 I'm pissed off. I'm pissed off. Man, the sacrifices that I made to love you wasted, and you're running away, that's not true. Oh man, I cannot believe, I cannot believe that I have done all this. I'm exhausted. Who cares? If you're not with me, you can't ask me to f off. And that's the reason I'm pissed off is the sacrifices that I made to love you. Look what? What the f***? Sorry. So you were not physically attracted to Christine? That's not a shame. I ironically knew he was trying to support me and I don't want to be in a relationship with her anymore. One man, four wives, 17 seasons on a reality show, 18 children. But in 2022, this complicated family completely fell apart, sparking tons of drama and debate over the sister wives reality show. I am absolutely shook, even though this was very expected, and that is how everything in the Brown family is starting to fall apart before our very eyes. Many people rooting for the women who chose to leave their marriages. So how was such a bizarre and controversial show created? And what caused the show and family to completely fall apart? The sister wives television show, which has been airing on TLC since 2010, followed the lives of Cody Brown and his four wives, Mary, Janelle, Christine and Robin, who are all members of the polygamist sect known as the fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, FLDS, that's a mouthful to say, and who practiced polygamy as members of the Apostolic United Brethren, a Mormon fundamentalist group. The show generated a significant amount of controversy and sparked wide debate over polygamy and the treatment of women in polygamous relationships. One of the main controversies surrounding the show was whether or not it accurately portrayed polygamous relationships. Some critics argued that the show sanitized and glamorized polygamy, trying to portray it as a loving and harmonious lifestyle that makes things easier for women because they have more independence. I always wanted sister wives. I just liked the idea of the companionship or the freedom that it got me. When I married Cody, when Janelle married Cody, when Christine married Cody, when Robin married Cody, each one of us made a commitment to each other, like to all of us. When, in fact, many people think polygamy is a form of ownership over women and discrimination. On top of that, no experts on the topic have ever been brought in to speak on the issues surrounding polygamy. And the show does give a very one-sided look into life of the plural marriages of the Brown family. A little welcome to the club, yes. Throughout 17 seasons of TLC's hit show Sister Wives, viewers have watched Cody, Mary, Janelle, Christine and Robin weather several ups and downs with their 18 children. The Browns decided that it was time for them to stop living in fear and show the world their lifestyle on the TLC reality show Sister Wives. In the polygamous lifestyle, you're really, really raised with fear to feel like the outside world and everything. And now here we are in the open and we get to be wives everywhere we go. We get to own our family 100% and our kids get to own their family 100% and that's very different from the way I was raised, where I was in hiding so much of the time. After its first season, Sister Wives drew national attention and garnered mixed reviews from critics. Washington Post staff writer Hank Stuber called it refreshingly frank and found most interesting the small details of the family's everyday life, such as the food supply, division of labor and minor arguments. LA Times television critic Mack Nomara said she was intrigued by the matriarchal nature of the polygamous family, a unit that is traditionally considered patriarchal. Mack Nomara said the wives formed the center of the family and that their bonds appear far stronger and more vital than the casual fondness with which they all treat Cody. We've been together a long time. We've been together for a long time, for like 15, 16 years. Oh, so... Break it forever! Shut up! So we get along well now because we have our... We've worked through our issues. You know what, it's just a constant thing, it's like any other friendship that you have. There's ups, there's downs, there's, you know, you learn... It's the ebb and flow of the relationship. Yeah. And we learn from each other's quirks. The big family thing was always really cool to me. I loved when I first met you guys, how you guys functioned. I loved it. Before I even fell in love with Cody, I fell in love with the family and the family culture of one big happy family. In 2010, when the Brown family made an appearance on the Oprah show, Oprah said she found the relationship between the sister wives particularly fascinating. What made you all decide to do this show, Sister Wives on TLC? How did that come about? The society tends to be fairly closed and we just felt this compelling desire to make the society more transparent. The society of polygamy? Yes. Yeah. And we figured that by showing our lives, we'd actually help the society be more transparent, have other people in the lifestyle feel safer about being transparent. But not everyone viewed the show in such a positive light. Christine Sefer, an associate professor of communication, said the show could give viewers who are unfamiliar with the LDS church the incorrect assumption that polygamy is accepted by the mainstream church. The women on the Sister Wives don't seem to be living in any danger necessarily, but many people believe that the Sister Wives are literally a cult and that showcasing their lifestyle could be really unhealthy especially for younger viewers. Especially because the show became so, so popular and mainstream and received really high ratings. According to Nielsen Media Research, the September 26, 2010, one hour premiere episode of Sister Wives drew 2.26 million viewers, which was a really strong rating for the network at the time. In the second week, the first episode drew 1.8 million viewers, the second 2.1 million. Sister Wives drew its strongest ratings during the fourth and final week of the first season, with 2.6 million viewers for the first episode and 2.7 million for the season finale. Basically, the show was a massive hit. I mean if you watched my most recent video on the Kardashians, towards the end of keeping up with the Kardashians, they weren't even pulling in nearly those numbers. When the series premiered in 2010, Cody Brown at the time was legally married to his first wife, Mary Brown, and spiritually married to his two other wives, Janelle Brown and Christine Brown. But viewers were quickly introduced to Cody's fourth wife, Robin Brown. And the first season of the show followed Robin's integration into the family, as the other wives had all been married to Cody for the last 16 years. Which is just an odd dynamic I can only imagine. Imagine having your whole kind of family setup established for 16 years and then a new person all of a sudden comes into the picture. Definitely a lot to grapple with. So I'm sure you're wondering, how did all these people meet and agree to be in a plural marriage and especially with this man? How did they agree to that and why? So here is the timeline of Cody's marriages to Mary, Janelle, Christine, and Robin. Cody and Mary Brown. After growing up in a polygamous family of her own, Mary is one of 25 siblings. Mary first met Cody in 1989 and married him the following year. My dad took his first plural wife when I was like 11 years old. I had a lot of years with other moms and other siblings that weren't just for my mom. So it wasn't out of the ordinary for me. Mary was Cody's only legal wife for years ever since they got married. But in 2014 while on The Sister Wives reality show, Cody divorced Mary so that he could legally marry Robin. But Mary remained spiritually married to Cody after their legal divorce. At the time, the Browns said in a statement that they had chosen to legally restructure their family and not the decision was made as a unit. I was talking to him about getting a legal divorce so that you guys can get married and then try to adopt the kids. Oh, I got it. However, this choice was