‘Sister Wives’: Was Kody Brown Ever in Love With Robyn, or Did She Just Stroke His Ego?
Sister Wives star Kody Brown always put his own needs above those of his wives Meri, Janelle, Christine, and Robyn Brown. He always appeared to have a different favorite OG wife depending on who treated him the best. This lasted until Robyn Brown entered the picture, and lavished Kody with attention. In retrospect, was he ever really in love with Robyn, or did she stroke his ego just enough to pull him away from his trio of wives for good?
Kody and Robyn Brown’s marriage differed from the other sister wives
After 19 seasons of TLC’s Sister Wives, it appears that Kody Brown was more in love with the idea of being in love, than actually having any true affection for the women in his life. Kody should have been able to balance his relationships as a polygamist but was unable to due to his self-serving needs.
Throughout the series, if a wife treated Kody in a particular way, he showered them with more affection. If one of the women upset him, he effectively iced her out.
This personality trait is seen time and again in the series as his relationships with Meri, Janelle, and Christine Brown all faltered and flourished at different points. However, the one relationship that didn’t appear to have many peaks and valleys was Kody and Robyn’s marriage.
Robyn strokes Kody’s ego. She allowed him to maintain dominance in their relationship and a role as her family’s leader. In contrast, the others lived mostly as single women, as Kody spent most of his time tending to his newest marriage to Robyn.
Therefore, was Kody really in love with Robyn, or was he in love with the idea of how she loved him? Kody maintains he never really loved any of his exes, but time and again, the TLC series documented otherwise. Will Robyn eventually face the same fate?
Will Robyn eventually be a casualty of Kody’s history rewrite?
Sister Wives fans shared their thoughts regarding Kody Brown’s egocentric behavior in a Reddit post. It appeared all the women loved Kody, but he played favorites when it best suited his needs.
One Redditor wrote, “I don’t think he ‘loves’ Robyn. I think he’s fixated on her because she feeds his ego. If she ever stopped he would drop her like the rest and she knows that. The second that ego trip stops, it’s over.”
“My thoughts are that Kody was not in love with any of the wives. What he loved was how much the four love(d) him. That kind of long-term, unwavering, ego boost is what’s fueled him all this time,” claimed a second viewer.
A third deduced, “I think all of his goo-goo eye stuff back then was a complete performance. Remember he had already melted down Meri’s ring by the first season. He’s acting.”
Finally, a fourth fan assessed, “So when the OG3 stopped giving that ego boost he stopped loving them. But Robyn has not stopped so she’s still worthy.”
Kody Brown claimed he had to ‘hide’ his feelings for Robyn Brown from his other wives
In a recent Sister Wives clip (via Instagram), Kody Brown claimed he had to “hide” his feelings for Robyn Brown from his other wives. According to the TLC star, this secret caused undue stress to all of his marriages.
He said of his wives, “I loved them. But was I in love with them? Did I have the same experience with each one? No, never.”
Kody continued, “That’s a hard confession to make because I was working hard to hide what Robyn and I had while trying to promote everything else. I was building a family.”
After years of realizing that Kody would never love them the way they and their children deserved, Christine, Janelle, and Meri Brown all left. Kody is now a monogamist but appears wistful for the life he once created with these women.
In his confessional, Kody admitted he maintained these relationships to promote the show, without saying so directly. Therefore, he kept three women and their children dangling for years for the series, and the family paychecks, to go on.
Sister Wives airs Sundays at 10 p.m. ET on TLC.
