Kody Brown: I Married Christine to Be ‘Cool,’ Meri Romance Was Always ‘Hard’

Fairy-tale romances? Kody Brown got candid about whether any of his relationships actually started off on a good note — and why he really married Christine Brown — in part 2 of Sister Wives: One-on-One special.

“We’re establishing a family that I really don’t know how to establish,” Kody, 53, said of his early days as a husband to three wives during the Sunday, January 1, episode of the TLC series. (It wasn’t until 2010 that his fourth wife, Robyn Brown, came into the picture.)

The Wyoming native confessed that his marriage to first wife Meri Brown, whom he legally wed in 1990, was “hard” from the start. When Janelle Brown spiritually married him in 1993, he called the union a “blessing of dilution.”

Kody explained that Janelle, 53, coming into the fold “diluted this relationship I had with Meri.” He confessed that “when Janelle and I got married I thought, ‘Wow, this is something special,’” but looking back he was just “bringing more people into a problem.”

Janelle — who revealed in December that she and Kody had been “separated for several months” after nearly 30 years — agreed with her estranged spouse’s assessment of their early family life.

“We really struggled. It was everything,” the Strive With Janelle founder said of her dynamic with Meri, 51, at the beginning. “I’m someone who just stuff, stuff, stuffs [things down and then] blow[s]. Meri is really direct. It was almost offensive to me.”

Christine, who spiritually married Kody in 1994, echoed Janelle’s sentiments, saying that Meri was “more aggressive with her conversations.” She joked that she would “have an ulcer” when trying to speak with the California native.

“She’s just really confrontational. The kitchen was an issue when we all shared a kitchen. Everything had to be perfect,” Christine, 50, said. “It was very, very stressful. That was the biggest thing. I never knew if she was mad or not mad.”

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When it came to his union with the Cooking With Just Christine star, Kody confessed that it wasn’t exactly built on love. (The couple announced in November 2021 that they had called it quits after more than 25 years of marriage.)

“Christine basically asked to be in our family. I felt a lot of pressure,” the patriarch claimed on Sunday’s episode. “Christine … she was basically royalty in our church. I look back and it wasn’t fair for me to go, ‘Oh, this will make me cool in our church.’”

When host Sukanya Krishnan asked whether the marriage was tied to his ego, Kody confessed, “I was a polygamist, it’s all ego, baby!”

As Kody’s relationships with Christine and Janelle fell apart — and they grew closer as friends — Meri held onto anything that her spouse would throw her way. During part one of the Sister Wives: One-on-One special, which aired in December, Meri revealed that her relationship with Kody was over, but not because she left him.

“I think Kody’s already decided [our fate],” the Bed and Breakfast owner said on Sunday. “We have a lot of history and I love him. And he has chosen not to love me and not to want a relationship with me. So far as to consider himself not married to me. So, I think that’s what we’re sitting with.”

Robyn, who legally wed Kody in 2014 after he divorced Meri, has seemingly stuck by her partner’s side through all the drama. (Meri remained spiritually married to Kody from 2014 to 2022.)

Kody hinted at his strong bond with Robyn during Sunday’s episode when he was asked who he trusts now. “I think that’s obvious,” he quipped.

Part 3 of the Sister Wives: One-on-One special airs on TLC Sunday, January 8, at 10 p.m. ET.

Scroll down for the biggest bombshells from part 2 of the tell-all:

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Did Christine Support Meri and Kody’s Relationship?

Kody previously claimed that when he told his wives that he was considering a reconciliation with Meri — after receiving a sweet 30th-anniversary gift from her in 2020 — Christine “lost her s—t.” During Sunday’s episode, he double down on his comments about the alleged tension between Christine and Meri.

“It just rattles Christine. I had just shown them the plans to [design] the one house and it probably upset Christine there. One thing led to another,” he said of the moment. “Then I’m talking about reconciling with Meri and there’s something in their relationship where Christine went, ‘Oh, I can’t do that.’”

Robyn, 43, revealed that she was told the same thing about the alleged incident between Christine and Kody. “I didn’t know this was connected to it, but I guess she was falling apart — she was at my house, and she was falling apart,” she said. “I don’t want to talk bad about her.”

According to Robyn, she thinks Kody and Meri could have reconciled if Christine wasn’t so against the idea. “When Kody says and thinks that sort of stuff it usually happens,” she explained. “It sucks, right?”

Christine, however, denied that she had any ill will toward Meri and Kody while they were still together. “That’s really absolutely frustrating and offensive. There’s no way I would not support him and Meri having a great relationship if that’s they both wanted,” she said on Sunday’s tell-all. “That’s absolutely ridiculous.”