still an emotional one for Mary. I mean, I can only imagine having a husband for 25 years and then they divorce you to marry someone else but then still expect you to stay in the picture. I mean, I don't know anyone who would be okay with that outside of, I guess, The Sister Wives. In 2016, Mary became embroiled in a cat fishing scandal after she entered into an online relationship with someone who she thought was another man but actually turned out to be a woman who was a fan of the show. I started talking to this person online and he was just saying all the right things. They have no idea how bad it is. They don't know what I bribed the family. Cody and Mary started therapy to deal with the fallout from the situation but their relationship became more platonic than romantic after that. I'm not staying at her house. They've been trying to basically work out our relationship so we can save it if you will. It's a strange marriage. My relationship with Mary is at best just distant and amicable. Like the relationship between he and I is gone, it's dead, it's over. I love how this scandal is that Mary had a cat fishing incident and that was supposedly such a horrible thing for Mary to do. And Cody literally divorced her after almost 25 years of marriage so that he could marry someone else but then two years later she talks to someone on the internet and apparently that's what ruined the relationship. Yeah, that makes sense. That's logical. In April of 2021, Mary shared on Sister Wives that she and Cody were celebrating their non-anniversary because we're not a couple but we're in a family. I helped start this family. It was me and him. We had plans and he loved me. Mary's trying to support me and I don't want to be in a relationship with her anymore. Cody and Janelle Brown. Three years after Cody and Mary wed, their family officially became a plural marriage after he spiritually married Janelle Brown. And Cody and Janelle went on to welcome six children together. Sons Logan, Hunter, Garrison and Gabriel as well as daughters Madison and Savannah. Janelle opened up to people in 2010 about their polygamous family life, noting that the group had both really good and really bad days, especially when it came to raising multiple teenagers in a single home. I love the whole idea of the whole family and this whole group synergy and I really felt like we would get progression, right, the whole idea is that we overcome our crap. Yeah. What we truly believe of living plural marriage is that you have to learn how to not be selfish. In 2021, Cody and Janelle's relationship also made headlines after it was reported that Janelle was living in an RV parked on the Brown's Coyote Pass property in Flagstaff, Arizona. And she later said she was having doubts about whether plural marriage was still for her. I basically, it feels like I'm being forced to choose between my children and this group. I don't feel like my children are welcome. In November of 2022, Cody described the relationship with him and Janelle as antagonistic, following Janelle's move into the trailer. I don't think Janelle or I are being honest or real in this relationship as we communicate with each other about this stuff. I do think you, Cody, focus like you're like, oh my God, nobody wanted to be together. And to be honest with you, I really don't know if I want to do the work. Cody and Christine Brown. Cody met Christine in 1990, though the pair didn't go on their first date until Valentine's Day in 1994. The following month, they entered into a spiritual marriage and Christine became the third wife to join the polygamous family. Something I thought was really interesting is that Christine's family is actually polygamy royalty of sorts. The Alred family that Christine Brown was a part of was actually a very known polygamous family within polygamy. Her grandfather was Owen Alred, who was the leader of the AUB after Rulon's assassination and had a total of 13 wives. I liked the example that my grandmas were for sure. They were just really close and after my grandpa died, they just stayed together. So I liked the sisterhood. To me, that's what family was, was a lot of grandmas. Then I had two moms and so that's what a normal family was to me, was a lot of moms. Christine's aunt, Kristen Decker, left her polygamous marriage when she was 50 years old. In Kristen's book, 50 Years in Polygamy, Big Secrets and Little White Lies, she calls out the AUB as a cult. She claims that the teachings led to members being physically, mentally, emotionally, sexually abused. And Kristen believes that all women practicing plural marriage are victims of sex trafficking and were grown by the teaching of the church and by the other wives. Decker now runs the Sound Choices Coalition, a nonprofit that helps people escape polygamous groups like the AUB. Christine comes from a long line of women who have escaped polygamy. Christine's mother left her faith and her plural marriage after her children were grown. We went downhill really fast. We just didn't get along. When she started having children and when we were together with the kids, we were great as moms for the kids. Being moms is a lot easier than being sisterwives. When I was five, my dad married my other mom and so I had two moms from five years old on and I loved it and I just remember watching them just thinking how great it would be to have sisterwives and just partially from their example. But Christine has said on Sister Wives that the choice to have a plural family was always something she saw for herself. I only ever wanted to be a third wife. I never wanted to be first at all. I only ever wanted to be a third because it sounded the easiest. I always wanted sisterwives. I just like the idea of the companionship. I like the idea of the freedom that it got me. I honestly wanted sisterwives more than a husband for a good time of my life. After their union, Cody and Christine welcomed six children of their own. Daughters Aspen, Mike Heltie, Gwendolyn, Isabel Trulee, and son Payton. Cody and Robin Brown. Robin became the fourth and final wife to join the plural family after meeting Cody at church in 2009. Though she and Cody were only initially spiritually married, they made their union legal in 2014 after he divorced Mary so that Cody could adopt Robin's three children from her previous marriage. Son Dayton and daughters Aurora and Brianna. They've also since welcomed more children together. Son Solomon and daughter Ariella. Making the total of children that Cody has 18 children. Throughout the years, fans and the sisterwives themselves have noticed that Cody and Robin seem to have the closest relationship. It would be nice if I if I had a husband who who would see my perspective as much as he seems to see Robin's. Which at times led to tension in the home as all the other wives blatantly saw that Cody had a favorite wife. Do you believe that Robin is the favorite wife? I feel like and my children feel like he has been disproportionate in the amount of time that he spends there. I think he has a favorite wife and that's why all of this is like it is. That's just what it comes down to. I think he has a favorite wife. Is Robin the favorite wife? You know, that's the most unfair question because you don't have any idea what work she has done, what she has done as a person, the sacrifices that she's made. But Robin said that her relationship with Cody was a result of how the other wives treated him. They handed him to me and said we don't want to spend time with him, basically. Well, after 25 years of marriage, I'm sure you get a little sick of the person, especially if you're married to this guy. You're telling me you wouldn't get sick of him. Chloral marriage isn't all beer and skittles, you know. The Brown family followers have spent more than 10 years watching the plural family on sister wives. And during those 10 years, they've dissected the personalities and dynamics between each family member. While Cody Brown has very few fans, if any, each of his four wives have at least some fans. But there's one wife that has fewer fans and far more haters than the others. And that's Robin Brown, Cody's