‘Sister Wives’ Star, Meri Brown Says Many Factors Went Into the End of the Browns’ Plural Family
When Sister Wives premiered in 2010, the Browns insisted they were one big, happy family. Kody Brown and his wives claimed they all worked together and insisted they were largely satisfied with their plural lifestyle. Things started to unravel from there. Now, 13 years later, there is no longer a plural family on Sister Wives, and Meri Brown, Kody’s first wife, has spent years grappling with what led to the family’s demise. Now that she’s had time and space away from the family, she has thoughts.
‘Sister Wives’ fans have debated Kody’s divorces for three seasons
Looking back at the early seasons of Sister Wives might be hard for the Brown family, but it feels completely natural to fans of the series. In light of recent events, many fans have gone back to the beginning. They’ve taken to rewatching the show, hoping to see where everything went wrong for the polygamists who insisted they were happy in their plural family.
Most fans seem to settle on Robyn Brown’s sudden entrance into the Brown family as the beginning of the end. Still, it’s really hard for them to know for sure. After all, fans only met the Browns when Robyn was courting Kody. It’s nearly impossible to know how they functioned before Robyn. Meri Brown, Kody’s first wife, doesn’t think the family’s problems can be pinned on one person or event.
In a new ‘Sister Wives’ special, Meri weighs in on what factors contributed to the end of the plural family
While Sister Wives fans feel confident that Robyn Brown’s spiritual marriage to Kody Brown signaled the end of the plural family, Meri Brown isn’t so sure. The mother of one, who spent 30 years married to Kody Brown, admitted that she didn’t think it was that simple. During a Sister Wives special, Meri said she had thought about what happened for a long time. She has decided that many factors contributed to the family’s demise. She said it was impossible to say just the move from Lehi to Las Vegas, just the integration of Robyn Brown, or just the reality TV show led the family astray.
Regardless of the catalyst, Meri thinks the family’s dysfunction all boils down to one overarching problem. She believes the family didn’t want to function as a plural family somewhere. Why exactly that happened is not something that Meri seems interested in speculating on. Her former sister wife, however, seems to have a take.
Janelle Brown points out the family worked hard for the sake of their kids
While Meri didn’t want to pick one particular issue that made the Brown family implode, Janelle Brown may have hinted at where and when things all went wrong. In her interview, Janelle revealed that the Brown family worked hard to stay together for many years. She conceded that it was done largely for the benefit of their children, though.
It seems possible that the adults in the Brown family stopped interacting and working together when most of their children became teens and young adults. Things fell apart when those kids no longer “needed” the family to stay together to foster sibling interactions. Once they were old enough to handle their own business, the wives and Kody stopped trying to connect.
Janelle’s theory seems logical, and the timing works out. By the time Christine Brown separated from Kody Brown, she only had one minor child with him. Janelle left her plural husband when her youngest child neared 18. Finally, Meri issued a divorce statement years after her only child had moved away from home. Leon was established in their own life years before Meri called it quits.
