Gwendlyn Brown on Growing Up in ‘Sister Wives’ — ‘It Was a Really Happy Childhood’

Christine Brown and Kody Brown’s 21-year-old daughter, Gwendlyn Brown, says that despite all of the current problems in her family that the childhood she had on Sister Wives was, in fact, a happy one. Looking back at old footage, Gwendlyn reminiscences on her “happy childhood” when all of the wives and children were together.

The Brown family separation

Kody’s wives were unhappy in their romanceless marriages for many years, but it wasn’t until the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic that the family dynamic changed forever. With Kody enforcing strict rules on the entire family to avoid spreading the virus, he completely separated and isolated the wives and children from each other. It was during this separation that Christine decided to leave.

Christine divorced Kody in early 2021 and moved back home to Utah after her nearly 27-year-long spiritual marriage ended. In mid-2022, Janelle Brown separated from Kody after a 29-year-long marriage during the Sister Wives Season 17 ‘One-on-One’ reunion. While she’s not divorced from Kody yet, she’s living independently from Kody and seems to be headed in that direction.

After nearly a decade of problems in their marriage, Kody decided to end his marriage to Meri Brown after 33 years of marriage. He is currently still married to Robyn Brown, both legally and spiritually. Since it’s Kody’s only marriage that has remained intact, he has become “basically monogamous” with her.

Gwendlyn reminisces about the happy times

In part 2 of the Sister Wives Season 17 ‘One-on-One’ reunion, they played a montage of the happy times when the Brown family was still one big happy family. “It was pretty amazing. We were all united in the purpose of raising these kids,” Janelle said about the old footage.

“You look at those things and all those memories, and you’re like, ‘That was real.’ You know?” Janelle said.

On her Patreon account, Gwendlyn reacted to the episode and the montage featuring moments from her childhood. “That was real,” the 21-year-old Sister Wives star agreed.

“I’ve heard that a lot of people think that it wasn’t real and it didn’t happen for the camera. But actually, it was a really happy childhood. From what I remember, or at least when the show started, and we finally had the money to do fun things,” Gwendlyn explained.

Kody is estranged from most of his children

Gwendlyn revealed that her father, Kody, has only maintained his relationships with Robyn’s five children, Dayton, Aurora, Breanna, Solomon, and Ariela. Since the coronavirus pandemic, he has become estranged from the other 13 kids from his other wives.

“Most of us are pretty much estranged. The majority of Janelle’s kids are completely estranged from Kody. Definitely some of mine and most of the siblings in general,” Gwendlyn revealed.

She said the only exception to this is her sister, Mykelti Padron, and her husband, Tony Padron. “Since she’s so close to Robyn, I feel like she’s closer to Kody than the rest of us would be, and same with Tony,” she explained.

While Kody and Robyn’s dream was to get the “big family” back, they seemed to have pushed everyone away. Perhaps Sister Wives Season 18 will shed some light on this complicated family dynamic.

Sister Wives Season 18 is rumored to return in September 2023 to TLC.