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Meri Brown appears to be living her best life right now. The former polygamist has left her husband, forged an independent life, and done a bit of dating, too. She looks and sounds better than ever. Still, it took the Sister Wives star a long time to get to a good place. In fact, she’s opening up about just how long she wrestled with feelings that her marriage was over. In a clip for the show’s upcoming episode, Meri admits that her legal divorce from Kody Brown was a much bigger deal, emotionally, than she ever let on.

Meri Brown and Kody Brown announced their spiritual split in 2023. In reality, they had been living apart for many years before that, and they initiated a legal divorce in 2015. At the time, Meri and Kody insisted they were legally divorcing only to allow an avenue for Kody to adopt Robyn Brown’s three children. While they called the move a “legal restructuring” at the time, it wasn’t just business. A lot more emotion went into it, at least for Meri. As it turns out, Meri saw her legal marriage as the rope that bound her to the Browns.

Meri Brown looks down while crying during a confessional for 'Sister Wives'
Meri Brown | TLC/YouTube

Parade obtained an exclusive clip for the upcoming episode that proves Meri Brown wasn’t nearly as okay with her legal divorce as she initially let on. In the clip, Meri admits that signing the divorce papers was a difficult emotional hurdle for her to overcome. She revealed she felt like she was signing the marriage away entirely. Meri’s recollection of that time period is much different than how it was presented in real-time on Sister Wives.

Meri Brown admits that the legal divorce set the wheels in motion for her marriage’s ultimate demise. Meri and Kody’s legal divorce came just before the catfishing incident. Meri likely wouldn’t have begun the emotional affair if she hadn’t been so deeply bothered by the legal divorce, one could argue. That catfishing incident led to open hostility from the rest of the Brown family. So, it’s easy to assume that Meri and Kody’s legal divorce led to the end of their marriage, but did it ruin the plural family as a whole?

The cast of TLC's 'Sister Wives'
The cast of TLC’s ‘Sister Wives’ | TLC
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While Janelle Brown and Christine Brown have different reasons for divorcing Kody Brown, they ultimately left because they felt Kody prioritized Robyn Brown and his life with her over everything else. It’s impossible to say if that would have happened if the family hadn’t “legally restructured” in 2015. Still, many Sister Wives fans argue that the legal title emboldened Robyn to demand more from Kody. Frankly, though, he probably would have abandoned everyone else for her, regardless.