Knowing she was bringing along not just six kids but also a sister wife, Christine Brown was nervous about navigating the dating world. Then, she met her fiancé, David Woolley.
The Sister Wives star tells that the connection with Woolley was almost instant. After just two dates, she says she “realized that we actually had something really special.”
Christine, 51, knew that she had some baggage to bring with her, though.
“He has a lot of kids, and I was so worried about coming with all of my history of everything, and us and all of our kids together,” she says.
When she finally shared her reality — that wherever she goes, her sister wife Janelle Brown is also going — she says Woolley’s reaction was better than she’d imagined.
“When I told him, I’m like, ‘I have a lot of kids and I have a sister wife, and everywhere I go, Janelle has to come with me and all of her children come with me too. There’s not just me,’” she recalls. “And he’s like, ‘Okay. Okay.’”
Christine adds that her fiancé “knew people that lived [in] polygamy” but “he’s not a polygamist” himself.
“He knew about polygamy enough, he understood it, and we just clicked and he was just easy,” she says. “He’s just chill.”
Aside from bringing Janelle along in her new relationship, Christine also had a half dozen children of her own to consider.
“He has eight kids, and I have six. And when I found out he had so many kids, I was like, ‘Yes.’ Because I’m not so complicated anymore,” she shares, adding, “Our kids get along really, really well.”
Christine is mother to daughters Aspyn, 28, Mykelti, 27, Gwendlyn, 21, Ysabel, 20, Truely, 13, and son Paedon, 25, who she shares with her ex-husband Kody Brown. The two separated after 25 years of “spiritual marriage” in 2021.
Prior to their split, Christine had been in a plural marriage with Kody’s other wives Janelle, Meri and Robyn.
Janelle went on to separate from Kody, too, the following year. It was later revealed that Kody and Meri were no longer together either. The father of 18 remains legally married to Robyn, who he wed in 2014.
He shares six children with Janelle: sons Logan, 29, Hunter, 26, Garrison, 25, and Gabriel, 21, and daughters Madison, 27, and Savanah, 18.
Reflecting on her slightly atypical past, Christine says of Woolley, “I come with a lot of complications and he loves me, and that’s the best thing of all.”
There’s also one key difference between her current relationship and her previous one: “I think the most important thing that’s different is David loves me. He loves me, just for me.”
While her marriage to Kody may not have lasted forever, Christine says that her and Janelle’s marriages were still a “success.”
“Just because I left, it doesn’t mean we failed,” Christine previously told. “It means there’s change. Our goal was to raise incredible children, and we did. It was a success for us.”
Sister Wives airs Sundays at 10 p.m. ET on TLC.