Kody Brown and Meri Brown Dish on Their Sex Life, Where They Stand and More in ‘Sister Wives’ Tell-All: Biggest Revelations

Credit: Puddle Monkey Prods/Kobal/Shutterstock

Kody Brown and Meri Brown Dish on Their Sex Life, Where They Stand and More in 'Sister Wives' Tell-All: Biggest Revelations

Not holding back! The Brown family seemed ready to explode when they sat down with Sukanya Krishnan for a three-part tell-all interview detailing where their relationships stand now and more. Kody Brown and his three wives, Meri Brown, Janelle Brown and Robyn Brown, got real about their recent ups and downs during TLC’s Sister Wives: One on One special. The first episode, which aired on Sunday, January 30, included interviews with Kody’s estranged wife, Christine Brown, who announced in November 2021 that she and the Wyoming native, 53, separated after 25 years together. The polygamist family, who are the stars of Sister Wives, discussed a variety of topics throughout the first episode, including whether the coronavirus pandemic played a part in their family's fractured dynamic. “It basically took that rug that we were shoving everything under and just everything was shown,” Robyn, 43, said on the Sunday special. “I’m just like, 'Can we come back from this?' I’m trying. I want to.” Meri, for her part, addressed how her relationship with Kody has shifted over the years after bringing in the three other wives. The California native, 51, was the first to marry Kody in 1990. They welcomed daughter Mariah, now 26, five years later. The patriarch of the family entered a spiritual union with Janelle, 52, in 1993. The couple share six children: sons Logan, 27, Hunter, 24, Robert, 23, and Gabriel, 21, and daughters Maddie, 26, and Savannah, 17. [jwplayer 5qvk2PQQ-zhNYySv2] Kody became spiritually married to Christine, 49, in 1994. The now-estranged duo share six kids: son Paedon, 23 and daughters Aspyn, 26, Mykelti, 25, Gwendlyn, 20, Ysabel, 18, and Truely, 11. Meri’s place within the family shifted once again when Kody divorced her in order to legally marry Robyn in 2014. The pair share two children of their own: Solomon, 10, and Ariella, 6. Robyn is also mother of son David, 21, and daughters Aurora, 18, and Breanna, 16, from a previous relationship. The trio were legally adopted by Kody following his split from Meri. “We were very much in love,” Meri recalled of her early romance with Kody during the tell-all. “When Janelle came into the picture, it was a struggle for me. Of course, there’s jealousy. I didn’t know how to handle it.” She noted that “all three of us had different ideals going into how it would be” in the beginning. Meri confessed that she “had a harder time when Christine came," adding, "It was definitely a roller coaster relationship.” Meri and Kody’s rocky relationship has been a major story line throughout season 16 of the TLC series — and the pair didn’t mince words during their discussions with Krishnan on Sunday. In fact, all of the wives weighed in on Meri’s romance with Kody, in addition to talking about Christine’s exit, COVID-19 drama and more. Scroll down for the biggest revelations from the first episode of Sister Wives: One on One: [podcast_block]

Credit: Puddle Monkey Prods/Kobal/Shutterstock

Kody Brown and Meri Brown Dish on Their Sex Life, Where They Stand and More in 'Sister Wives' Tell-All: Biggest Revelations

Not holding back! The Brown family seemed ready to explode when they sat down with Sukanya Krishnan for a three-part tell-all interview detailing where their relationships stand now and more. Kody Brown and his three wives, Meri Brown, Janelle Brown and Robyn Brown, got real about their recent ups and downs during TLC’s Sister Wives: One on One special. The first episode, which aired on Sunday, January 30, included interviews with Kody’s estranged wife, Christine Brown, who announced in November 2021 that she and the Wyoming native, 53, separated after 25 years together. The polygamist family, who are the stars of Sister Wives, discussed a variety of topics throughout the first episode, including whether the coronavirus pandemic played a part in their family's fractured dynamic. “It basically took that rug that we were shoving everything under and just everything was shown,” Robyn, 43, said on the Sunday special. “I’m just like, 'Can we come back from this?' I’m trying. I want to.” Meri, for her part, addressed how her relationship with Kody has shifted over the years after bringing in the three other wives. The California native, 51, was the first to marry Kody in 1990. They welcomed daughter Mariah, now 26, five years later. The patriarch of the family entered a spiritual union with Janelle, 52, in 1993. The couple share six children: sons Logan, 27, Hunter, 24, Robert, 23, and Gabriel, 21, and daughters Maddie, 26, and Savannah, 17. [jwplayer 5qvk2PQQ-zhNYySv2] Kody became spiritually married to Christine, 49, in 1994. The now-estranged duo share six kids: son Paedon, 23 and daughters Aspyn, 26, Mykelti, 25, Gwendlyn, 20, Ysabel, 18, and Truely, 11. Meri’s place within the family shifted once again when Kody divorced her in order to legally marry Robyn in 2014. The pair share two children of their own: Solomon, 10, and Ariella, 6. Robyn is also mother of son David, 21, and daughters Aurora, 18, and Breanna, 16, from a previous relationship. The trio were legally adopted by Kody following his split from Meri. “We were very much in love,” Meri recalled of her early romance with Kody during the tell-all. “When Janelle came into the picture, it was a struggle for me. Of course, there’s jealousy. I didn’t know how to handle it.” She noted that “all three of us had different ideals going into how it would be” in the beginning. Meri confessed that she “had a harder time when Christine came," adding, "It was definitely a roller coaster relationship.” Meri and Kody’s rocky relationship has been a major story line throughout season 16 of the TLC series — and the pair didn’t mince words during their discussions with Krishnan on Sunday. In fact, all of the wives weighed in on Meri’s romance with Kody, in addition to talking about Christine’s exit, COVID-19 drama and more. Scroll down for the biggest revelations from the first episode of Sister Wives: One on One: [podcast_block]