fourth and final wife. Robin has been heavily criticized by fans over the years. So why do fans dislike her so much? I want to be honest and say I was convinced, too, that Robin also had an anxious attachment style. But really, she started slipping up when the pandemic hit. And during that season, that's when I was like, oh, it's you. The call is in the house. It's you. It's not Cody. It's you. Sister wives fans think Robin Brown is manipulative. It's hard to say how well Cody and his three wives were doing before Robin came along. But fans still believe that Robin joining the family was the tipping point for everyone. The issue is that Robin continuously acts like she's oblivious to Cody's actions when everything he is doing is for her. They have talked about all of these things. And yes, she completely pretends that she doesn't know what's going on. Fans think that Robin manipulates situations and has managed to turn everyone against each other. In the family's book, Becoming Sister Wives, Robin noted that she was apprehensive about joining the Brown family because of the number of lives Cody had when they met. We all know that this isn't all rainbows and flowers when they're going through this process of seeing me fall in love with somebody else. Where I don't want to hurt anybody and I don't want to make anybody uncomfortable, it's a little bit difficult for me. You've got Robin going, I'm not going to hurt them and I'm like, I'm sorry, there's no way around that. And the way she speaks about joining the family made fans believe that polygamy was not her first choice and was only something she considered because she had already been divorced. Well, the cool thing about this is you got people all over you, mothering your kids and even, I mean, even with Cody too. I mean, like, them all just helping out, that's one of the cool things about it. Many fans have noticed that Robin tries to pull the strings in the plural family to get what she wants from Cody. In Robin's culture, manipulating your way into being the favorite wife is the only method you have to ensure that you and your children are taken care of and it is our biological urge to want to ensure that our children are taken care of. But if things turn around for her, she tries to play the victim. For example, there's been times that the other wives have called Cody out for acting unfairly and favoring Robin. I've thought about this a lot lately because I've told friends recently that I didn't want to be an advocate of plural marriage anymore because I am more aware now than I ever was before the apparent, obvious unfairness in the relationship. Some are up, some are down, but it's, you know, it's always changing. I know I have all the love I want and you guys sometimes feel like you're pining constantly for me to, you know, give you some. But fans noticed that he returns right back to Robin and just backtracks on everything he had said. Robin's the only good communicator in this whole family. I'm a communicator. There's a term they use for Robin. It's called circling the donkey. It's where the donkey is roped to the grinder and it's grinding the meal and that donkey just goes around and around and around and around because Robin gets to the bottom of the problem. It's an unfair term for her, but the fact is it's a compliment. And fans believe that this is because Robin pulls the strings. I mean, girl boss, we love a matriarch. Is it really her fault for Cody being spineless? Code rules that favor Robin's kids. One thing that specifically talked about in the Sister Wives fandom are the COVID-19 rules that Cody and Robin put in place. You did not give me those rules till two weeks before Thanksgiving. So from March until Thanksgiving, I had no rules. Those were the rules. No, you didn't. You did too. That's not true. After this year of COVID, with the way that we have treated each other this year through COVID, no. Robin is absolutely right here. COVID exposed us. None of the other wives were allowed to visit them, nor were their children. But despite that strict rule, Robin went out and hired a nanny in that same year. What is the nanny and her husband doing? That makes it so they can come over. Because when I'm home, I do exactly what I should. Yet my girls can't see their siblings. What does the nanny do? This nanny was caring for her children, meanwhile the other wives weren't even allowed to come over and visit with the family. When the other wives and their children were finally able to visit, there were rules about how close they could be. And no one was allowed inside the house. And this upset a lot of the sister wives, not just because they couldn't see someone that they were spiritually married to, but also because of the way it affected their children, who were heartbroken at not being able to see their dad. Robin badmouths the other wives. Fans have also noticed that Robin Brown badmouths the other wives. I listened to German industrial rock. Older rappers like M&M. She said she went to several rock concerts and wore black t-shirts and heavy makeup and stuff. I had some snakeskin leggings and a ratty black t-shirt, take top pain, so yeah. Fans think she's tried her best to tear down the other relationships that Cody has, probably out of insecurity and struggling with the fact that your husband is also married to three other women. I mean, I know very few people. No, what am I talking about? I don't know very many people. I know nobody who could handle that. I think most people that just creates a system ripe for insecurity, jealousy, and comparing yourself to other people in this plural marriage constantly. Lately, Robin has also been accused of scamming her fellow sister wives out of money, particularly Janelle. During the November 13, 2022 episode of Sister Wives, Janelle said she can't leave her spiritual husband, Cody Brown, because she has no assets in her name. Janelle ended up sharing that when she sold her Vegas home, she gave half the proceeds to Robin to help towards the purchase of Robin and Cody's $900,000 home in Flagstaff. So Robin is living like a queen in a 4,000-plus square foot, five-bed, four-bath home, and Janelle is living in an RV on the Flagstaff property with no assets in her name. It's a very, very nice fifth wheel, has two bedrooms, two bathrooms. You're moving out onto the property? Yeah. It seems so crazy. Doesn't it seem crazy only to me? It can't seem crazy only to me. Honestly, I gave half the proceeds from my house in Vegas to Robin to help purchase the house she's in currently. We also at this time pooled a lot of money from the joint family account to help get her into that house, Janelle stated. And fans believe Janelle is being scammed by Robin and Cody because for years she was the main breadwinner working as a real estate agent. And now no one is paying her back or helping her with her living situation. She guilted Mary out of going to college. Last but not least, another instance that really upset fans was when Robin talked Mary out of going to college. And when the topic of going to college was brought up, Robin was quick to tear Mary down. I've been thinking a lot about needing to do something for me. It's college. I'm going to do it starting fall semester. Going to school and getting a degree and having that accomplishment is just really important to me. And then eventually you get your degree and then what do you do then? I see her like wanting to go to school and that's great. But how far is that going to take her away from the family and that's what I'm concerned about. I want to know and I'm scared is it going to take her away from my sister's closet? Is it going to take her away from the family? Is it going to take her away from me? And at the time Mary Brown was struggling. She was depressed and wanted a change in her life. But Robin talked her out of going to school so she could help with their business My Sister Wives Closet, a business that never really took off. And fans are still mad at her for making Mary miss that chance. A huge drama during the show was when the sister wives had to leave their home in Utah. There's a potential that our