‘Sister Wives’ Recap: Meri Brown Claims Kody Didn’t ‘Care Enough’ to ‘Fight’ for Her or Christine, Wives Grieve Plural Family

Credit: Puddle Monkey Prods/Kobal/Shutterstock

‘Sister Wives’ Recap: Meri Brown Claims Kody Didn’t ‘Care Enough’ to ‘Fight’ for Her or Christine, Wives Grieve Plural Family

Family breakdown. Meri Brown didn’t hold back about her feelings toward Kody Brown — and former sister wife Christine Brown — in the latest episode of Sister Wives. “Obviously you don’t care enough to fight for her,” Meri, 51, said on the Sunday, October 30, episode of the TLC series of Kody’s choice to let Christine, 50, leave him and the family. “Obviously, you didn’t care enough to fight for me. I don’t understand that.” While Christine is the first of Kody’s wives to exit their plural marriage, she is not the first wife to express frustration with her and the Wyoming native’s relationship. Meri, who married Kody, 53, in 1990, has had a rocky romance with her spouse for years. “I’ve been in the same situation with Kody in the past. I knew what I needed from Kody and I wasn’t getting it,” Meri recalled during the episode. “Kody was very, very distant with me. I asked him to just not stay there for a little bit. He has interpreted that as I kicked him out and he’s never come back.” Christine, for her part, commented on Meri and Kody’s marital woes while discussing where she moved Kody’s belongings while packing up her Arizona house. “He doesn’t have stuff at Meri’s house. He hasn’t for years. He hasn’t stayed there for years,” she told the cameras. “He can’t have stuff at Janelle’s house because she lives in a little tiny trailer. So he has quadruple what he needs at Robyn’s house.” [jwplayer 0X2LYep1-zhNYySv2] When Christine, who spiritually wed Kody in 1994, announced her split from the patriarch in November 2021, it took Meri and Robyn Brown by surprise. Kody’s second wife, Janelle Brown, was more aware of the situation due to her closeness with Christine. The breakup seemingly brought Meri and Robyn, 43, together after their own ups and downs. (Kody legally divorced Meri in 2014 to legally wed Robyn and adopt her three children from a past marriage.) “I’m just grateful that you’re sticking it out,” Robyn told Meri after commending her for “making it about everybody else” while struggling in her marriage. “Hang on with me, OK? We have to rebuild.” Throughout Sunday’s episode, Meri, Robyn and Kody continued to share their feelings about Christine’s departure. The Cooking With Just Christine star, however, was more focused on selling her Arizona home and her relationship with her and Kody’s six children. “The hardest part of my whole life is that my kids don’t have a great relationship with their dad. He doesn’t even know them,” she confessed during the episode. “You know what’s sad too, is they don’t know how amazing he is either. Kody has this awesome side to him that my kids don’t know and who I feel in love with. Of course, he’s not that person anymore and neither am I.” Sister Wives airs on TLC Sundays at 10 p.m. ET. Scroll down to see the biggest highlights from Sister Wives season 17, episode 8:

Credit: Puddle Monkey Prods/Kobal/Shutterstock

‘Sister Wives’ Recap: Meri Brown Claims Kody Didn’t ‘Care Enough’ to ‘Fight’ for Her or Christine, Wives Grieve Plural Family

Family breakdown. Meri Brown didn’t hold back about her feelings toward Kody Brown — and former sister wife Christine Brown — in the latest episode of Sister Wives. “Obviously you don’t care enough to fight for her,” Meri, 51, said on the Sunday, October 30, episode of the TLC series of Kody’s choice to let Christine, 50, leave him and the family. “Obviously, you didn’t care enough to fight for me. I don’t understand that.” While Christine is the first of Kody’s wives to exit their plural marriage, she is not the first wife to express frustration with her and the Wyoming native’s relationship. Meri, who married Kody, 53, in 1990, has had a rocky romance with her spouse for years. “I’ve been in the same situation with Kody in the past. I knew what I needed from Kody and I wasn’t getting it,” Meri recalled during the episode. “Kody was very, very distant with me. I asked him to just not stay there for a little bit. He has interpreted that as I kicked him out and he’s never come back.” Christine, for her part, commented on Meri and Kody’s marital woes while discussing where she moved Kody’s belongings while packing up her Arizona house. “He doesn’t have stuff at Meri’s house. He hasn’t for years. He hasn’t stayed there for years,” she told the cameras. “He can’t have stuff at Janelle’s house because she lives in a little tiny trailer. So he has quadruple what he needs at Robyn’s house.” [jwplayer 0X2LYep1-zhNYySv2] When Christine, who spiritually wed Kody in 1994, announced her split from the patriarch in November 2021, it took Meri and Robyn Brown by surprise. Kody’s second wife, Janelle Brown, was more aware of the situation due to her closeness with Christine. The breakup seemingly brought Meri and Robyn, 43, together after their own ups and downs. (Kody legally divorced Meri in 2014 to legally wed Robyn and adopt her three children from a past marriage.) “I’m just grateful that you’re sticking it out,” Robyn told Meri after commending her for “making it about everybody else” while struggling in her marriage. “Hang on with me, OK? We have to rebuild.” Throughout Sunday’s episode, Meri, Robyn and Kody continued to share their feelings about Christine’s departure. The Cooking With Just Christine star, however, was more focused on selling her Arizona home and her relationship with her and Kody’s six children. “The hardest part of my whole life is that my kids don’t have a great relationship with their dad. He doesn’t even know them,” she confessed during the episode. “You know what’s sad too, is they don’t know how amazing he is either. Kody has this awesome side to him that my kids don’t know and who I feel in love with. Of course, he’s not that person anymore and neither am I.” Sister Wives airs on TLC Sundays at 10 p.m. ET. Scroll down to see the biggest highlights from Sister Wives season 17, episode 8:

Credit: Courtesy of Christine Brown/Instagram

Property Wars

“I have an emotional attachment to this house. Yes, I do. Listen, I have an emotional attachment to Christine,” Kody said after seeing that Christine had boxed up most of her Arizona pad. “She’s already sold off some of the stuff that is ours.”

