‘Sister Wives’: Did the Brown Family Lie to Fans Just to Sell the Show?
As Sister Wives approaches its 19th season on TLC, the Brown family is so far removed its origins that the show is a shell of its original premise. Fans have since realized the original idea for Sister Wives was a lie fabricated by the Browns and TLC to sell the show
Was ‘Sister Wives’ all just a lie?
The Brown family hard sold polygamy for years. The clan’s reported objective was to show that polygamists are just like everyone else. And that spiritual marriages should be normalized within society.
However, fans began to smell a rat after a few seasons on TLC. The show started to veer off course, away from the family and into scripted, drama-filled moments.
Kody, Meri, Janelle, Christine, and Robyn Brown became bolder in their confessionals. The family’s biggest lie came in Season 18 when Christine Brown let it slip that Kody and Meri’s happy marriage was anything but how it was portrayed early on in the series.
When Kody and Meri married in 1990, they exchanged rings. However, Meri says that when Kody started dating Robyn, he told her he no longer wanted to wear his wedding ring. “He didn’t think that it was fair that I had a claim on him,” Meri explained, so he melted it down and kept the diamonds.
“That was a symbol! That signified our marriage and commitment, and he melted it down!” Meri slammed.
“Who’s to say that he didn’t just melt down our entire relationship in that moment?” She added that it occurred “six or seven years” before the catfishing scandal that Kody claimed ended their marriage, yet another lie for TLC’s cameras.
Kody admits ‘poverty’ scares him, but the series saved the family from just that
In another tipping point from Season 18, Kody admitted that only “poverty” scares him. That seemed like an odd response from a man who has made millions on reality television, but it makes perfect sense looking back on the Brown family history.
That’s because the family was indeed living below the poverty level for years before their series debut. Christine and Kody’s daughter Mykelti confirmed this. She admitted on her Patreon that the Brown family was “dirt poor” and that they lived off “3-day-old bread” and “MREs” for dinner.
This wasn’t evident as Kody introduced his children in the first episode of Sister Wives. They appeared to have everything they needed, including food, as they ate snacks alongside their father.
Showbiz Cheat Sheet has reported that the Browns are estimated to have made anywhere from $25,000 to $40,000 per episode. Therefore, over 18 seasons, if the family filmed at a minimum of 14 episodes per season, they have so far been paid from $6M to $10M
Therefore, without the lies that Sister Wives perpetrates, Kody could face his biggest fear again. He’s also lost a steady income flow from Meri, Christine, and Janelle since they left him. This leaves Kody with less income to fall back on, and his cash flow level lower than its been in years.
Other ‘Sister Wives’ lies drove ratings
In the earliest seasons of Sister Wives, the Brown family moved from Utah to Las Vegas, Nevada. Kody explained they were facing legal issues surrounding their polygamous lifestyle. Fans bought the storyline, which turned out to be a lie.
Later, it was revealed that no legal action was taken against the Brown family. Kody moved to Vegas because he wanted to.
Subsequently, the family’s Flagstaff move was sold to viewers as a money maker for the family. However, it was later revealed they moved because Robyn’s oldest son, Dayton, had been accepted to college in Flagstaff.
During the pandemic, Kody said his older kids couldn’t work or see girlfriends. But Kody officiated a friend’s wedding and was seen dancing and partying with the guests around the same time; another lie.
Some of the many other lies the Brown family told viewers included Kody’s assertion that Christine begged to marry him. In fact, he pursued her.
A Meri/Robyn friendship when their relationship was anything but. And worst of all, Kody insisted that he didn’t favor Robyn. However, he spent the majority of his time at her home.
Sister Wives is currently on hiatus. The show is set to return to TLC later this summer.
