It's no secret that Robyn Brown has always dreamed of having a big, happy, polygamous family. Yet, a legal marriage to husband Kody Brown was apparently not always part of that vision.
On the Sunday, Dec. 29 episodes of Sister WivesRobyn, as well as Kody's ex-wives Meri Brown, Janelle Brown and Christine Brown, discussed the decision Meri, 53, made to divorce Kody, 55, so that he could legally marry Robyn, 46.
Kody shared that he “never felt like that legal divorce did anything to us.”
“Meri volunteered it but for some reason, it still had an emotional impact on her because shortly after was when she went through the catfish experience,” Kody told the cameras, referencing how Meri — who was his first wife — was catfished by a female. admirer pretending to be a man.
Meri, meanwhile, noted in a separate confessional how she felt legally divorcing Kody was what she “needed to do.” After that, she recalled the Brown family patriarch being “really kind” and “present in our relationship for, you know, a month or so” afterward before things dissipated. She then said the catfishing incident occurred several months later.
Noting how “the legal marriage really seemed very important to Meri,” Janelle, 55, told the cameras how she suspected it wasn't Meri's idea to legally divorce Kody. “I was actually sort of speechless when she told us that she was actually doing it, because I thought Meri would never do this. I had already started to see that there was a little bit of favoritism for Robyn from Kody at that point, and I did worry,” she recalled.
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From Christine's perspective, the 52-year-old remembered that “when Robyn first came into the family, she started talking to us about these other families where the first wife divorced the husband so he could marry the second wife legally and legally adopt the kids. .”
Christine claimed that Robyn brought this up to “plant” the idea into the family's heads, noting how she “mentioned that several times through the years, like she was putting that in there because she would have loved that to happen.”
“I don't think I felt like it was planted,” she added. “I think Meri felt like it was her own idea.”
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On the contrary, Robyn claimed the allegation that she “planted an idea in Meri's head is an absolute lie.”
“I never said it. I don't even know anyone who divorced their first wife so that the second wife could adopt kids. I've never even heard of that before,” Robyn told the cameras. “Meri told me when she made the offer that when we were getting to know each other, she had had the idea in head her to offer to give me the legal marriage so that Kody could adopt my kids.”
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From there, Robyn declared: “I never even wanted to be legally married to Kody.”
“I was actually really grateful that I wasn't going to be legally married to Kody because I'd gone through so much trauma with my legal divorce in my last marriage,” she added. “I was very happy and content with my spiritual marriage. I didn't need anything else.”
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Robyn joined the Brown family in 2010 as Kody's fourth wife. He had already been married to Meri legally since 1990 while also being spiritually married to Janelle since 1993 and Christine since 1994.
In 2014, Meri legally divorced Kody so that he could wed Robyn legally to adopt her children from her previous marriage. The longtime couple eventually separated in 2023 after three decades of marriage, and Meri later obtained an official termination of the marriage through their church on the grounds of abandonment.
Janelle and Christine also ended their marriages to Kody in the months leading up to his separation from Meri.
Sister Wives airs Sundays at 10 pm ET on TLC.