“Sister Wives”' Kody Claims Meri 'Beat the Love Out of Me' and Drove Him to Get Serious About Polygamy
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Kody Brown said that he and ex Meri had "a lot of problems" that he didn’t know how to "fix" before announcing their split in December 2022
Kody Brown is shedding light on why his relationship with first wife Meri Brown led him to begin a polygamous marriage.
During part 3 of the Sister Wives Talk Back special on Sunday, Kody, 54, claimed that Meri, 52, “beat the love out of me over our first year of marriage," which prompted him to search for connections elsewhere.
“From the beginning, Meri and I had a lot of problems. I couldn't fix them. I didn't know what to do,” he shared as footage of their 2022 breakup was shown. “Divorce wasn't an option in my world [so] just diluting the relationship was the only option I had. I'm going, 'Hey, I need another wife because I can't spend all my time with her.'"
The pair got married in 1990. The now-exes — who share child Leon Brown — eventually entered into a polygamous arrangement with Janelle Brown, 54, before welcoming Christine Brown, 51, and Robyn Brown, 45, into the plural marriage. Meri later divorced Kody so that he could legally adopt Robyn's children from her previous marriage.
The original Brown family pair experienced many issues over the years, with Meri's catfish drama — in which she virtually connected with a woman posing as a male admirer — serving as the tipping point in their strained relationship.
Kody justified his decision to stay in his marriage until their December 2022 split by explaining that he didn’t want the family “breaking apart,” adding, “I didn't want failed marriages. I didn't want all the dysfunction that I have experienced with these ladies over 20 years.”
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Robyn Brown, Meri Brown, Kody Brown, Christine Brown and Janelle Brown arrive at the grand opening of Mike Tyson's one-man show "Mike Tyson: Undisputed Truth - Live on Stage" on April 14, 2012“It’s interesting to me that he’s like, 'This isn’t what I wanted either,'" Meri added. “Because in my mind, I’m like, why don’t you try for something more?"
Meri said she no longer recognizes her ex, explaining, “He seems like a completely different person than the Kody of 10, 12, 14, 20 years ago and I'm not like being married to this person. Hence, I'm not.”
She shared that she would like to see Kody take some responsibility for the demise of their relationship.
“I really, really wish that he would take some sort of accountability and just be like, 'I did love you as much as I could and as much as who you and I were, like I did love you,'” she explains. “And then I realized that I didn't and leave it at that.”
She continued: “It's not fair for me to sit there and watch you have a marriage relationship with Robyn while I'm just in the shadows, never able to have an emotional, intimate relationship ever again.”
In an October episode of Sister Wives, Kody opened up about how his marriage with Meri was strained and had lost the spark it needed to keep it going.
“I feel like Meri and I have had a reasonably amiable relationship,” the Brown family patriarch told the cameras. “It’s distant, I don't see her very often. I don't know what to do with a marriage that's supposed to be eternal, but doesn't have any fire.”
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