Credit: Puddle Monkey Prods/Kobal/Shutterstock

Flagstaff Distancing

The Brown family moved from their cul-de-sac in Las Vegas to Flagstaff, Arizona, in 2018 with the hopes of living in harmony on Kody’s Coyote Pass property. However, things haven’t gone to plan as the wives didn’t want to live in one house. COVID-19 delays and building permit issues have also plagued the patriarch’s wish to be all together.

“There was an awareness that I came to with the family that we’d been united with so much that we’ve done,” Kody said of the group’s lifestyle in Vegas. “There’s a perpetual dishonesty that we dealt with in order to keep relationships good and healthy. Moving to Flagstaff separated us, and at that point, it was like we don’t have to do everything like we used to do it.”

He admitted, “That even became my attitude. [I’d say], ‘Ladies, I’m going to do this, you choose what you’re going to do.’ And they did.”

Credit: Courtesy of Christine Brown/Instagram

Christine’s Shift

During the TV special, fans saw a clip of Christine talking about feeling as if she was an outsider in the family ahead of the group’s COVID-19 separation. After watching the scene back, Janelle admitted on Sunday that she was “surprised” to learn that Christine felt that way.

“It kind of surprised me. I also understood those feelings because I felt like that before,” Meri told Krishnan of Christine’s revelation. “There were times that I did reach out to her. Not always was that reciprocated.”

Christine, for her part, explained that her feelings had been festering before she joined the wives and Kody for dinner and shared her truth. “It was probably all internal. I just felt like before I would ever go to any family gatherings, I just really hesitated [thinking], ‘Does anyone really even like me?’” she recalled on Sunday. “Because we wouldn’t reach out to each other. I wouldn’t reach out either.”

She pointed to her problems with Kody as being another reason she started to feel alienated from the group. “Kody and I had been having such a rough time for so long. It’s really hard to be in a room with everybody and watch him be incredible in other relationships and know that your own is terrible,” Christine said. “What am I supposed to do in a room where I feel like I don’t matter? It was so hard.”

Credit: Puddle Monkey Prods/Kobal/Shutterstock

COVID-19’s Affects

“My biggest concern right from the beginning [was that] I wanted to prevent the death of a child,” Kody said of his choice to lay down the law during the early days of the coronavirus pandemic. “We can look back now and say, ‘Maybe we were too strict.’”

He noted that Robyn “right off the bat” agreed to stick to his rules. His other wives, however, were not as receptive to the idea of not going anywhere in order to spend time with him in their respective homes.

“It’s not realistic. I have kids that live everywhere. I cannot just stay home,” Christine explained of the tension that happened throughout COVID. “He would love it if we chose what he chose. I was following CDC protocols, just not Kody’s.”

Robyn, for her part, revealed that she felt “so torn” by the whole situation. “I understand what Kody was wanting to do and I understand what Janelle and Christine were about,” she explained. “I felt like this is the family culture that we have built and we’re destroying that [by not compromising].”

The mother of five broke down on camera thinking about how their dynamic has been pushed to the brink during the worldwide pandemic. “It’s just painful because it felt like the family group and unity — all of that stuff just got thrown out the window because of a virus. [It] really [has] been disturbing,” Robyn added.