While Christine and Meri had their ups and downs, the Utah native claimed that her former spouse must have “twisted” what she was saying in the past. “I am so frustrated that he just doesn’t know me,” Christine continued. “That he would twist my words to somehow say anything like that. That’s a lie. That’s not me.”

Meri, meanwhile, revealed that she doesn’t know what happened in that conversation. “I have never heard this out of his mouth,” she said, noting, “It’s curious that Christine doesn’t remember it at all.”

Looking back, Meri confessed that it was “a little heartbreaking” to her to know that Kody briefly thought about working on their marriage only to break things off officially shortly thereafter. “Now two years later he’s like, ‘Absolutely not.’ I’ve spent a lot of years full of hope. Figuring myself out and becoming a better persona and hoping that was good enough,” she revealed. “It’s not. He actually said those words to me, ‘That that’s not good enough.’ It’s hurtful. It also is what it is.”

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Janelle Doesn’t Have Any Regrets

“I don’t regret anything,” Janelle said after watching flashback footage of her kids growing up in the plural family. “It was heaven. There was [good] moments and there was, obviously, hard moments too. When we were together like that everything was like everything was OK. It was pretty amazing.”

The health coach continued: “We were all united in the purpose of raising these kids. We let a lot of differences of opinions really divide us in a very deep way that I never foresaw us ever having happen.”

Meri, for her part, agreed with Janelle, saying, “We’ve had a really good life.” She pointed out that “obviously things are different now” as three of the four marriages have fallen apart. “As [the kids] grow and they start their own lives, the adults are figuring out who we are in this family as well,” Meri added. “We were so young. I was 19 [and] Kody was 22.”

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Kody’s Relationship With Meri Was ‘Hard’ From Day 1

“I married Meri and it was a hard relationship from the very beginning,” he explained, revealing that when Janelle joined the family, they moved into Meri’s house. “So I’m bringing a wife into somebody else’s house. It was weird as hell.”

The polygamist noted that Meri “might have been jealous” of Janelle, but his tension with her wasn’t something new. He claimed that “any little thing” he did caused a stir with Meri. “I’m in an established relationship with somebody that I don’t even get along with. Then I bring somebody else in [and it’s getting worse],” Kody recalled. “Then we bring Christine in and that seemed to calm it.”

The father of 18 added: “This was happening from the day [we got married]. After me and Meri had our honeymoon period. We were in the storm.”

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Janelle Wanted Out in Wyoming

“The family was in a bad place because Janelle moved out. She was done. She moved in with her mother,” Kody revealed, noting that Janelle hit her breaking point in the early 2000s. “I didn’t feel like she was leaving me, but she was leaving them because I wasn’t giving her enough support. … She couldn’t abide with being with Christine and Meri any longer.”

At the time, the family consisted of Kody, Meri, Janelle and Christine, and according to the patriarch his second wife wasn’t “fitting in” with the other women.

After Kody told Janelle that he was getting a job in Utah and wanted to uproot the family from Wyoming, she dug her feet in the sand. “She says, ‘I’m not moving with ya.’ That was a real shock to me,” he claimed, explaining that once he found a house that could fit the entire group, Janelle changed her tune and rejoined the family.

“I think Kody remembers it in a way that works for him to remember it. That’s not how I remember it,” Janelle told the host. “I think he is looking to blame — [that in the past] there was always conflict. Yes, there was conflict, but there were really good times too.”

She confessed: “I really wanted to stay in Wyoming. I had just started to develop a good life and I didn’t want to leave it.”

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Kody Slams Christine for Alleged ‘S—t Talking’

“Christine s—t talked Janelle and Meri for two years to me,” Kody claimed, saying that was why he was “getting frustrated” when she spoke about moving away. He alleged that Christine, who also had issues with Robyn, once told him he was “sleeping with the enemy” when he’d talk about working on his other relationships.

“I’m going, ‘I understand that Janelle has certain nuances or quirks … but I love her and I’m still in this relationship with her,’” he continued. “And you’re telling me that she mistreated you. I spent two years listening to it.”

Christine, on the other hand, said that while she was “frustrated” at times with her fellow sister wives, it was “not new” for her to vent to her spouse.

“He did the same thing. He never complained about Robyn. He would complain about Meri and Janelle to me,” she claimed. “I figured we were just complaining to each other. I didn’t think I was being mean. I put up boundaries.”

Christine noted that it wasn’t until that exact moment that she realized that Kody’s comments about not being attracted to her stemmed from how she allegedly treated the rest of the women. “Me just venting to him is what he was talking about that I was mean to my sister wives — I think that’s ridiculous,” she added.

