‘Sister Wives’: The ‘Devastating’ Argument Christine Had With Meri in 2009 That ‘Shattered’ Their Relationship
In the Sister Wives 2012 memoir Becoming Sister Wives: The Story of an Unconventional Marriage, Christine Brown reveals the “devastating argument” that led to the beginning of the end of her friendship with her former sister wife, Meri Brown. The one argument “shattered” their relationship, and they were never able to fully recover from it.
Christine felt like Meri was too harsh on her children
In the Becoming Sister Wives memoir, Christine explains the complicated familial dynamic with her sister wife, Meri. In Christine’s chapter about “Sorority,” Christine revealed in 2009, before she was expecting Truely, she felt like Meri was unfair with the discipline of her five children, Aspyn, Mykelti, Paedon, Gwendlyn, and Ysabel. She wrote in the book:
“About a year before I became pregnant with Truely, I had a devastating argument with Meri. For a while, I’d been feeling that she was too tough on my kids. While I understand that all children need discipline, I often felt that she went too far when it came to my children. It seem to me that she was taking her frustrations out on my kids in particular. As a result of this, many of them were wary of her and were afraid to cross her accidentally.”
Christine Brown
Christine blew up on Meri
Admittedly, Christine wasn’t always the best at expressing her frustrations and ended up blowing up on Meri instead of talking to her. She revealed in the memoir:
“I let this situation go on too long, and I let my emotions well up. Instead of talking to Meri calmly and explaining what I’d observed her doing and how she might fix her behavior, I exploded. I yelled and screamed and told her to stop talking to my kids and to stop interfering in their lives. Since I’m afraid of confrontation, I always allow stuff to build up till it’s too later. So instead of trying to work it out with Meri, I just shut her out.”
Christine Brown
The Sister Wives star explained that the fight made her realize that she had never been honest about her feelings in relationships with her sister wives. She said that the only people she actually trusted were her mother and her then-husband, Kody Brown. She wrote:
“This argument shattered my world and made me realize that I have always had superficial relationships with people I’ve always tried to ignore problems by putting on a brave face and keeping people at a distance. This fight made me realize that I’d never honestly opened up to Meri and Janelle, but had forged our friendship out of a need to cement this sister wife Ideal I’d envisioned.”
Christine Brown
Christine and Meri’s sister wife relationship was never the same
After Christine confronted Meri about how she had been treating her children, their relationship was never the same. It seemed there was no way to get back what they had before.
“After our fight, Meri and I stayed out of each other’s way. We no longer saught out each other’s company to watch movies or just hang out. When circumstance brought us together, we were never openly rude or hostile. We maintained a level of cordiality. But the warmth was gone.”
Christine Brown
In 2012, Christine said she tried for years to fix her relationship after the friendship-shattering argument with Meri in 2009. However, the difference became glaring, and they could never rebuild their closeness.
To this day, we are still working on becoming closer again. It has been a slow process of starting to feel comfortable with being open and honest with each other. We have had to learn how to immediately tell one another if we feel offended by something. We still do not have the wonderfully close relationship we used to share. i know e will continue working on it though. My relationship with Meri is very important to me. I’m certain she feels the same way about me.”
Christine Brown
In Sister Wives Season 17, Christine and Meri’s relationship is worse than ever. She told her sister wives, Meri and Christine, that she wanted space from them during her divorce. Christine revealed in a recent interview that she has no interest in being friends with Meri now that she has left the family.
