Christine Brown in a confessional screenshot from season 17 episode 2.

‘Sister Wives’: Christine Brown Wishes She Would Have Left Kody Back in 2011

'Sister Wives' star, Christine Brown admits she wishes she would have left Kody Brown before they moved in Las Vegas in 2011. Here's what she had to say about why she stayed.

by Julia Odom

Published on September 18, 2022

3 min read

Christine thinks her marriage to Kody has been bad for over a decade

In the premiere of Sister Wives Season 17, Christine said her marriage began to crumble during their time in Lehi, Utah before they started filming for Sister Wives Season 1. She pointed to the exact moment her marriage began falling apart. She claims that Kody refused when she asked him for help with their six children.

So it comes as no surprise that Christine says her marriage to Kody has been bad for over a decade. “It’s been 10, 12 years of bad,” she says. So throughout Lehi, Las Vegas, and Flagstaff, Christine has been unhappy in her marriage.

Since the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, Kody and Christine’s intimate marriage ended. With Christine’s traveling, Kody spent the pandemic at Robyn’s house.

With Kody’s strict coronavirus prevention protocol, his favoritism for Robyn and their children, and a lack of intimate marriage, Christine threw the towel on her marriage.

Christine wishes she would have left Kody while they were living in Las Vegas

During their discussion on the September 18 episode of Sister Wives, Christine tells Kody that she felt relief after deciding to leave her marriage. She wishes she had made this decision for herself sooner. “I look back, and I wish that I would have left in Vegas and never come her,” Christine tells Kody.

Shortly after the Browns went public about their polygamist lifestyle in 2010, a police investigation was being done on them in Lehi, and they felt pressured to move. In Sister Wives Season 2, aired in 2011, the Browns moved from one big house in Lehi to living in four homes on the same cul-de-sac in Las Vegas.

However, they didn’t know that the changing living situation would negatively affect the family dynamic. Regardless of the mounting tensions, Christine was still trying to make her marriage to Kody work.

“I had chosen to live plural marriage when I was really young, and I just imagined that I would always live in plural marriage,” Christine explained to the camera. But the realities of plural marriage became clear to her. “I just thought that it was OK to be sad. And I think I was a lot sadder than I thought. But I tried,” Christine concludes.

Christine prepares for her new life separate from Kody

In Sister Wives Season 16, Kody decided not to go with his daughter, Ysabel, to support her in her major surgery to correct her scoliosis. He was concerned with traveling across the country, catching COVID-19, and spreading it throughout the family. Going through that moment alone was when Christine realized that she was capable of being a single parent.

Christine is ready to be independent, but Kody struggles to let go. “I need to get to a place where I can rejoice about your happiness and your freedom,” Kody says. “I just want to thank him for trying to support me. Gosh. That’s the sweetest thing he’s said to me in years,” Christine admits.

Christine’s decision to leave her marriage to Kody has been thought about for over a decade. It appears that she’s very confident in her decision and is ready to move on to the next chapter, whether Kody is or not.

New episodes of Sister Wives Season 17 air Sundays at 10 p.m. EST on TLC.