While Kody revealed that he thought the exes would split everything 50/50 amid their separation, Christine had her own idea. “My name is on the [Coyote Pass] property, and I also have this house,” she explained to her former spouse. “How about we just cut it and I keep everything from the house and the family keeps everything from the property. I don’t need anything from the property.”

Kody reluctantly agreed to give Christine any profit from the Arizona house sale while keeping the Coyote Pass property in the Brown family. “We’re done. We’re moving forward,” he said in a confessional. “She’s walking away with the money we would have paid off Coyote Pass with.”

Janelle, 53, also weighed in on the situation, saying, “I think it’s fair. This is easy. This is a really clean transaction.”

Credit: Courtesy of Meri Brown/Instagram; Courtesy of Christine Brown/Instagram

Meri Is Taking Christine’s Exit 'Personal'

“Why are you doing this? How are you breaking up our family?” Meri asked while reflecting on Christine’s split bombshell. “I’m just real frustrated. It totally affects us. It’s more about him.

Leon’s mother broke down while thinking about how Christine’s move would affect the greater family. “I’m feeling betrayed. I can’t imagine what Kody’s feeling,” Meri told Robyn of the situation. “It just makes me think was it just all a lie? All those years? She didn’t even talk to me about it.”

Meri later confessed: “I felt like Christine was more than a sister wife. I felt like she was a friend for a lot of years. … “I’m taking it really personal.”

While Meri admitted that Christine “hasn’t seemed happy for a really long time,” she, like, Kody, didn’t understand why she would actually walk away.

“We worked as a family, though dysfunctional, for years,” Kody said during a confessional of the family’s past. “Long before Robyn was here. Struggling through these relationships but we were making it work for the sake of the kids.”

Credit: Shutterstock; Courtesy of Christine Brown/Instagram

Robyn Breaks Down Over Christine and Kody Split

“Why weren’t these two talking it out?” Robyn wondered. “Stay on the couch. Fight for her.”

The Utah native, who shares Solomon, 11, and Ariella, 6, with Kody, revealed that there was a “heavy weight” between the rest of the wives now that their family is “getting messed with.” She added: “It’s so crazy to just sit there and just watch this big bomb going off in my family.”

Robyn also explained how the divorce was driving a wedge between her and Kody. “He’s struggling to trust everyone around him. You have marriages you have to maintain,” she said during a confessional. “He still has to fix them and figure them out and get over his anger. … Or he’s going to ruin every single one of them.”

The TV personality noted that she has “always wanted” Christine to “be happy” but the split was making all of their lives so much harder.

“I refuse to let whatever’s left just go to pieces,” Robyn told Meri. “Hell, if she wanted to stay here and build on the property and date, I would have no problem with that.” She later confessed: “I’ve never struggled with Kody in my marriage as bad as I am right now. I’m at a loss.”

Credit: Courtesy of Meri Brown/Instagram

Meri Is Struggling With Kody Romance

“It’s just so familiar. I’ve seen Kody give up on me and him,” Meri said while holding back tears. “I’ve been in the same situation with Kody in the past. I knew what I needed from Kody and I wasn’t getting it.”

Kody, however, didn’t agree with Meri’s assessment of their current relationship status. “I didn’t give up on me and Meri. It just turned out that the relationship was essentially unstable,” he explained. “It’s not a functional relationship. We can get along, but we can’t be together.”

Meri later confided in Robyn saying that when she’s asked by people why she stays with Kody since they “don’t have a relationship” she has to really think about it. “I pray on it. I always come to peace with it,” she said.

Credit: Courtesy of Ysabel Brown/Instagram

Ysabel Is ‘Sad’ About Her Own Move Amid Parents’ Drama

“I’m excited. I’m nervous. I’m really sad to be leaving dad,” Ysabel, 19, said during a confessional as she packed up her mom’s car for their road trip to North Carolina. “My dad isn’t coming with us. He has children here in Flagstaff.”

While Kody did help his daughter get ready for her move — she is going to live with Janelle’s daughter Maddie and her husband, Caleb, while she attends college — he confessed their bond isn’t great.

“I’m stretched thin. It’s not always an easy connection. I’m reflecting on what could [have] gone differently,” the patriarch explained. “And now Ysabel is moving as far away as she could.”

Ysabel, meanwhile, broke down into tears as she drove away from her family’s Arizona home. “It’s hard leaving not knowing when I’m going to see him again,” she revealed. “Not knowing when I’m going to see him again — is really hard.”

Credit: Courtesy of Christine Brown/Instagram

Christine Is Ready for Fresh Start

“I just wanted to start all over with a bedroom set,” Christine said of selling the bed she shared with Kody. “It was bittersweet. … I don’t want to carry anything that could bring up painful memories with Kody in my next house. I’m not taking toxic with me.”

The Utah native later claimed: “The best years of my life I gave to him and he shrugged his shoulders at me. … What I do know is that I would rather be alone and love myself then to be with someone who doesn’t love me.”

Kody, meanwhile, also opened up about losing his third wife as she prepared to leave town. “I gave Christine the best years of my life too and it hurts to have her try and have me own it,” he said.