Kody Brown of ‘Sister Wives’ Calls This Celebrity Divorce ‘Devastating’

Kody Brown was not prepared. In the Oct. 27 episode of Sister Wives, the dad of 18 reflects on his stunned reaction when he learned that Sonny and Cher had broken up, a split he then compares to the end of three of his own marriages. 

Sonny and Cher’s divorce broke Kody Brown’s heart 

In the Sister Wives clip (via People), Kody opens up about his first experience with a marriage ending. 

“When Sonny and Cher got divorced, I was six, I was five, and it broke my heart,” he says while speaking to his ex-wife Meri Brown. “It freaked me out. I was like divorce is the biggest evil of, you know, it’s just something that saddened me.”

Sonny Bono and Cher divorced in 1975 after more than a decade together as a couple. 

“At six and seven years old, I had no awareness that the idea, the concept of divorce was real,” Kody goes on to say in a confessional. “Sonny and Cher getting a divorce devastating. Like, does that really happen?”

Divorce ‘isn’t supposed to be part of the story,’ the ‘Sister Wives’ star says 

Divorce was not supposed to be part of Sonny and Cher’s story. Nor was it supposed to be part of the story with Kody and his three wives. 

“This isn’t supposed to be part of the story that I’m writing about myself,” he says. “You know what I mean? And everybody’s their story. You’re the author of your story. My story is taking a turn.”

The TLC personality went on to hint that he had regrets about the collapse of his plural family and the end of his marriages to Meri, Janelle Brown, and Christine Brown.  

We’ve ridden the wave,” he says. “We’ve crashed the ship. We survived. We’re on the shore, but we crashed the ship. That’s the realization. We crashed the ship and that does make me terribly sad.”

At one point, Kody had four wives. Christine walked away from the relationship in November 2021. Janelle and Kody confirmed their separation in December 2022. In January 2023, Meri cannounced that her 32-year relationship with Kody was over. Kody’s only remaining wife is Robyn Brown. 

Kody has said he ‘married the wrong person’ 

While Kody seems to have some regret about how his marriages ended, he hasn’t always been so reflective. 

“You know what really sucks?” he told Meri in the Oct. 20 episode of Sister Wives. “It’s not divorce that sucks it’s marrying the wrong person because you don’t know.”

Kody’s first wife Meri didn’t have much patience for Kody’s sob story.  

“What sucks is marrying the wrong person and not having the decency to tell her until 32 years later,” she said.

“If you didn’t want to fail,” Meri said elsewhere in the episode, “maybe you shouldn’t have married the wrong person, one or two or three times.”

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

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