Sister Wives Kody Brown may have pushed his relationship with Meri Brown to its limits, but many feel he’s been faking their connection for years.
Wives of Sisters On their thirty-second wedding anniversary, Kody Brown revealed to Meri Brown that they had been lying about their relationship. This caught Meri off surprise but did not come as a shock to many of the show’s viewers. Despite being the longest married couple in the Brown family, Kody and Meri have struggled in their marriage for many years. Things may be about to change in Meri and Kody’s turbulent relationship now that she has finally opened her eyes to the problems they have been having. However, during their time together, Kody and Meri have been on completely different wavelengths, and Sister Wives season 18 viewers are aware that he has been lying about their connection for a long time.
Although Kody and Meri have been married for more than 30 years, there have been many problems in their marriage throughout the past ten years. Meri’s high-profile catfishing controversy and Robyn Brown’s decision to divorce her have both negatively impacted their marriage and caused them to grow suspicious of one another. Over time, Kody’s feelings for Meri have diminished, and despite her attempts to hold onto her spouse, Meri has become a more self-reliant person in recent years. Meri has been creating a life for herself, while Kody has been attempting to establish his life with Robyn.
8. Kody Brown Always Put Meri Brown Down
Although Kody has said he always tries to be a positive person in his family’s lives, he’s often seen putting Meri down on Sister Wives. For years, Kody and Meri’s marriage was a happy one, shown off on the series as a sweet, grounding relationship. After years together, the foundation of Kody and Meri’s marriage began to crack, and as Kody fell more in love with Robyn, he found himself uninterested in his other wives, especially Meri. Kody’s spoken extensively about how Meri’s looks don’t appeal to him, how he finds her physically and emotionally unattractive, and how he’s no longer interested in her as a person on Sister Wives.
7. Kody Brown Wouldn’t Forgive Meri Brown For Her “Catfish” Romance
In 2015, it was revealed that Meri had been carrying on an extramarital affair with someone she thought to be a man named Sam. Meri had met “Sam” online, exchanging messages on Twitter before getting each other’s numbers and beginning to text. The messages quickly became inappropriate, and Meri shared deeply personal words and photos with “Sam”, only to find out that she’d been catfished. Sam was actually a woman named Jackie who exposed her to the public, airing Meri’s messages and sharing their affair with the world. Kody, obviously hurt, never truly forgave Meri for stepping out on him, even if it was with someone who wasn’t real.
6. Kody Gave Meri Less Attention Than Janelle, Christine, & Robyn
Over the years, it became evident that Kody was providing Robyn with the greatest care of all his wives, but he was also providing more attention to Christine Brown and Janelle Brown than he did to Meri. Even if Janelle and Christine had bigger families than Meri’s, it wasn’t right that he wasn’t allocating the same amount of attention to each of his four wives. Even though Kody was supposed to treat his wives equally, he continued to put Meri at the bottom of the priority list in order to spend as little time as possible with her. Kody chose to avoid talking to Meri instead of expressing his feelings.
5. Kody Wanted Her To Move Into A Barn
During Sister Wives season 18 episode 9, Meri shared her future plans with Kody in the hopes that he’d show a bit of interest in what she was hoping to do with herself moving forward. Though Meri was planning to move her business dealings from Arizona to Utah, she explained that she wouldn’t be moving away. Instead, she was hoping to downsize and look for a new home. Kody, who thought he was being generous, offered Meri the loft over his backyard barn. Rather than trying to help her find a place of her own, Meri was offered to be treated like Kody’s junk to be tossed into the shed.
4. Kody Brown Wouldn’t Reveal The Meaning Of His New Ring To Meri Brown
For years, each of the adult members of the Brown family wore a Claddagh ring to symbolize their commitment to one another. Each of the Sister Wives cast members had purchased their rings for one another, giving them to each other in signs of good faith and lifetime commitment to their families. Instead of wedding rings, the Claddagh rings were meant to be a special symbol for each other. Recently, Kody’s begun to wear a new ring that symbolizes his commitment to Robyn. When Meri asked about the ring, Kody purposefully stayed quiet. He didn’t want to share what it meant, being purposefully cagey to make Meri feel uncomfortable.
3. Kody Wouldn’t Invest In Meri’s B&B
Meri’s dream of opening a bed and breakfast came true in 2017 when she opened Lizzie’s Heritage Inn in Utah. Named after her mother, Meri and her mom were closely tied to the Inn and she was happy to be taking on the new business venture, as it was something she’d always wanted to do. When she first approached Kody about the idea of opening her B&B, Meri was shot down. Kody wasn’t interested in her idea and refused to invest financially into his wife’s business despite her having a sound, rational plan behind it. Kody’s lack of interest wasn’t surprising, but it was still hurtful.
2. Kody’s Clashed With His & Meri’s Only Child Leon Brown
Although they hoped to have more children, Meri and Kody did have one child during their marriage. Leon Brown, who no longer associates with Sister Wives or the majority of the Brown family, has had a tough relationship with both of their parents. Kody especially has failed to connect with his and Meri’s child. While Kody may not understand Leon’s life or decisions, he has chosen to remain uncharacteristically quiet about them in the media and on Sister Wives. In the past, Kody has openly clashed against Leon as they’ve chosen to live their life a way Kody doesn’t approve of or understand.
1. Kody Brown Made Meri Brown Give Up Her Legal Wife Status
Despite Meri’s initial openness to the notion of being benevolent toward Robyn, the Sister Wives star’s formal divorce caused her a great deal of pain. Kody had to force Meri into a divorce when Robyn and he originally made the decision to get married in order for him to be able to adopt Robyn’s children. After more than 20 years as Kody’s sole legal wife, Meri was not pleased with the outcome. One of the first concrete indications that their marriage was no longer real to Kody was that Meri had to give up her influence in the polygamist sect because she was his legal wife.