Christine Brown and her former Sister Wives aren't exactly crystal-clear about what really constitutes divorce in a spiritual marriage.
On Sunday's episode of the TLC series, Kody Brown's fourth wife, Robyn, opened up about her feelings on Christine's divorce from Kody after 26 years of marriage.
"Usually our church would [be the one to] say you're divorced," Robyn told Christine, Kody and his other wives Janelle and Meri. "You have to go ask for a divorce. You have to get paperwork, you have to get approval. You have to prove that the marriage is broken."
But, she told Christine: "This is a little different, I guess, because you don't consider yourself to be part of that church anymore."
Last November, Christine announced on Instagram that her spiritual marriage to Kody was over. In September 2021, she relocated to Salt Lake City, Utah, and still lives there with daughter Truely, 12. (The exes are also parents to son Paedon, 24, and daughters Aspyn, 27, Mykelti, 26, Gwendlyn, 20, and Ysabel, 19. Kody has a total of 18 children between the women.)
"Christine just saying she's divorced is sort of invalidating our beliefs," Robyn said in a confessional. "We are spiritually married to Kody by our church. If we want a divorce then we have to go get their approval. Usually they require counseling, lots and lots of meetings and technically, from my understanding, until Christine is physical with another man she's not divorced. But I don't know."
For Christine, who is no longer a member of the Mormon Fundamentalist faith and was never legally married to Kody, her divorce came to effect when she decided the marriage was over.
"Since I don't have any legal contract that binds me with Kody, there was no legal process that we've had to go through," she explained.
During the episode, Christine also revealed to the family that she sold her home in Flagstaff, Arizona, and was moving to Utah in a week.
"This conversation is not going to be easy," she said. "It's not only that my house is under contract, it's that I'm leaving. This is a pulling-the-rug-out-from-underneath-them kind of a thing."
Despite the difficulty of ending her plural marriage and starting over, Christine knew the decision was the right one.
"I was 21 when I got married. I'm 49. I'm starting over again," she said in a confessional. "All I know is that I'm moving forward and I'm moving to something better. I do know I'm moving towards something better. And that's enough most of the time."
She continued, "I know without a doubt I have tried for years to make this work. I have a clear conscience knowing that I gave it my best. If people want to look at me and think otherwise, OK — I can't do anything about that. Being a mom is my most important thing, but I couldn't with a clear conscience stay married to someone who had favorites and made it very known and someone who is breaking my kids' hearts. I need to stand with my them instead, and I wanted to do it for them."
Sister Wives airs Sundays at 10 p.m. ET on TLC.
