‘Sister Wives’: Why Christine’s Aunt Believes Kody Is Purposefully Pushing Wives Out of the Family

Christine Brown’s aunt, Kristyn Decker, an ex-polygamist who assists victims of polygamy through her Second Choices Coalition nonprofit, thinks Sister Wives patriarch Kody Brown is purposefully kicking his wives out of the family. According to Kristyn, in their faith, it’s more acceptable for a wife to divorce a husband than for a husband to divorce a wife.

Kristyn Decker says wives in the AUB are advised to stay in loveless marriages

Kristyn was raised in the Mormon fundamentalist sect called the Apostolic United Brethren (AUB) before she married into polygamy herself. Her father, Owen A. Allred, became the leader of the church after his brother, Rulon Allred, was assassinated by rival polygamist leader Ervil LeBaron in 1977.

According to her recent interview in In Touch, Kristyn’s mother was one of Owen’s 13 wives. As the church’s leader, he would advise women to stay in their dysfunctional marriages for the greater good.

“He would tell many, many women to just stay, don’t leave him, don’t divorce him, just stay.” She said her father would promise that in Heaven, they would have a choice in a new man. She said he would tell them: “‘And if you stay faithful, and in that marriage, then you will have the choice in the hereafter for a good man but don’t leave.'”

Kristyn Decker thinks Kody is trying to get his wives to leave him

According to Kristyn, the AUB advises against anyone leaving, but it’s even worse if the husband leaves his wives. She said it’s “much worse” if men leave their wives behind. “I know men who have left, and that gossip and throwing them under the bus was really horrific,” Kristyn explained.

So with Kody unable to divorce his wives, Kristyn believes that he’s purposefully trying to make it harder on them so that they leave him. “So Kody’s got to get them to do that, so he doesn’t have to have any marriages with them,” Kristyn revealed.

Christine’s aunt thinks Janelle split from Kody ‘a long time’ ago

Kristyn has been keeping up with Sister Wives Season 17, and she believes that based on Kody’s marriage to Janelle Brown, she left him “a long time ago.” She said, “As far as any relationship, any marriage goes, I think [Janelle’s] similar to, in Meri [Brown]’s situation where she’s just staying in a marriage that’s not really a marriage,” she said.

And while Kody gave Meri Brown a pass to leave and marry another man, Kristyn believes he only said that because he knows she wouldn’t leave. She thinks Meri will stay “single in a marriage” to Kody for the rest of her life, as her mother had done.

With Kody only legally married to one wife and his two spiritual marriages to Meri and Janelle barely functional, it’s up to the wives to leave. And Kristyn couldn’t be happier about Christine leaving the faith and Kody.

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