Christine Brown didn’t think leaving her polygamous arrangement with Kody Brown would have such an impact.
In sneak peek at Sunday’s Sister Wives, the Brown family heads are reflecting on the collapse of their polygamous family — specifically, Christine’s role in shaking up things.
“Christine has left, and so many kids gravitate to her,” Meri Brown says in a chat with Robyn Brown. “I mean, they said that last year, you know, a year ago at Thanksgiving, you know? Janelle’s boys were saying that, ‘Well, whatever Christine does for Christmas or Thanksgiving, we’ll do that.’”
From Christine’s perspective, “I thought naively that we would be able to all get together again for holidays and family functions and still have family reunions together.”
“Even with me leaving, I really felt like we could be mature enough and adult enough,” says Christine, 51, in a confessional interview. “But as of right now, I don’t see that being possible. I just don’t. There’s so many things that are broken now. We’re just not a family anymore.”
But according to Kody, no one person is entirely to blame since everyone has “been unwilling to change in the right ways to make this a functional family.”
“Too many lines have been crossed. Too many times when we’ve gone, ‘I’ve given, I’ve given, I’ve given.’ And now, I’m sitting here going, ‘I’ve given too much and I don’t have more of this to give,’” says the 54-year-old reality patriarch. “This is so dysfunctional and you just go, I don’t want to live like this anymore. Here’s the thing.”
Even amid all the turmoil, Meri still sees “value to the big-picture family.” But she also says in her confessional: “Do I wish that we could all get our crap together and figure things out and have good relationships? Yeah, absolutely. But I don’t know what’s going to happen. I don’t know if that’s even possible or if everybody is even willing or interested.”
The ongoing strife is really getting to Robyn, who tells the cameras, “I need a reason why my family got blown to smithereens.”
Christine announced her separation from Kody in November 2021. One year later, Janelle, 54, and Meri, 52, also ended their longtime relationships with him.
Now Kody is no longer practicing polygamy as he adjusts to a monogamous relationship with fourth wife Robyn, 44.
Sister Wives airs on Sundays at 10 p.m. ET on TLC.
