Why Did 3 Out of 4 Sister Wives Leave Kody Brown?

“Sister Wives” has been one of the biggest shows on the The Learning Channel since it premiered in September 2010. The show followed the lives of Kody Brown and his four wives: Robyn, Christine, Janelle, and Meri. Together, Kody and his four wives had 18 children.

Three sister wives have decided to leave Kody Brown for various reasons. Christine was the first wife to leave, which shocked fans in November 2021. Christine was the third wife of Kody, and they have six children and three grandchildren together.

After Kody chose to not be there for Ysabel’s surgery to correct her scoliosis, Christine revealed that she had to leave Kody and live on her own, according to People. This decision came after Christine felt an increasing neglect coming from Kody, who spent more time with Robyn and her children.

Meri was the first wife of Kody. The two were legally married on April 21, 1990, and only had one child together, Leon Brown. Meri was the only wife to be legally married to Kody until they divorced in 2014, so Kody could legally marry Robyn and adopt her three children.

“It’s interesting hearing him talking about this and the parallels that [are] happening with him and Christine and me and him,” Meri said in a confessional interview (via Today). “It’s kind of disturbing because some of the things that he’s frustrated about with Christine, he did to me. He wants to work on it with Christine but not me.”

Janelle and Kody Brown had a spiritual marriage in 1993, making Janelle his second wife. Janelle was never legally married to Kody, but they did share six children: Logan, Madison, Hunter, Garrison, Gabriel, and Savannah.

Janelle decided to leave Kody after the ongoing tensions and conflicts within the family became too much for her and her children. It also didn’t help that Janelle felt that she was being overshadowed by Robyn’s position as the “favorite” wife.

Robyn has remained with Kody, but is there a relationship on the rocks? As of right now, Robyn is Kody’s fourth spiritual wife, and his only legal and spiritual wife. However, Kody admitted that he had contemplated leaving Robyn and their two youngest biological children in one episode of “Sister Wives.”

The aftermath of Christine, Janelle, and Meri leaving in 14 months left Kody feeling strange about his monogamous relationship with Robyn. Kody opened up about the profound impact of the experience, stating, “We are not recovering from this. I mean, it’s not clinical depression, but we’ve been a bit depressed about what the experience did.”

The self-proclaimed “soul mates” are the only two members of the Brown family who are still together. The 45-year-old mother of five joined the family in 2010, which was documented in the pilot episode of the family’s TLC reality series.

When asked about bringing new wives into the family, Robyn said she was interested in the idea. However, she does note feeling “scared of it because of how badly this has gone. I really, really struggle with it because it feels like, ‘Oh well, those didn’t work so onto the new!’ That’s hard for me. That’s really, really hard for me. It feels disrespectful” (via People).

The issue with Kody not wanting to bring another wife into the family dynamic is causing Robyn to have an identity crisis. Robyn said that she never intended to be the last wife standing. “It’s not the future I wanted. I want that house with us on the porch in the rocking chairs with our grandkids and our kids around us — the grandparent ranch,” Robyn said (via People).