Christine Brown had a heart-to-heart with Meri Brown on Sister Wives about the end of her marriage to Kody Brown.
“I loved my leaving process,” Christine, 54, told Meri, 55, during the Sunday, November 1, episode of the TLC series, referring to her split from Kody, 57, in November 2021, which came less than two years before Meri announced her breakup from Kody in January 2023.
Christine explained that it seemed to be different for Meri, who was Kody’s first of four wives. “I saw that he just drifted you along,” Christine said, suggesting that Meri and Kody’s 2014 legal divorce appeared to be their undoing.
“He did, because was never direct with me and I was willing to figure it out,” Meri confessed, noting that she did a “freaking legal divorce” decades before their actual breakup “thinking things were going to be OK and they were not.”
Meri claimed that Kody “was nice to me for, I don’t know, maybe a month” after that big gesture.
Meri recalled that in 2014, four years after Kody spiritually wed his fourth wife, Robyn Brown, he and Meri got legally divorced “because they were talking about him wanting to adopt Robyn’s kids.”
Meri and Kody legally tied the knot in 1990 before he spiritually wed Janelle Brown, Christine and Robyn, in 1993, 1994 and 2010, respectively. (Like Meri and Christine, Janelle, 57, eventually left Kody as well, confirming her separation in December 2022.)
However, in 2014, Meri agreed to legally separate from their collective spouse and then Kody and Robyn, 48, got legally married, making the adoption of her three children from a prior marriage “easier.”
“Even back then I was like, ‘It’s a mistake. It’s a mistake,’” Christine recalled during Sunday’s episode. “I know that having Kody and Robyn be able to adopt Robyn’s kids was Meri’s goal, and she did it with absolute, pure intentions.”
Christine reflected on seeing that Meri and Kody’s relationship fracture was beyond repair.
“They were struggling before that, for sure, but it was definitely the beginning of the real crumbling between the two of them,” she shared.
During Christine’s discussion with Meri — which marked their first one-on-one conversation since Christine left their plural family — she applauded Meri for being so accommodating with the legal divorce.
“I thought it was for the good of the family,” Meri explained, which Christine totally understood.
However, Christine then confessed that she thought the divorce idea was “kind of planted,” pointing to “a couple of times” when Robyn and Kody both mentioned it in normal conversation.
“Kody’s dad legally divorced his mom to go look for another wife, legally married that wife. So Kody had seen that happen,” Christine told the cameras. “And then in Pinesdale, [Montana], is just another community of our previous church where Robyn mentioned that it happened.”
Christine, who shares six children with Kody, remembered sitting in Meri’s living room in Lehi, Utah, before the family moved and hearing Robyn say it was “beautiful” that this other plural wife “offered to get a legal divorce from her husband so he could legally marry another wife who was coming in with children.”
It was at that moment that Christine said she felt it was part of a bigger plan and that Robyn and Kody were trying to sway Meri into doing the same thing.
“I remember thinking, ‘What are you suggesting here? You think Meri should legally divorce Kody?’ I remember just thinking that and then it happened,” Christine recalled. “And then Meri’s like, ‘This is my idea. I’m coming up with this legal divorce.’ And I’m like, ‘No, you’re not.’”
Janelle agreed with Christine’s account of the situation, saying, “I think there was way more going on whether they were willing to admit it or not. I think so. I think they were wanting to go that direction.”
Meri is still unsure as to how everything went down, telling the cameras, “I don’t know if they had a plan. If it wasn’t a plan, it worked very well in his favor.”
She confessed, “I definitely would have done things different when I divorced him had I been legally married to him. So I think he absolutely benefited. So he can call himself lucky.”
Meri remained in a spiritual union with Kody until January 2023. She was later granted a spiritual divorce from the Wyoming native.
Robyn, meanwhile, is still married to Kody but they are no longer a part of the show.
Sister Wives airs on TLC Sundays at 10 p.m. ET.