Kody, however, doubled down on his claims of Christine being mean behind other people’s backs. “She’s been s—t talking me. Breaking up a marriage when you’re not in love I get it. But to assuage her guilt she has blamed me for everything,” he alleged. “Including her children and Janelle’s kids. As a result, combined with COVID issues, those relationships have been pulled away from me.”

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Was Christine Really a Bad Sister Wife?

One of the pivotal moments during season 17 was when Christine told the adults that she sold her house in Flagstaff and was officially moving to Utah. The discussion ended with Kody screaming at Christine and claiming she never tried to be a good sister wife, especially to Robyn.

“That was so hard to watch. So hard to be there. Kody hasn’t yelled like that before,” Christine said after watching the scene back. “[I was] so shocked. … I wasn’t mean. I wasn’t mean to anybody. I didn’t know that I had been shunning Robyn like Meri said I was doing. That was really difficult.”

While Janelle and Meri have admitted to having their past issues with Christine, they both agreed that Kody’s outburst was hard to watch.

“There are nuances like, Kody, [saying], ‘I made so many sacrifices to love you.’ If you have to sacrifice to love somebody that’s not healthy,” Janelle said. “This whole framing it around you were a bad sister wife. According to what perspective? Are you really my husband too if you only see she was a bad sister wife to one person? If you’re really married to one person, you’re going to see both sides. Nobody’s ever innocent.”

Meri, meanwhile, pointed out that she had seen the nonacceptance toward Robyn, but felt bad for how the conversation transpired.

“I’ve seen her be a little bit challenged with Robyn coming in and him caring about her so much,” Leon’s mother explained. “I also get that [Christine], through those years, was craving some attention and some love that she wasn’t getting. I mean, he said it. [Kody’s] like, ‘It was a sacrifice to love her.’ No wife wants to hear that. No wife wants to feel that.”

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Robyn Calls Herself an ‘Easy Target’

“In the beginning, it was very difficult. I kept thinking we were working through stuff,” Robyn said of her relationship with Christine. “It was snarky comments, not including me in things. Letting me know how things were going to go. Pulling rank.”

After Christine told the family during season 17 that she had no plans of working on her relationship with the adults she wasn’t close to — meaning Robyn and Meri — Robyn broke down. The dynamic between the two has yet to be mended.

When asked during the tell-all whether she could be friends with Christine, Robyn replied, “That’s really dependent on Christine.” She explained that she is “willing” to work on their issues and start over.

“It would have to be established on real stuff. On real trust,” Robyn confessed. “I want real relationships with all of these ladies. Before I even fell in love with Kody I fell in love with the family and the family culture. It’s something that I am mourning all the time. Because they took it away from me.”

Robyn noted that it “feels really unfair” that Christine was able to break up the family without anyone else having a say. “I feel angry. I’m angry at them all. I’m angry [about] what we’ve done to our family,” she said. “I would have never chose this. I feel cheated.”

The reality star then revealed that she feels like the other wives put all of the family drama on her shoulders because they think she’s the favorite. “I jokingly refer to myself as Kody’s whipping boy. When he does something, they don’t like I get blamed,” Robyn claimed. “Maybe I’m an easy target. I don’t fight. It’s not my nature. I am more heart.”

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Why Christine’s Goodbye Was ‘Awkward’

The TLC personalities reflected on the last day that Christine was in Arizona, which fans saw on season 17, noting that the giant gap between the fractured family was just as uncomfortable as viewers imagined.

“It felt very much like here is the division. It looked that way. It felt that way. There were sides being taken,” Janelle said. “We really needed it no matter how awkward it [was]. It’s hard. It was super awkward. It really felt like there was this line. I think we were all doing the best we could.”

Robyn, meanwhile, claimed that she and Kody stood far away from Christine, Janelle and their children “because of COVID” and staying safe health wise.

“I would have hugged her,” she alleged. “It’s hard because I’m standing there with the knowledge that Christine doesn’t want a relationship with me or my kids. Why am I saying goodbye if she doesn’t want [something more]?” Robyn added that despite feeling hurt, she showed up to say goodbye and make sure that Christine knew “no matter what, I was still there.”

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Christine Already Has a New Dream Man in Mind

“I think she wants someone who really just cherishes her,” Janelle said, before revealing that Christine “has this fantasy character, like, a statue that she has in her house” that she thinks is the ideal man. “He’s some character from a video game,” Janelle added.

Christine laughed before admitting that the fictional character Janelle was referring to is Durotan the Orc. “That’s really what I’m attracted to. He’s a warrior, but he’s looking at his wife with so much love,” she explained. “I just want that kind of love.”

When it comes to her celebrity crush, Christine pointed to “Shemar Moore, definitely.” The mother of six added: “I’m blushing. The man’s beautiful. [I want] someone who treats women well.”