‘Sister Wives’: The Brown Family Mourns Meri’s Mother Bonnie Barber
The cracks in the Brown family are on full display in the latest season of Sister Wives. But despite the divisions, the family showed a united front following the death of Meri Brown’s mother Bonnie Barber in the September 25 episode of the TLC show.
‘Sister Wives’ star Meri Brown’s mother Bonnie Barber died suddenly in March 2021
In the latest episode of the Brown family’s reality series, viewers watched as Meri raced from Arizona to Utah after learning her mother had experienced a heart attack. Sadly, her mom died before Meri could make it to the hospital.
“It was about an hour after I was on my way that I got the call,” she recalled of her mother’s death on March 26, 2021. “It just happened so fast.”
A tearful Meri also recorded her initial reaction to Bonnie’s death. “This is just so unexpected and so quick,” she said as she wiped away tears. “This is not supposed to happen this way.”
The death of her mother left Meri feeling adrift and unsure about what would happen to the B&B the two ran together. “I don’t know what the rest of my life is going to look like,” she said. “There’s just a lot that I don’t know that I’m going to have to figure out.”
Kody Brown remembers his mother-in-law
Bonnie’s sudden death was a major blow to Meri. But it hit the rest of the Brown family hard as well.
“Bonnie was my first mother-in-law,” Meri’s husband Kody said. “I think I fell in love with her first, you know? She’s just the sweetest lady. She was always just warm to me. I had a great experience with having her as a mother-in-law.”
“She was such a blessing in Meri’s life,” he later added. “Not just as a mother but as a person who was just there for her.”
Kody’s fourth wife Robyn recalled how Bonnie welcomed her into the family with open arms.
“Bonnie always treated me like we knew each other forever,” she said. “Every time I was around her it was a sweet experience.”
Meri’s sister wife Christine remembered how Bonnie supported her mother when she decided to leave plural marriage behind.
“After my mom left our church, people didn’t know what to do with her. I didn’t know what to do with her,” she said. But Bonnie pushed Christine to reconcile with her mother, for which she was grateful.
Meri’s mom also struggled with plural marriage
Meri was raised in a polygamous family. Her mother and father added another wife to their marriage when Meri was a child, she recalled in an early episode of Sister Wives (via YouTube). But her mother’s experience of plural marriage was not without its difficulties, much like those that Meri and her sister wives are now experiencing.
“My mom was my dad’s first wife,” Meri recalled. “You know, like any plural marriage, things are not easy.”
Eventually, some of Bonnie’s sister wives gave up practicing plural marriage.
“There were separations in our family,” Meri said. “And that was really hard for my mom. She wanted to grow old with her sister wives. And she didn’t have that.”
Sister Wives airs Sundays at 10 p.m. ET on TLC. Episodes also stream on discovery+.
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