dad could go to jail. The sheriff drove by today. This is not the America that I went into that one. In Sister Wives Season 2, Cody Brown and his four wives and their 16 children at the time left Utah under duress when an investigation began on the family. A city of Lehigh finished their investigation and they turned over their findings to the district attorney. This was a huge drama during the second season. Lots of fans tuning in to see is Cody going to get arrested? Is he going to get persecuted? What's happening? Why do they have to leave in a rush? Oh my gosh. But the documents from the 2010 investigation actually depict a completely different story than what was shown on the show. In fact, there's been quite a bit of deception with the whole Sister Wives production of Season 2. After Season 1 debuted, the Brown family went on a press tour, including going on The Today Show, where they officially came out as polygamists to the public. So what led you down this path? What made you choose polygamy? Oh shoot, it was faith-based. It was just part of a faith belief and I followed through with it and this is kind of where it landed. In 2009, polygamy was a third-degree felony in Utah and after the season aired, the Lehigh, I think it's pronounced, police department began an investigation against the Brown family. And in Sister Wives Season 2, the family makes a dramatic show of having to evacuate their home and how they're being run out of Utah and persecuted for their religious beliefs. Not like there's a whole history of intense trauma in Utah associated with polygamy, but you know, Cody said that to keep the family intact, they must move out of Utah and they moved their family to a place they believed to be more open-minded. Las Vegas, Nevada. Every day that we're here, our family goes deeper and deeper into the fear of what could happen. The people in Vegas are going to be a lot more tolerant. Yeah, I mean, Las Vegas is definitely more open-minded than Utah. That is for sure. Cody's four wives and their 16 children were packing up and preparing for the move and the media caught wind of it and they were saying that they had 24 hours to move before TMZ released the story. We're going to move in three days. And the show made it seem like investigators would try and arrest Cody at that time once the story broke. They worried that if Cody was found guilty, then the wives would be separated and Cody would go to prison, which is what happened to Christine's grandfather and his many wives. All this panic and alleged persecution made for good reality TV, but it wasn't true at all. The Browns were not in danger of being persecuted for polygamy. It's rare for the Utah Attorney General's office to prosecute polygamists unless they're accused of additional crimes. And the 2010 Lehigh police report reveals the true details of the investigation. An investigator acknowledges that Cody is an admitted bigamist, but since there is no evidence of other crimes associated with bigamy, the state prosecutors declined to prosecute Cody. The real crime was the fact that the Browns were financially benefiting off of promoting a criminal act on the Sister Wives TLC show. Though if you ask me, the biggest crime of all is even wanting to marry this man. The police report reads, It's most likely that the Brown family received some sort of financial consideration for their involvement in this project. That would suggest that they were paid to promote an activity that is a criminal act in their state. However, it's unknown at this point what, if any, financial compensation was received. Had the Browns stopped the TV show, the investigation would have been dropped. So to be able to continue their TV show, Cody moved his family to Las Vegas. On top of that, the investigation reported that the Sister Wives producers were actually fighting to decriminalize polygamy, which the show was meant to promote in the first place. The last page of the police report reveals this shocking information. The Sister Wives producer Timothy Gibbons made contact with Cody through a group actively working to decriminalize polygamy called Principal Voices. The police report reads, It was found that in 2009, independent producers Timothy Gibbons and Christopher Poole approached the North Carolina based company Figure 8 Films with the concept of a reality show about the Brown family. Prior to this, Timothy Gibbons had been introduced to Cody by Anna Wilde with the Polygamy Advocacy Group, Principal Voices. The goal of Sister Wives from the beginning was to advocate for polygamy, and with the help of Sister Wives and Cody, polygamy was decriminalized in Utah in 2020. Instead of polygamy being a third degree felony in Utah, it now can only be punished with at most a $750 fine and community service. Really advocating for women there, I see. According to Gibbons production company website, the Sister Wives producer promised no experts or opposing views would be included in the show that was contrary to their goal of decriminalizing polygamy. And TLC didn't tell viewers that Sister Wives producers and Cody were working in tandem to decriminalize polygamy and push the narrative that plural marriage isn't harmful and shouldn't be illegal. And instead, the show ended up just proving why plural marriages are so harmful and toxic, ironically. So it seems like behind the scenes and with the production of Sister Wives, there was a lot of shady intentions and general deception. And even though fans connected with primarily the three Sister Wives, Mary, Janelle and Christine, there was one person in particular that no one connected with, and that's Cody Brown. Cody Wynne Brown was born on January 17th, 1969 to William Wynne Brown and Janelle II. His father was a polygamist and had three wives, and Cody has nine siblings. He was raised in a Mormon household and says his parents struggled with the dichotomy of the Mormon faith and plural marriage. And Cody worked as an advertising salesman until the start of the show. And TLC viewers first met Cody when he was living in Utah with his three wives at the time. During the first season, Cody was presented as a doting father who wanted his children to grow up feeling safe. But sadly, in recent years, Cody has completely lost his ability to juggle multiple households and keep everyone happy. When we came into this by way of commandment, we felt like we were supposed to live it and we had an ideal that it was a better way and come to a stark reality of the struggle that it is. And the patriarch has been accused of creating conflicts so that he can continue living under Robin's roof. Do you believe that Robin is the favorite wife? I feel like, and my children feel like, he has been disproportionate in the amount of time that he spends there. I don't have a head wife in this family. For years, Cody tried to take Christmas away. And then Robin came into the family and she started being like, that's the stupidest thing I've ever heard in my whole entire life. But she had magical conversations with Cody where he would come back and say, I think that we need to still have Christmas and things like that. And she had totally heard. And it blew my mind. At first on the show, Cody was meh. I mean, let's be honest, was anyone tuning into the show to watch Cody constantly flip his hair and look bewildered. And it's just vomiting out of me. You don't know what I went through. But later on in the show, fans became more and more disillusioned with Cody, especially in regards to how he acted as a father. When the wives went away for a few days, Christine and Cody's daughter truly became very ill. This is actually going to be the first time in eight years that I've ever watched all the children. Kept me up all night last night. She just kept moving from place to place to place. And Cody practically ignored her, saying she's just fine. She doesn't really have a fever, though. I don't know what's wrong. She wasn't that hot. I know a fever. Cody and Aspen and McKelvin, they've both been talking to me. She was really sick. And so I'm excited to get back home to see what's going on with her. You know, Cody says she