)

Robyn took issue with that statement, firing back, “In Vegas? That’s a lie. I remember the conversations. I remember what was going on. I remember you guys having fun dates and hearing about that and seeing your guys’ relationship. So either you guys were faking it in front of me … I don’t know.”

The TLC personality was upset about Christine’s claim that Kody and Robyn’s romance was the only one thriving while they were located in Las Vegas, which Christine insisted she never said. “I don’t know exactly why she’s saying that I’m lying. Kody and did struggle in Vegas and my kids did say it,” Christine told the cameras.

Robyn, meanwhile, doubled down on her remarks, revealing in a confessional, “[Christine’s] sitting here saying everyone’s relationships were struggling in Las Vegas and we didn’t have what we had. And that Kody and I were the only ones that were OK. That’s not true.”

Credit: YouTube

Robyn Has a Breakdown

“I’m pretty sure Robyn maybe misunderstood something that Christine said,” Meri said after Robyn started to get choked up about Christine allegedly claiming only Robyn and Kody were on good terms when the family lived in Nevada. “It sounded to me like she was quoting questions that she had been asked. And I think Robyn took it that it was just about her and Kody.”

Robyn continued to claim that she had “no idea” that Christine and Kody were struggling in Vegas, but Janelle argued that she just might have missed the signs.

“I have seen that Christine and Kody have been in a really bad spot for a long time,” Janelle said in a confessional. “But it almost feels like they’re trying to invalidate Christine. Just tell her that she’s being crazy and she’s doing it on a whim.”

Christine, meanwhile, tried to explain to Robyn that while she and Kody did have “more realistic conversations” over the past year, they couldn’t fix their marriage.

“Whatever. Don’t try to lump all the other relationships into it,” Robyn fired back, claiming that Christine said “in Vegas the only people that were close was us [me and Kody]. That’s what I heard and that’s why I’m getting frustrated.”

Christine, however, denied that she ever said anything like that. “I’m sorry if that was ever — I never meant that in Vegas. Kody and I were struggling in Vegas,” she clarified. Robyn later told the cameras, “I do not know how I got that out of what she said,” admitting she misunderstood the whole conversation.