‘Sister Wives’: 5 Bizzare Ways Christine’s Divorce From Kody Mirrors Her Mom Annie’s Escape From Polygamy
In Sister Wives Season 17, Christine Brown is officially leaving her husband of 27 years, Kody Brown. Some fans don’t know that Christine’s mom, Annie, also left her plural marriage with Christine’s father, Rex Allred. The two women’s stories are almost identical. Here are the 5 uncanny ways that Christine’s divorce from Kody mirrors her mom’s divorce.
Both Christine and Annie’s marriages began falling apart after adding a wife
As Sister Wives fans know, Christine had been struggling with her marriage to Kody since Lehi, Utah, when he began courting Robyn Brown. She pointed to a specific moment when she felt like she wasn’t being supported and felt alone when Kody tended to the needs of his other wives.
Annie’s experience with plural marriage is eerily similar. After 11 years of marriage, Annie’s father-in-law suggested that her husband begin courting a second wife. She said she could never get along with her new sister wife. “When they got home from the honeymoon, it went downhill really fast. We just didn’t get along,” Annie revealed.
And also like Christine, Annie overlooked her difference with her sister wife to live her faith. And the best way to do that was to bond over their love for motherhood. “When she started having children, and when we were together with the kids, we were great as moms for the kids. Being moms is a lot easier than being sister wives,” Annie said.
Christine and Annie both left their plural marriage after 25 years
In the Sister Wives memoir, Becoming Sister Wives: The Story of an Unconventional Marriage, Christine revealed that right after Kody started courting her in 1992, her mom announced her decision to divorce her father. This shook her to the core, saying that the news devastated her.
According to what Annie said on Sister Wives, she was married to her husband Rex around 1967 and left around 1992, meaning she was married for approximately 25 years. “I had a defining moment where I knew I was going to leave. And It was one of the most terrifying moments I’ve had in my life, ’cause you just don’t leave. People don’t leave. And I would go in my room and pray a lot because here I was doing life by the book, and I hated my life,” Annie revealed.
As discussed in Sister Wives Season 17, Christine Brown left her marriage to Kody around the 26-year mark. Still, she was in the process of separating from Kody on what would have been their 27th wedding anniversary.
Christine and Annie both left their marriages with their young daughters
Another bizarrely similar detail in both Christine and Annie’s divorces was the fact that they had to take children with them. On Sister Wives, Christine has told Kody that she’s planning on moving to Utah and taking their 11-year-old daughter, Truely, with her. Of course, Kody is angry, saying that it isn’t fair, and begins demanding 50/50 custody.
Annie went through a similar experience when she decided to leave her marriage to Rex. She said, “When I divorced, some of the kids went with me. The younger girls went with me. I had a younger son that stayed with his father. Christine was back and forth,” Annie said.
Christine and Annie both left their faith and the church
When Annie left her husband, she also decided to leave her faith and the church. This decision led to being cast out by family members and the community. In Sister Wives Season 8, Annie revealed why she chose to leave the church.
“It wasn’t difficult to leave my husband or the place where we lived, but it was difficult to think that I was not going to please God and that I was going to go to Hell. But I still had to leave anyway, because it was living a lie at that point. I couldn’t live like that anymore. I didn’t believe in it. There just was not anything I could do anymore. It wasn’t right,” Annie said.
In Sister Wives Season 16, Christine announced that she had also left the church and her faith “a long time ago.” This came as a major shock to audiences as she was still living plural marriage. She also could no longer advocate for polygamy when she no longer believed in it as a religious practice.
Both Christine and Annie publicly denounced polygamy
After leaving their faith, church, and husbands, Christine and her mother, Annie, publicly denounced polygamy. Annie had teamed up with her sister, Kristyn Decker, who had also escaped polygamy, and started a support group for women who were traumatized in abusive plural marriages. Being part of this group caused Christine to cut her mother from her life for over six months out of fear of being exposed and prosecuted.
While Christine hasn’t made a support group for people escaping abusive polygamous marriages, she has almost become a symbol of freedom for women everywhere who feel trapped in abusive or toxic relationships. When talking about her independence in her first interview post-separation from Kody (via People), she also publicly denounced polygamy.
“I started thinking maybe this isn’t working for me,” Christine said. “And then I stopped believing in polygamy. I realized I didn’t really want to live it anymore. I didn’t like sharing a husband or feeling like I wasn’t important,” she revealed.
While Christine may have hated her mother for leaving her father and for even speaking out publicly against polygamy, she’s following in her footsteps. It’s interesting to see if there will be more similarities between Christine and Annie’s journeys. Fans will have to keep watching Sister Wives to find out more.
New episodes of Sister Wives Season 17 air Sundays at 10 p.m. EST on TLC.