just has flu-like symptoms, but not a fever. But Aspen and McKelvin, you're pretty freaked out by her and her behavior. Christine comes home from the trip and sees truly is so sick, she's gone cross-eyed. I got to the emergency and I went and checked in and she just kept going cross-eyed. I don't know this. I don't know how serious this is. She takes her to the emergency room and finds out she has acute kidney failure. They called a kidney specialist in because they realized that she had no fluids in her. Her kidneys are shut down. Her kidneys are shut down? Yeah, completely shut down. They've stopped. And that was a huge example of how neglectful as a father he was. Cody also forgot his son's 21st birthday in December of 2022. I didn't remind him that it was my birthday because I wanted to see if he remembered. And he didn't. And refused to go to one of his daughter's surgeries for her scoliosis. You can't come the whole time. Listen, I'm not flying there. This is the thing, you guys. I'm not going to New York, alright? So I think that you should wait for the surgery. And all these children have expressed how they've been let down and disappointed by their dad. And it leaves me with the question, what is even remotely appealing about Cody? And he pulled four women, four women who married him and gave him children. If you watching right now are complaining because you want to be in a relationship but you're still single, you should be inspired by Cody because he really does show that anything is possible. And that you really can find people who love you no matter who you are. A lot of fans also think that Cody is the epitome of a man-child. During Sister Wives season 17, Cody has had many tantrums. And one notable tantrum that Cody has had is over the many sacrifices that he believes he made in his marriage to Christine. Cody confronted Christine Brown about their marriage in season 17 in a family meeting and said he has never loved her and that he performed his marriage duties out of necessity and not love. That was great to hear after like 25 years. Fans were shocked to hear him speak about intimate details of his and Christine's relationship in front of the other Sister Wives and even more shocked about the fact that he said he never loved Christine on national television where there are six children would see it and hear him say that. Cody Brown has 18 children shared with his four wives. However, except for his daughter, Mike Halty, he doesn't have a good relationship with any of the children that he shares with Christine, Janelle, or Mary. Maybe he is the problem then. And he's disappointed these kids because on the other hand they see him having a great relationship with all of Robin's children and being super involved, even with the three children he adopted from Robin's other marriage. And during COVID, all of his rules and restrictions are what really let down his children who weren't even really allowed to see him or have a relationship with him. Especially when he missed his daughter's surgery and fans saw her asking for him after her surgery all the while he never showed up. The last time was brutal, was brutal. And she kept asking for her daddy and I'm like, kind of, he's not here. And then a few months later she'd ask for him again. I'm like, what? And then the doctor explained to me that when they're coming out of anesthesia they don't really register anything. So she was going to ask for the same thing over and over and over. It was so heartbreaking. And of course, COVID-19 fears are understandable to a certain extent. Many people have debilitating phobias of sickness and germs. But fans felt that his COVID-19 protocols were more of an excuse rather than a legitimate fear. Especially since him and Robin often contradicted their own rules. And also, of course, 18 children is an insane amount of children to have. And it's literally impossible to juggle time and attention between 18 children. Which is an exact reason why polygamy is unhealthy. Especially for the children of the family who witness these marital relationships and don't get any time with their father. But to sympathize with Cody Brown a little bit he was raised in this exact same environment. So maybe this was all he knew. And he probably never knew any other way of operating. Now, as of 2022, most of the sister wives have left Cody Brown. First we had Christine Brown confirming her split from Cody Brown last year. Now we have Banelle Brown confirming her split from Cody on the one-on-one sister wife special. We then had Mary Brown confirming that her and Cody are no longer together. Christine was the first wife to leave Cody in November 2021. After more than 25 years together, Cody and I have grown apart and I've made the difficult decision to leave. Christine wrote on Instagram, We will continue to be a strong presence in each other's lives as we parent our beautiful children and support our wonderful family. At this time we ask for your grace and kindness as we navigate through this stage within our family. Why are you insisting on holding onto me? Why? This isn't working, Cody. You said it wasn't working too. In his own statement, Cody wrote, Christine's decision to leave comes with a great deal of sadness. We enjoyed many years together and I have a large amount of respect and admiration for her. Although we are moving forward on different paths, we will always remain committed parents. Christine was completely decided. Whatever she'd done over the past 10 or 2 years, I don't know what it was, but she was completely decided. And where were you? In denial. A bad marriage is a bad marriage. Everybody expects you to just go and figure it out and fix the marriage. What if a marriage just isn't fixable? Later, Christine revealed that the decision to leave was largely in part to Cody's relationship with her children. During a December 2022 appearance on the Reality Life with Kate Casey podcast, Christine explained that her kids were disappointed with Cody for years after he failed to spend meaningful time with them. And I saw it in their eyes that they didn't really feel like they had a great connection with him. You look back now and it's sort of like the puzzle pieces are kind of fitting together now? Yeah. It was almost like this burden. We got left in and I was like, oh, right. Then it's time to move on. Of her choice to leave the 26-year marriage, Christine added, you can only sit and wish for so long. You actually have to start making the steps necessary to change that dialogue, to change the situation. While the split initially appeared amicable, Cody later revealed in an episode that his feelings differed. I'm in this sort of weird place where I'm like thinking I don't want to see Christine ever again. I don't want to think about her. I don't want to drive past this house ever again and mourn this. He's such a child. In the season 16 finale of Sister Wives, which aired in February of 2022, Christine contemplated ending her relationship with Cody after he suggested they have a romance-free relationship. You're blaming me for me being turned off by your behavior. It's so embarrassing. She subsequently kicked him out of her bedroom. The intimate part of our marriage is over, and to be honest, I'm not okay with that. I'm not okay with staying in a marriage where there's no intimacy. That's not a real marriage. I'm not interested in a half marriage or a partial marriage or whatever we have. So, I mean, thanks to Cody and I have been hard for a long time, months ago. We had a conversation. I mean, he just made it very blatantly clear that he said it just wasn't attracted to me anymore and we were not going to have an intimate marriage anymore. We didn't touch. We didn't hold hands. We didn't have nothing we had for a long time. So, I just told him not to stay in my room anymore. I didn't want him in my space anymore. She drops a bomb on me. She said, don't. I don't want you to stay in my room anymore. She's like, my room is a special place to me and nothing special happens there for us. I'm like, okay. I know a lot of people have marriages there like this. Romance-free marriage. It felt