Christine Claims Robyn Planted the Idea of Meri Divorcing Kody

The Brown family revisited the turmoil surrounding Meri Brown’s formal divorce from Kody Brown on the current episode of Sister Wives — with Christine Brown alleging it was all Robyn Brown’s idea.

“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, 52, stated during the Sunday, December 29, edition of the TLC series.

Christine stated that in the time, she thought, “That’s a plant” and that Robyn, 46, was implying she wanted Meri, 53, to do the same for her and her kids.

“She mentioned that several times through the years, like, she was putting that in there because she would have loved that to happen,” Christine further alleged, stating, “I don’t think Meri felt like it was planted. I think Meri felt like it was her own idea.”

Meri lawfully wed Kody, 55, in 1990, becoming his first wife. The multiple family increased their brood in 1993 when Kody spiritually wedded Janelle Brown. In 1994, Christine entered into a spiritual connection with the patriarch.

When Robyn began dating Kody in 2010, she already had three children from a former marriage. Four years later, Meri and Kody formally separated and he married Robyn and subsequently adopted her children.

While Christine stated it was Robyn’s goal all along, she disputed the charges. “The idea that I, like, planted an idea in Meri’s head is an absolute lie,” Robyn stated on Sunday’s program. “I never said it.”

She added, “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.”

Elsewhere in the show, Robyn said, “I feel like I’ve been gas lit by some of the family members,” implying that her actions were misrepresented.

Janelle, however, said she was apprehensive of Meri divorcing Kody in 2014 because of the circumstances of their family at the time.

“I was actually sort of speechless when [Meri] told us that she was actually doing it, because I thought Meri would never do this,” Janelle recounted. “I already had started to see that there was a little bit of favoritism for Robyn from Kody at that point, and I did worry.”

Robyn, however, emphasized that it was never her desire to formally marry Kody, especially after her earlier divorce. She maintained it was Meri’s idea, whereas Meri indicated she began the processes but she and Kody had discussed it jointly.

“Meri had had the idea in her head to offer to give me the legal marriage so that Kody could adopt my kids,” Robyn informed viewers, saying, “I never even wanted to be legally married to Kody.”

Robyn stated she was “really grateful” she “wasn’t going to be legally married” to Kody because she had gone through “so much trauma with my legal divorce in my last marriage.”

She continued, “I was very happy and content with my spiritual marriage. I didn’t need anything else.”

Although Meri did take the measures to begin the ball moving on the 2014 divorce, she didn’t believe it would have such a huge effect on her emotional condition or her marriage to Kody.

“I do question if at that time he already kind of had this plan in mind, [saying], ‘If I can just do this, it’ll be easy transition,’” Meri told the cameras, adding that within “six months” after signing the documents, Kody “quit coming around.”

She described feeling “a lot of heartache” when she went to the attorneys to sign the documents, since she didn’t feel “emotionally supported” by the other spouses or Kody.

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“I had the logical part of me saying, ‘No, you still have the spiritual side of the marriage.’ It felt emotionally like I was getting rid of, like, the whole marriage,” Meri explained. “It was so hard. And I had to convince myself all the time, ‘No, it’s not. We still have that spiritual marriage.’”

Kody acknowledged he didn’t think of the termination of the legal links as a huge issue. “In my mind, we were just shuffling legal paperwork,” he added. “Meri and I, after that divorce, left Robyn and went to dinner together. I gave her a magnificent ring and we presumably went home and made love.”

Meri and Kody stayed in a spiritual partnership for over 10 more years, but their love never rebounded back after their formal split. (Meri confirmed her split with Kody in January 2023 after months of rumors. Christine and Janelle, meanwhile, left Kody in 2021 and 2022, respectively.)

Looking back, Meri stated that their divorce and her choice to acquire a bed and breakfast in Utah (where her mother resided in until her death) was a method for Kody to separate himself from their marriage.

“I think it’s interesting that I’m actually here living in the house because when I bought the house, that was not the intention,” Meri stated in the episode after moving from Arizona to Utah for good. “I know Kody felt like that. I suppose other members of the family did too.”

She disputed that it was her “escape plan,” stating, “I think the escape plan was that legal divorce. Let’s be clear, it was his getaway plan.”