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In the super teaser for Sister Wives Season 17, Kody Brown reveals that he’s so detached from his first wife, Meri Brown, that he wouldn’t care if she married another man. Their platonic marriage is nothing more than a friendship now, and Kody isn’t interested in anything more.

Meri Brown sitting outside on 'Sister Wives' Season 17 on TLC.
Meri Brown, ‘Sister Wives’ Season 17 | TLC

Meri and Kody’s marriage timeline

The relationship between Meri and Kody has only gotten more distant throughout the Sister Wives seasons. Their relationship was rapidly declining after she and Kody legally divorced in 2014. The divorce caused Meri to feel insecure when the family went through a restructuring when Kody married his fourth wife, Robyn Brown, legally three months later to adopt her children from her previous marriage.

As their marital problems began to grow, in March 2015, Meri found solace in an online relationship with a man named “Sam Cooper.” After flirting publicly on Twitter, they began exchanging direct messages.

The online emotional affair turned into a catfishing scandal when Meri discovered Sam was a woman named Jackie Overton. That’s where the affair ended. Meri came clean about her relationship with “Sam,” and her marriage was never the same after the betrayal.

While Meri is technically still living in Flagstaff with her estranged husband, she’s spent most of her time in Utah. Since Meri’s mother passed in March 2021, she has been in Parowan, Utah, reclaiming her role as innkeeper for her bed and breakfast, Lizzie’s Heritage Inn. Since most of Meri’s time is spent in Utah, Kody even suggested in season 17 that she move there permanently.

Kody would be alright with Meri marrying another man

In the mid-season super teaser for Sister Wives Season 17 (via People), Kody talks about his estranged marriage with his first wife, Meri. “I don’t really consider myself married to Meri,” the 53-year-old admitted to the cameras.

Kody is so detached from Meri that he even gives her the go-ahead to seek out other relationships. “If she wanted to move on and marry another, she wouldn’t get an argument from me,” Kody said.

Kody says his marriage to Meri is ‘amiable’ but unfulfilling

So far in Sister Wives Season 17, Kody and Meri’s relationship is more distant than ever. Meri has been struggling with the grief of losing her mother and Kody hasn’t been there for her emotionally.

Meri Brown and Kody Brown sit together in an interview on 'Sister Wives' on TLC.
Meri Brown and Kody Brown, ‘Sister Wives’ | TLC
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“I feel like my relationship with Meri is very good, but it’s not a married situation,” Kody said in a confessional. “It’s an amiable relationship, but I don’t think it’s a fulfilling relationship for Meri. Not in any way,” he concluded.

Meri and Kody’s platonic friendship is in no way a marriage. But despite this, Meri continues to stick it out. In the trailer, she and Robyn talk about how they will “rebuild” the family together now that Christine Brown has decided to leave Kody and the family.

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

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