really good to tell him to not come over. I couldn't with a clear conscience stay married to someone who had favorites and made it known and someone who was breaking my kid's heart. Cody also had what I can only assume was a total temper tantrum on an episode of The Sister Wives where he talks about how he was disgusted with Christine when they first met because of the way she ate nachos and that he was never attracted to her and never loved her and actually found her disgusting. Nacho cheese? I will be honest, I was not attracted to Christine in any kind of physical sense. I mean, I look back in retrospect and I wonder, was that fair? But I can't even look there because we had children together with a life together. We have a relationship and we found our sweet spot. So you were not physically attracted to Christine? That's an understatement. You were grossed out by her? I won't say that, but the nachos grossed me out enough to make me go, okay, I'm waiting. This is horrible. Cody saying he's disgusted by a woman because of the way she eats nachos. Like, maybe you need to go to therapy, do some evaluating self-exploration on that one. Then towards the end of 2022, two more Sister Wives jumped ship. Cody Brown was asked to address his relationship status with Janelle Brown in a sneak peek for the upcoming Sister Wives one-on-one special. I'm separated from Janelle and I'm divorced from Christine Brown. And Janelle also confirmed. Janelle's made it pretty clear to me that she's enjoying her life without me. I think if we both really sat down, we'd look at each other and say, really, we've been separated for several months. While Janelle and Cody have been together for almost three decades, their relationship began to crack during 2020. And Janelle refused to follow Cody's strict rules, telling him to eff off during an intense argument about their holiday 2020 plans. And I want you to just respect that. Okay? You know, f*** off. I'm just like, what? What the f***? Sorry. I don't even recognize this family or whatever. Like, I don't know. Something has really changed for me. The dynamic between the couple declined in the months that followed. The Brown's religion, Apostolic United Brethren, or AUB, looks down on men who leave their wives far more harshly than women who leave their husbands. So it's believed that Cody was pushing away his wives on purpose so they would leave him instead of him having to leave. He's been making some noise. Like, even last year, he's like, look, plural marriage is standing in the way of my personal progress. He said that to us one time. And then after he separated from Mary Brown, Cody Brown and his sister wives are no more, at least seemingly for now. Mary Brown confirmed only a little while after Janelle confirmed her separation that she has also ended her 32-year marriage to Cody Brown. While the show was continuing for now, three out of the four women have left Cody, leaving him with only one remaining wife, Robin Brown. Mary Brown said Cody made the decision to end their marriage. During the TLC interview, Mary has shown a clip of Cody Brown in which he says, I don't consider myself married to Mary. If she wanted to move on and marry another, she wouldn't get an argument from me. How is your relationship with Mary today? Mary and I are in an amiable relationship. But we've been, like, literally separated for, I would say, four or five years. Neither of us see real value in the relationship. You don't want to be intimate with Mary right now. Is that still where things stand? Yes. And Mary said the pair never discussed their separation. Mary, do you want to be intimate with Cody, but he doesn't want to be, or are you in the same place as him? What's going on in your head? I think I want more of a relationship with him than we're having right now. Imagine thinking you're married to someone, and then they do an interview or make, like, an Instagram post or something, and basically say, yeah, if you want to, like, move on and marry someone else, like, that's fine. I'm cool with it. Like, he just made the decision. I've never heard him say that to me. But Cody stated of his relationship with Mary, I didn't give up on Mary. It just turned out that the relationship was essentially unstable. I just didn't feel like it was tenable. It's not a functional relationship. We can get along, but we can't be together. And there were a lot of people who were critical of Cody's behavior through this entire separation process. He was telling Christine that she just walked away and gave up, and that's wrong, while simultaneously walking away and giving up from Mary. Oh, he wants to work on it with Christine, but not me. He threw multiple temper tantrums, lashed out at his ex-wives. That's the reason I'm pissed off. And that's the reason I'm pissed off. That's not true. And it's just vomiting out of me. Man, just the knife in the kidneys over all these years and the sacrifices that I made to love you. Wasted! And you're running away! That's not true. Put the **** on me! Hey, come on! Same old girl. I cannot believe... I cannot believe that I have done all this to save you, to save Trulie, to save my children. I did not know. I did not know that it wouldn't harm them. Made them feel guilty, even degraded their appearance and said he never loved them. And as of December of 2022, Robin is the only wife remaining. Though Robin has said that Cody's issues with his other marriages have put a strain on their relationship. Cody is now questioning me, left and right about things that I thought he knew about me, like he's struggling to trust everybody. It's sort of that be careful what you wish for thing. Many fans thinking that Robin was a big contributing factor in Cody's wives becoming more estranged from him. But now that she's the only wife, she's kind of going, oh crap, now I have to deal with all of his ****. Right now, I'm living right through that because Cody is having issues with some of his other relationships and it's making our relationship really, really hard. When she said she was leaving, she took away a really big dream from me. It was, I always imagined us, you know, when we were older, sitting there with our grandkids and just getting that sisterhood that we saw some of these older women in our church have. Do you feel like Christine robbed you of that? Yes, she took it away. She took that away. I'm exhausted. Like who cares? If you're not with me, you're against me. F off, you know? I'm just like that way. Cody said about the split. I'm exhausted. Like who cares? If you're not with me, you're against me. F off. You know, I'm just like that way. Yeah, you seem to be that way and handling it really well and maturedly. On an episode of The Sister Wives, the splintered family had a very heated family meeting. I do think you, Cody, focus like you're like, oh my God, nobody wanted to be together. And to be honest with you, I don't want to do the work. I meant this is exactly what I was afraid of with Christine leaving. It basically feels like I'm being forced to choose between my children and this group. I don't feel like my children are welcome. A lot of people have questioned if the women that are separating from Cody will remain on the show. But Christine Brown has continually confirmed that she will remain on Sister Wives. I am definitely not leaving Sister Wives. This is in fact the set in my home. I'm so excited. And now the Sister Wives plot will follow Christine in her own state, in her own home, on her own terms as she navigates her single life. I didn't know life could be simple. I didn't know that my life was complicated. I didn't know my previous life was complicated. And now when I look back on it, I'm like, oh my gosh. I get to live life for me. I'm just done putting up with people who I don't need in my life. So I don't have, I don't allow people into my life. Who are not going to be kind. And they're not going to be good. I only allow good people in my life. Which I think will be an incredibly fascinating avenue for the show to explore. After being in what many people see as a polygamist cult, how are these women going to adjust to