When Sister Wives star Kody Brown met Meri Brown, it seemed like they could be happy together, but their legal marriage-turned-spiritual union soon descended into petty insults, with hurt feelings on both sides – it has to be said that Kody seemed meaner than his then-partner. In Kody’s defense, Meri should have seen the writing on the wall. He gave her endless hints that he’d lost that loving feeling. However, for her own reasons, she decided not to leave.
By staying with a man who’d checked out emotionally, Meri set the stage for real heartache. Kody, seemingly wanting to push her away, began to lash out. It’s possible that he regrets some of the things that he’s said.
Meri’s unfortunate catfishing scandal was probably the catalyst for some of his harshest disses and slights. When Meri began chatting with a woman she thought was a man, she was lonely. Starved of affection due to Robyn Brown’s presence, Meri found what she thought was better. However, the person who tricked her back in 2015 was even worse. At least Kody was who he said he was. As late as 2023, Kody was still hanging onto his resentment. During a Sister Wives Look Back: How We Started special, he said:
The experience of Meri’s catfish makes me extremely angry.
It seems like Kody should give Meri some grace. Clearly, Robyn was the only wife he was really in love with. If she went looking for a more fulfilling relationship, she probably had a good reason to. However, in his role as the patriarch, he could give love to four women, but they couldn’t seek out connections with other people. That is how polygamy works, and in some families, that dynamic makes people happy. However, that wasn’t the case in the Brown family.
6
Was Meri Really “Horrible” To Kody For Two Decades?
That’s A Strong Statement From Her Now-Ex
As per a People exclusive, Meri denied that her dalliance with a catfish was the reason why her marriage tanked. However, Kody’s rage, even years later, may tell a different story. Possibly, he felt that her betrayal was a deal-breaker. After that, while withholding forgiveness, he probably didn’t really consider her his spouse anymore.
At that point, he phoned it in with Meri, and tried to make it clear that he was over it. Everyone watching Sister Wives probably knew that Kody wasn’t in love anymore. However, Meri, clinging to what was familiar, may have told herself something different.
During an emotional and vulnerable time earlier this year, I began speaking with someone online who turned out to be not who they said they were. I never met this person and I regret being drawn into this situation, but I hope because of it I can help others who find themselves in similar circumstances.
Meri’s catfish said they were a man named Sam Cooper, who was a prosperous businessman. The person conned Meri, pretending to be a guy in his 40s. It eventually came to light that Meri’s love interest was a woman named Jackie Overton. This was crushing for Meri, who’d had high hopes and been so trusting, and Kody wouldn’t forgive her. A lot of things probably contributed to their breakup, but the catfish incident definitely pushed their issues towards critical mass.
Maybe Kody should say he’s sorry for failing to understand why Meri did what she did. He’s clearly all about Robyn – all the now-exes knew this. So, she wasn’t really harming her spiritual union. Meri was simply being human, and the family’s downfall was inevitable. When Kody’s so harsh about Meri, implying that he’s the wronged party, he seems to be playing the victim.
5
Kody Put Down Meri’s “Mean Girl Girlfriends”
He Didn’t Like Their Attitudes
Meri left Kody in January 2023, after a whopping 32 years of marriage. After that, Meri tried to move on with Amos Andrews – learn about their short-lived relationship in the clip shown above. That romance lasted for only four months. Now, she’s teasing a new relationship with a man named Brandon Stone. While she hasn’t been lucky in love, luck can change, and it usually does.
If Meri breaks her losing streak, she’ll feel so powerful, and I think she will. She’s about due for a happy relationship where she’s really valued and understood. She has earned the right to be happy.
With Kody, there were so many put-downs, even if her friends didn’t pass muster with him. Onscreen, Kody called out her “mean girl girlfriends,” including Meri’s good buddy Jenn Sullivan, who seems like a great person. In fact, Kody described Meri’s pals in very denigrating ways:
If she really wants love, if she wants to find a man, she’s going to have to ditch those b******s because he ain’t gonna put up with that.
Meri can do better – this isn’t love or even fondness. He’s saying she can’t find a man because of her friends. He’s putting down her nearest and dearest while insulting her too. Kody clearly didn’t appreciate Meri’s friends, who surely weighed in on her relationship. Maybe the truth hurt sometimes. While he believes he’s being targeted because he loves Robyn, the exes have their sides of the story. Their feelings are valid too.
Meri’s said that Jenn’s more loyal than most of her family members. They record “Fridays with Friends” segments together. Their relationship seemed stable, healthy and happy. However, Kody sees threats everywhere. Anyone who might put him down, even if he deserves some of the shade, is excommunicated.
4
Kody Told Meri: “Blame Yourself If I Don’t Love You”
Was This Below The Belt?
Kody’s not all bad, and how he feels shouldn’t be discounted, but at the same time, he was the one who fell in love with Robyn. This left him with almost no emotional wiggle room. He didn’t have much of anything left over for the other wives. Even in terms of money, it now seems like Robyn got the lion’s share. She had the million-dollar home, the David Yurman signet ring that matched Kody’s, and, allegedly, $70,000 worth of dolls that she purchased on Etsy.