Credit: Shutterstock; Instagram(2)

How the Women Feel About Meri and Kody’s Rocky Romance

“I don’t think that we’re caught in the middle. We feel the waves,” Janelle said when asked about watching Meri’s relationship with Kody deteriorate. “You can feel that tension. It’s not about sides. You hurt for both of them.”

Christine had a little more insight into the romance after choosing to walk away from her own marriage last year.

“Oh, my heart breaks when I think about their marriage. I don’t want that. I don’t want to be in a loveless marriage,” she explained. “I don’t know how she does it. I guess she’s more fine with it than I am.”

Credit: Courtesy of Meri Brown/Instagram

Kody Is Done With Meri

When asked to discuss his relationship with Meri, Kody bluntly responded, “There’s just nothing to talk about really. We’re just friends.” He described their more than 30 years of marriage as having a “hardness” and being “so antagonistic.”

Kody revealed that after “a lot of counseling” he realized there wasn’t anything left romantically between him and Meri. He recalled telling her, “Meri, I just don’t see us getting back together,” before saying they couldn't reconcile because “there’s just no chance that I ever want that again.”

The reality TV star, however, has no plans of leaving Meri. “It’s a double standard. They can leave whenever they want. I can’t,” he added.

Credit: Courtesy of Meri Brown/Instagram

Meri’s Catfishing Incident Caused Distrust

Meri was previously involved in a catfishing scandal that started in 2015 and led to fallout between her and Kody. During a dark place in their relationship, Meri began chatting online with a person she thought was a friend. It turned out that it was a woman impersonating a man, and the traumatic event left both Meri and Kody shook.

On Sunday, Krishnan insinuated that Kody has “emotionally” left and “abandoned” his wives, which angered him and led to a revelation about the aforementioned catfishing scandal. “Abandoned? Please. Take the word back. I take offense to that word of abandonment,” Kody responded. “Meri had an affair. She was leaving my ass. She made it clear to everybody that she was getting out of there. She was done with us. She can’t admit it now.”

He claimed the family “circled the wagons” to “protect her when she realized she’d been dupped," adding, "She was deceived. She found something better. She was leaving me for a better, richer man.”

Kody insisted that Meri “doesn’t even realize what happened” and all she sees is herself as a victim, “which is true, but [she also thinks] that she had done nothing wrong. [But] she would never have been the victim if she’d done nothing wrong.”

Meri revealed that she “thought” she and Kody had discussed the catfishing incident and “thought that he knew where I was coming from" at the time. "I wasn’t leaving, but during that time, because I was very much in a dark place, I considered all my options,” she claimed, acknowledging that Kody took it as a betrayal, but insisting she had no real plans to leave him or the plural family.

“Did I start talking to this person? Absolutely I did. Did I think I was talking to a friend? Absolutely. It literally was not just, ‘OK, I’m going to meet some dude online and fall in love and want to leave my family,’” Meri concluded. “A lot of people like to look at that as the defining moment and the fracture in mine and Kody’s relationship and it wasn’t.”

Credit: TLC(2)

No Sex Club

Meri got real about her and Kody’s sex life, confirming that they haven’t been intimate in more than a decade. “That’s definitely something that I miss. I miss emotional intimacy with him. I miss conversations with him. I miss physical intimacy with him,” she said. “I would love it if he would hold my hand. I have hope that he will [come back to full fellowship] and also if he never does then I’m going to create my own peace and happiness within the family relationships that I do have. This is my family.”

Kody agreed that Meri is “still part of the family,” but when it comes to the physical side of their union, he doesn’t want any part of it. “I’m not ever going to be in a conjugal relationship with her because I’m not going to go through that emotional torture ever again,” he revealed. “I’m not trying to make Meri sound bad, it’s just a bad match.”

He further explained: “There’s a point where intimacy is just damage. It’s misleading to have intimacy in a relationship where there’s no real safety. I’m not going there. No, and I never will again. I will be her friend. I will do what I can to protect her. I’m never going to feel safe in an intimate place.”

Credit: Courtesy of TLC

Why Meri Is Staying

Despite having no intimacy in their relationship — and with things seemingly in a very rocky place with Kody — Meri wants to grow with her husband and the rest of the group.

“From where I am, it’s been 31 years now that we’ve been married [and] I’m still committed. I’ve made my choice. I’m still here. I do still have hope. I want there to be [a future in full fellowship],” she concluded, noting that she’s still invested because she loves him. “I just feel peace when I think about staying in the family because it’s what I want. It’s what I know is right for me.”

Sister Wives airs on TLC Sundays at 10 p.m. ET.