normal life? Will they date? How will they handle dating and living completely independently? And now that Cody Brown is down to one wife. It sounds like the patriarch is even rethinking his relationship with Robin. Cody Brown is said to be content in his union with Robin Brown, but might be taking some time to rethink if marriage is suitable for him. And Cody has been reportedly grieving the loss of his family, but fans feel that he is the only one to blame for all of this. A source close to the family spoke with in touch, sharing that Cody's life is currently a mess. While the father of 18 is happy with Robin, the insider questioned how long that feeling would last. Robin is apparently fine with the other wife's exiting, but also seems to be questioning her relationship with Cody. It's hard to be a plural wife when your husband has a wife leaving you. Plural marriage isn't all beer and skittles. You know, it's not for a man. I mean, there's a different burden that I don't want to sit here and explain to you. It's just obvious that it's difficult. You're going to share your husband? Why would you do that? All of this drama definitely made for entertaining TV. I'm not the reason I'm pissed off. And it seems that though Cody Brown's life and family is falling apart, the Brown's fame, success and businesses could actually be boosted heavily from the divorce and the drama and the entertainment that comes with it all. People are fascinated by things that are the most relatable. Divorces, breakups and family drama are very relatable topics. On top of that, those who've been following the family for years are going to be most engaged during this time that the family is falling apart. It's literally ratings gold for the network and for the family with more publicity and engagement now than they've ever had. The TLC show Sister Wives has been wildly successful which leads me to wonder how financially successful have the Browns been from their reality show and other business ventures that they've done from the fame and success they've gained from the show. According to a PR expert Sister Wives Christine Janell and Mary Brown can all make considerably more money per year since their split from Cody. According to David Johnson CEO of strategic vision PR group the three X wives could bring in two million annually each. David told the U.S. son that the trio's extra income could come from brand partnerships, sponsorships, selling products and more. The PR expert explained that it's often a plus to be single when brands partner with celebrities when the audience is health and fitness related. Apart from airing the Browns family drama on the hit TLC show in other ways with a lot of quote-unquote side hustles Mary has been selling Luloro clothing for years. Janell also has her lifestyle brand Strive with Janell and both she and Christine are heavily involved in plexus marketing for weight loss. At the same time that things are slowly crumbling for the Brown family fans of the TLC show are also getting tired of the constant pushing of social media platforms. Multilevel marketing companies are known to be predatory and it's fairly known that 99% of sellers don't make money at all which is why MLMs are often compared to pyramid schemes only those at the very top are making money and they're relying on recruiting other people in order to keep their income going and the people at the bottom are just losing money since oftentimes they're told to continue buying and buying and buying up product to once again put more money in the pockets of those at the top. So which of the sister wives are involved with MLM companies? Well plexus is the most popular MLM associated with the sister wives cast and Janell and Christine are involved with them. They use their personal Instagram accounts as well as two they run specifically for peddling products called secret to self care and life with health and happiness both have followers. Plexus is an MLM that sells dietary supplements most famously their meal replacement shakes and drinks that are marketed to help people lose weight. What makes plexus especially predatory is that they take advantage of people suffering from health conditions like PCOS and looking at Janell her daughter Maddie and Christine's plexus accounts seems to show that they push the idea that these products can help you lose weight due to lack of science these products are not FDA approved and there seems to be no proof they help with weight loss or health conditions 2022 she started healing it in 2023 she's coming for what's hers this is a year of alignment and she's not letting anyone stand in her way Mary Brown on the other hand is loyal to the percentage of their fans who will end up losing money in the multi-level marketing business model if you didn't know already Lula Rowe rose to infamy with the shocking documentary Lula Rich which I highly recommend watching and really showed the truth and toxicity behind the MLM company while the documentary was eye-opening for many Mary has decided to stay loyal to the company two weeks ago I was in Florida for Lula Rowe leadership training I had the privilege of rubbing shoulders with these two amazing humans feeling their spirit and seeing firsthand the love and compassion they have for their family of retailers and it seems that Mary has no plans of leaving Lula Rowe anytime soon her Instagram account is still filled with her Lula Rowe work I find people believe the sister wives are in a cult and many believe MLM's are a cult so it kind of makes sense that the sister wives would fall into involvement in MLM's but of course most of the sister wives money comes from starring on the TLC show since 2010 each sister wives net worths are higher than you might think According to celebrity net worth Mary is worth an estimated the profit stems from her starring in sister wives selling items on Lula Rowe and running Lizzie's heritage in a bed and breakfast in her family home in Utah although it's not been revealed exactly how much Mary makes as a trainer for Lula Rowe Glassdoor reports that a trainer makes over $77,000 a year as for Mary's bed and breakfast which she began in 2017 in the room in November of 2022 Mary hosted a retreat at Lizzie's heritage in and the prices varied from $4,500 to $6,400 which is a lot to be charging people and the last way Mary earns extra income is through cameo videos for her fans for $150 and selling business related recordings for 2022 Janelle has reportedly accumulated those funds from starring in sister wives previously running the Browns online store and blog named my sister wife's closet her fitness company strive with Janelle and participating in her Plexus MLM called life with health and happiness on the site she charges this MLM project has made since opening the company and before Janelle's online business ventures she was a real estate agent in 2013 to make ends meet while she and her family lived in Nevada. Christine has a reported net worth of $400,000 Christine has made this money through being on a work titled hand raised the barns of Montana as a Lula Rowe retailer although Christine didn't disclose how much she profits from her sales it's reported that the retailer can make $38,000 to $56,000 a year there's been no details on how much Christine has made in Plexus as for cameo Christine charges her and $245 for a business video celebrity net worth says Robin has profited $600,000 since starting in sister wives the other ventures Robert has participated in is selling items on the joint website my sister wife's closet publishing books and running the family blog in regards to books Robin has written at least three projects for their combined earnings Kodi and his four wives or former wives can each reportedly earn $25,000 to $40,000 per episode for their roles in TLC's sister wives the group also turned their life story into a New York Times best selling book titled Becoming Sister Wives the story of an unconventional marriage in 2012 so what started the career and lives their parents have had do your kids plan on living the polygamous lifestyle so far they're not planning on it one of the most