When it comes to the “big shakeup” in the Brown family, Kody Brown places the blame on going public with their polygamous lifestyle.
The days of Kody touting, “Love should be multiplied, not divided,” are long gone.
When Sister Wives debuted in 2010, the Browns were taking a risk by televising their plural family.
At the time, they were still living in Utah, where polygamy was illegal (it’s since been decriminalized), and police were closely following the family’s every move.
Kody decided to relocate his family to Las Vegas in a state of exile after some close encounters with police, including officers even coming to their front door and threatening to put him in prison.
Before moving to Vegas, things seemed to be working well for Kody and his then-four wives, Meri, Janelle, Christine, and Robyn, and their children.
But their move to Nevada proved to be the beginning of the end of their dream of living happily ever after as polygamists. Each of Kody’s wives built their own homes rather than living under the same roof as they did in Utah.
This meant Kody had to work harder to split his time between his wives and children, his wives grew to love their newfound independence, and the family slowly grew farther apart.
Kody Brown’s once-plural family is more separate than ever
Fast forward 13 years, and Kody is left with one wife, Robyn. Meanwhile, Christine has left and moved back to Utah and gotten engaged to David Woolley, Janelle and Kody split after an explosive argument before the holidays, and Kody and Meri announced their marriage termination earlier this year.
On top of that, many of Kody’s 18 children aren’t on good terms with him, and he doesn’t even speak to Garrison or Gabriel.
But if you ask Kody, it’s not his behavior that caused the family’s upheaval; it was going public with their lifestyle.
During Sister Wives Season 18, Episode 2, Christine confessed that problems had been accumulating for years and finally reached a breaking point, insinuating that Robyn played a major part in it.
But Kody had a different explanation during a confessional of his own.
Kody says the Brown family’s shakeup was due to ‘going public’
“The big shakeup wasn’t caused by Robyn,” Kody confessed. “It was caused by the fallout of going public.”
“And that decision was made by our family before we met Robyn,” Kody added.
However, Kody hinted that not handling his family properly was also a reason for the shakeup, admitting, “We’re not working like a family. We’re not a family. We’re acting like enemies.”
Many Sister Wives fans would argue that Kody and Robyn are solely responsible for the family splitting apart. After all, things seemed to be working well for the Browns until Robyn came along.
On top of that, Kody denied his wives intimacy as a sort of punishment for their behavior toward him and neglected their emotional and physical needs.
Kody’s wives were understandably jealous of each other, but he didn’t help matters by playing favorites… with none other than Robyn, no less.
During the early seasons of Sister Wives, Kody may have duped viewers into believing that he was capable of keeping four women happy simultaneously, but he’s since proven that he bit off way more than he could chew.
Going public with their lifestyle was certainly a risk for the Browns. There is a long-believed curse among reality television couples who have split after sharing their personal lives with TV audiences, and apparently, the Browns weren’t exempt.
Sister Wives airs on Sundays at 10/9c on TLC.
Most of the 18 children are adults now. Kody needs to understand he no longer controls them or make the rules for them. His time as the “family patriarch” is over. It is their decision where to spend holidays, vacations, and any time off. Plus, there are grandchildren whom the parents stay home for on holidays. So, go ahead and raise the few remaining underage children and stop trying to control what the adult children do. Any parent would tell you when children grow up holidays. especially Christmas and Thanksgiving are never the same. As for your three wives who have left you, there cannot be many who do not see how unhappy you made them. It is most definitely your giving priority and more time to your youngest wife and neglecting and name calling the other wives. Polygamy does not work in your case. You are selfish and want total adoration, obedience and financial support. As for Christine leaving it began when you were not there for Ysabel’s major surgery. There are words for what you do, it is called spousal abuse.