Kody Brown and Christine Brown wear all white on their wedding day in Utah in 1994 on 'Sister Wives.'

‘Sister Wives’: The Heartbreaking Moment Christine Decided Her Divorce From Kody Was Final

'Sister Wives' star Christine Brown recounts the moment she decided her spiritual marriage to Kody Brown was finally over. She considered herself divorced after this one moment.

by Julia Odom

Published on October 13, 2022

3 min read

Christine Brown told Truely she was ‘divorced’

In the new Sister Wives clip, Christine has to have a difficult conversation with her 11-year-old daughter Truely Brown about divorcing her father, Kody. Truely overheard Christine discussing moving to Utah on the phone with her older daughter, Mykelti Padron.

Truely was the last of the family members to know and was heartbroken by the news. “Kody and I were going to talk to Truely together, but we just hadn’t come to an agreement. I obviously didn’t have a choice anymore,” Christine says.

The mother of six detailed how the conversation went, “I told her we were moving, and she started to cry.” After the news about the move, Truely asked to be alone and go to her room. But Christine wanted her daughter to know the true extent of the situation.

“I knew that she hadn’t quite clocked that I was leaving Kody. And rather than let her leave the room and process this, she needs to know everything,” Christine says.

The 11-year-old asked if her parents were getting a divorce, and Christine broke the news that she was already divorced. “Her little face was so heartbroken,” Christine recalls.

She told her daughter that she was already divorced from Kody so that Truely wouldn’t have a “false sense of hope” that her parents would ever get back together. Christine said this discussion with Truely was one of the worst conversations of her life.

Christine’s marriage to Kody was not legally binding

The Browns are polygamists who are part of the Apostolic United Brethren (AUB) church, an offshoot of the fundamentalist Mormon church. In 1994, Christine and Kody were sealed in a spiritual or “celestial marriage.” The church joined the couple in a non-legally binding union.

In fact, Kody was only legally married to two of his wives — Meri Brown, who he was married to from 1990 to 2010, and Robyn Brown, whom he married to adopt her three children from her previous marriage. Christine and Janelle Brown were never married to Kody legally, but only spiritually.

“In plural marriage, when you’re not married legally, you usually have to go through some sort of a separation procedure kind of thing,” Christine said. However, Christine is no longer part of the church and doesn’t feel the need to go through a “temple divorce” done by a priesthood member.

The moment Christine told Truely was when she decided her divorce from Kody was final

Christine’s heartbreaking conversation with Truely was a turning point for her. She admits that’s when she decided she was “divorced” from Kody. “And I didn’t know if Kody and I were actually divorced until this second,” Christine admitted.

“I just thought we would be divorced, but I didn’t know when we would actually be divorced because there’s not ever going to be a piece of paper from the government that says ‘you’re divorced’ because we were never married legally. So I just very quickly made up my mind and told her, ‘No, we’re already divorced,'” the Sister Wives star explained.

Christine has had many ups and downs navigating her divorce from Kody. Now that everyone in the family knows their relationship is over, she can finally move on to her new life.

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