fascinating aspects of the sister wives saga are the children that Mary, Christine and Janelle have had with Kodi and how Leon Brown aged 27 after five years of marriage the pair welcomed their first and only child together Leon Brown in 1995 and though Mary was raised in polygamy and was part of a plural marriage herself she tried to create a different culture for Leon who came out as transgender and queer in June of 2022 in July of 2022 Mary celebrated him happiest of birthdays to my miracle my always amazing Leo the lion she wrote know you are forever loved by me at Leo in the mountains and I'm honored and blessed to be your mom I love you it's important to note the Brown children including Leon have stated that Mary hasn't always been the most supportive parent and that the importance of reciprocating your mom's feelings what were you thinking in that moment I was just just feeling really hurt by her actions and going through all of that just kind of made me feel like she didn't really care about me I had to come to a place where I realized it wasn't about me to be able to kind of move forward Leon is engaged to their partner Adru Chris who came out as transgender okay um I'm gay are you sure are you really yeah it's one of those things that you kind of always know but growing up in such a religious place was really hard because I was constantly told this is bad um it's a sin so it was just kind of like I had this genuine fear growing up of being gay Cody and Janelle Brown's kids Logan Brown 28 years old obtained a kinesiology and exercise science and married his now wife Michelle Petty in October of 2022 according to cheat sheet he has never been interested in polygamy and is no longer a member of the Mormon church Madison Brown 27 the couple's second child and first daughter Madison who goes by Maddie attended Utah State University told people the pair weren't planning on living a plural marriage Hunter Brown 25 attended the United States Air Force Academy and later moved to Baltimore to attend nursing school and obtained his master's degree from the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing in May of 2022 Garrison Brown 24 Janelle and Cody's fourth child son Garrison is a part of the National Church he has even joined a church that opposes polygamy during the 2015 tell all special he stated one's enough for me Gabriel Brown 21 Gabriel who goes by Gabe has had his ups and downs with his father over the years in a December 2022 episode of Sister Wives Gabe got emotional during a confessional as he was 11 my birthday and dad calls me and we have a small discussion about how bad my COVID was I shouldn't have done this but I did anyway I didn't remind him that it was my birthday because I wanted to see if he remembered and he didn't Savannah Brown 18 Janelle and Cody's sixth and youngest child Savannah also regularly spends time with her larger blended family including her half sister truly daughter of Cody and Christine Cody and Christine Brown's kids Aspen Brown 27 Christine and Cody welcomed their first daughter Aspen on March 14th 1995 and married her husband Mitch Thompson in June of 2018 the couple said they have no intention of welcoming them in 2016 my Kelty married Antonio Patron I'm not going to live polygamy my Kelty said during a tell all special I don't think that's for me I don't think I could ever live up to what my parents have been able to do Peyton Brown aged 24 Peyton joined the National Guard in 2019 in February 2022 he posted a referencing an earlier comment from his mom Christine who questioned why Robin was able to hire a nanny during the pandemic when Cody's protocols prevented the family from seeing each other what does the nanny do so I got this package in the mail and it doesn't matter the package isn't super important but it's kind of just like kind of funny Peyton also revealed in December 2021 that he had no interest in practicing polygamy during a Q&A on his Instagram stories when asked if he would consider the lifestyle he responded no I chose not to a long time ago Gwendolyn Brown 21 in December 2022 Gwendolyn announced her engagement to her girlfriend of almost nine months I'm the daughter of Cody and Christine Brown from especially as a subject of a reality television show like her brother Peyton Gwendolyn has been outspoken about her feelings towards Cody's fourth wife Robin in a YouTube video that showed her reacting to the second episode of sister wives 17th season Gwendolyn said of Robin I don't really like her as a person I do feel less about Robin from watching this but I feel like it's not very fair from me I posted a photo on Instagram with the caption y'all I'm not going to be a sister wife along with two school emojis clarifying that she has no intentions in joining a polygamist family Gwendolyn also created a Patreon account where she's been spilling all the tea about her family the 21 year old revealed that most of her family members realized they were in a cult which is why no one practices polygamy in Christine's fifth child in September of 2020 Isabel underwent major surgery to correct her scoliosis which Christine later revealed was the final straw that made her leave her marriage after Cody declined to join them for the operation wearing the daytime brace is hard because I look bigger and I can't do as much and it's hard emotionally I don't think I would consent to surgery unless I thought it was threatening her life Concern is if it's not under 30 by the time she's down growing she will need surgery it's just threatening her self-confidence it's all just rhetoric I think his priorities are little screwed up Isabel told the sister wife's cameras through tears of her father's decision she missed you it was hard you couldn't be there it was hard for her I know I'm sorry I was okay I was fine surprisingly the doctor was shocked I was there by myself there's no going back but I really should could have been there and it's a real regret and so it has been going back in time wishing I had done things differently Trulie Brown who's 12 years old and a minor so I will be blurring her face when Trulie was just three years old she was rushed to the hospital due to acute kidney failure and dehydration Trulie couldn't be coming home I think she has at least another nine days nine days until she can come home they did dialysis and they cleaned out her blood and everything and made it better so her kidneys could have a break after Christine and Cody's separation the exes disagreed over custody of their daughter Trulie since Trulie's still a minor with Cody telling Christine he wanted to split 50-50 what about Trulie I think Trulie's just everybody of course and it's going to be hard and taking her from Cody I can't take her from me because we'll have to have a shared custody and we'll have to be 50-50 well how he could have had 50-50 time with us the whole time we lived here the children seemed like wonderful and well adjusted people in society which is impressive considering most of them feel they grew up in a cult Mary, Christine and Janelle did a wonderful job in raising their kids despite the struggles they had in their polygamist marriage the sister wives was a reality show intended to advocate for polygamy and paint it as a harmless practice but instead the 17 seasons of the sister wives thus far ended up just showcasing all the problems of polygamy and exactly why it doesn't work now it'll be interesting to see how Mary Janelle Christine and even Robin's lives change from here and what their perspectives eventually will be of their time in their sister wives marriage now that they will have some time to integrate into society and that's all for why the sister wives is the most dramatic show on TLC I hope you enjoyed watching and I hope this video was informative on everything that has gone on regarding the sister wives to the end comment down below what you were doing while watching or listening to this video I know so many people like doing chores or work or other activities while watching my video and I always like to hear what people were doing and I hope you're doing well I'll see you in the next video bye