On Sunday’s episode of TLC’s “Sister Wives,” Meri Brown talks about how her ex-husband Kody Brown told her straight that their marriage was ended. Meri claims that the pair, who haven’t been romantically linked in a long time, were celebrating their 32nd wedding anniversary in April 2022 while having dinner together.
In a self-recorded video confessional, Meri claims, “At one point, he made some reference to faking relationships or something like that.” “And I was like, ‘Well, what do you mean faking?'”
Although Meri and Kody’s interaction was not recorded for the show, Meri claims that Kody implied they were pretending to be married when he nodded to her from across the table. After telling her ex-husband Meri wasn’t lying, Meri recalled Kody replying, “I don’t know why you even bothered to call and say happy anniversary, Meri.” Meri claims that he stated, “We’re not living as a married couple,” rather than outright declaring that they were not married.
“I felt like in that moment he stopped himself from saying, ‘Well, we’re not married.’ That was a big realization to me,” she says in a separate interview on the episode.
“All these years, that’s how he’s felt about it? But I haven’t known that,” she continues.
From Kody’s perspective, their marriage had been rocky since 2015 when Meri was involved in a catfishing scandal, and after a certain point he gave up trying to fix it.
On Sunday’s episode, Meri admits she asked that they take a “break” from their marriage at the height of their problems but denies kicking him out of her house.
“He actually said to me, ‘I have no desire, Meri, to have a relationship with you,'” Meri recalls of the anniversary dinner. It was apparently the first time since 2015 he’d explicitly said their marriage was over.
Meri says the moment was painful for her, especially because she used to have fears early in their marriage that he wouldn’t love her forever.
“He has said to me, ‘I never loved you and I never felt like that about you. I was trying to affirm it,'” Meri recalls later in the episode about another conversation that happened at an unknown time earlier in their relationship.
”That’s a bunch of bullshit,” Meri tells cameras. “Ask anybody that we know. Ask anyone who saw us in our early years, even ten years ago. And they would know that that’s just a bunch of crap that he’s spewing to… Maybe to try to justify how he feels now.”
Kody has been honest with cameras that he hasn’t felt romantic love for Meri in many years, although on season 17, he admitted that after one anniversary date he considered reconciling with her because she made him a Rice Krispie Treat for every year they were married.
That feeling, though, was fleeting. Following his suggestion that Meri move in above a storage barn he planned to build for his spare automobiles, Kody revealed to the cameras in a prior episode of “Sister Wives” season 18 that Meri was in denial about the status of their relationship. Meri also remembers Kody begging her to keep their split a secret due to “criticism” he receives from the public in Sunday’s episode. She firmly refuses to grant his demand, as she tells the cameras.
“This is my story, too,” she says. “And I have the right to tell my story.”
In January 2023, Meri became the third of Kody’s three former wives to announce they’d officially split. Kody’s third wife, Christine Brown, announced that she considered herself divorced in November 2021, and his second wife, Janelle Brown, announced her separation from Kody in December 2022.
Meri became Kody’s first wife in 1990 and legally divorced him in 2014 (shortly before the catfishing scandal) so that he could legally marry his fourth wife, Robyn Brown, in order to adopt Robyn’s kids. Robyn is now Kody’s only legal or spiritual wife.
“Sister Wives” airs Sundays at 10 p.m. on TLC.