Janelle’s talked about having very little money, adding that Kody took “a lot” of cash out of the family fund, while she looked after the accounting. Money seems to be a real hot button topic for Janelle – it really triggers her. Last season, on Sister Wives season 18, she clearly didn’t like her small apartment. Sometimes, there were scenes set in the home that Robyn and Kody share. It had a great big living room, a fancy kitchen… tons of space for the “core family” (as Robyn called it) and more.
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The exes have legitimate gripes – they too may be at fault sometimes. The family dynamic was complex, and when Robyn entered the fray, the sands shifted again. As Kody and Robyn got closer, it seemed like they were icing everyone else out, whether that was actually true or not. For example, during the pandemic, they sequestered themselves due to fears about contracting the virus. However, interestingly, it later surfaced that Kody never bothered to get vaccinated at all, according to his son, Paedon Brown.
Was Kody really so vigilant because he was an anti-vaxxer? There’s no proof, but it adds an interesting layer to the whole pandemic drama, showing that Kody may have chosen a path whereby he became isolated from other Browns, even when he had the chance to vaccinate.
Maybe that was more of a choice than a necessity.
So, due to things like this, when Kody told Meri, “Blame yourself if I don’t love you” during season 19’s explosive trailer, it seemed like cruelty. In his mind, it all made sense, but those who saw Kody favor Robyn onscreen and cut the family out during the COVID-19 pandemic may have felt differently. Maybe they thought Kody mistreated Meri, who’s over polygamy, and that he should shoulder at least some of the blame.
3
“The Writing Is On The Wall”
Kody Acts Like Nothing’s A Choice
Meri complained about living in a:
limbo land.
with Kody onscreen, referring to their former status – they were technically in a spiritual union, but it was not a typical relationship. He hadn’t forgiven her for the catfish stuff, he seemed to look down on her a lot, and he appeared to be doing everything in his power to turn her off and get him out of his life. Actually, that wasn’t a bad thing, but it did seem cruel at times.
However, it’s hard to argue with the fact that he was helping Meri by pushing her away. She could never be authentically happy with someone who doesn’t love her. So, really, in this case, Kody may have been doing what was best.
He’s talked about the fact that with Meri, the “writing was on the wall.” He means that she should have known it was over instead of dragging it out, and it’s here that he plays the victim. Instead of ending it himself, he does things to alienate Meri, seemingly hoping that she’ll leave. Then, he won’t have to be the one who’s the villain. Human interactions can be a sticky wicket and Kody may have preferred that Meri leave him, rather than him asking her to leave.
However, because she ignored his signs (the red flags that viewers could spot from space), he ended up needing to get very real about how he felt. Meri really hung in there and it got extremely awkward. She even befriended Meri – an unlikely bond developed between the women. It seemed like Meri was a bit naive, not really understanding Robyn. Robyn clearly wanted monogamy for a long time, while pretending not to, so it’s possible that she wasn’t the best friend for Meri.
When he said the “writing is on the wall,” Kody was saying that Meri should have known what was going to happen. He was putting it all on her. However, due to her religious values, she may have felt uncomfortable exiting a plural marriage. There are a lot of practical reasons why she might have stayed in a spiritual union. Beyond religion, there was her career as a reality star to think about – she might have worried that she’d lose her fame if she left.
So, painting Meri as someone who was unable to read his signals seemed a bit patronizing.
2
Kody Said: “I Don’t Understand Why You Did It So Fast.”
He Added: “You Have A Guy On The Side Waiting?”
When Meri finally bailed out, accepting the fact, once and for all, that the spiritual union was going nowhere, she texted with Kody, doomed to experience yet another unsatisfying interaction. Kody put the blame of Meri, even questioning if she was hiding a love interest. Since Kody has always been all about Robyn, the fact that he would display a flash of jealousy over some love interest, which was very likely a figment of his imagination, seemed bizarre to say the least.
Meri had reached her limit – it was about feeling unloved, neglected, and low on the totem pole. There didn’t really need to be a “secret” reason for leaving. The situation was bad enough that anyone would want out. So, Meri left, Kody got suspicious, and that seemed odd. Maybe he just wanted to make it look like she had an ulterior motive.
1
Kody Tried To Win The Breakup With Meri
However, She Seems To Have Won
Above, Meri glows, embarking on a whole new life without Kody. Fans are giving her a lot of love. The desire to win a breakup in the court of public opinion is almost universal. Sometimes, when Kody plays the victim, although his favoritism led to the family’s downfall, it seems like a PR move. However, we may not be giving Kody enough credit. It’s possible that he was seriously wounded by Meri’s catfishing.
Maybe her leaving brought back that pain, making him question if she had someone else. Nonetheless, when Kody goes low, he doesn’t win his breakups. Since he still has a wife, and the nice house, people assume he’s okay. They don’t really look under the surface. He’s used to being considered a villain – as long as his conscience is clear, he should be alright.
However, now and then, it seems like everything that’s happened in his former marriages is weighing the Sister Wives patriarch down. If he stops mistrusting Meri and tries to see things from her side, he might be a happier person. When he continues to point the finger, he’s just stuck in the past.
Sister Wives fans can stream the series on the Discovery+ platform.
Sources: Meri Brown/Instagram, People
Sister Wives
- Release Date
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September 16, 2010
Source: People
