When it comes to repairing the relationships with his kids, Sister Wives‘ Kody Brown has quite the mountain to climb. But he made the first step with daughter Aspyn on the series’ April 27 episode.
Now that Kody Brown has officially divided himself from three of his former brides, the Sister Wives star truly feels his love will be multiplied.
Not in the legal sense, the Arizona resident feeling very committed to sharing a monogamous marriage with sole remaining spouse Robyn Brown. But the father of 18 is eager to start repairing the fractured relationships with some of his kids.
He took the first step up that particular mountain on the TLC series’ April 27 episode, revealing that he traveled to Utah to visit with some of the children he shares with exes Christine Brown and Janelle Brown.
“I made arrangements to go see Christine’s girls in Utah,” he explained of making the roughly eight-hour drive from his home in Flagstaff in early 2024. “Turns out there’s other kids there, like, other of my kids, from other mothers.”
And while he told Robyn during their Valentine’s Day dinner that it was “a really good trip,” one highlight came during his conversation with his and Christine’s 30-year-old daughter Aspyn Thompson.
“Aspyn and I had this long discussion,” he detailed to Robyn, noting that Christine’s eldest asked him, “‘What did I do? Why don’t you like me?'”
“She confronted me,” he continued, “which for Aspyn meant something’s wrong.”
InstagramThough for Kody, the root of the issue stems from his rocky relationships with most of his kids’ moms.
“Aspyn literally asked why I didn’t like her,” he explained on the episode. “And I I’m like, ‘Sweetheart, I love you. And I have, always have and always will.'”
They went on to have “a long discussion,” he said, “about us having a relationship not filtered through my view of her mother or her mother’s view of me.”
The results, he summed up to Robyn, is it “just improved” their bond so much: “What I explained to her was just there’s this place of pain that I didn’t feel welcome to reach out to everybody.” And though Aspyn insisted she never purposely made him feel as if he wasn’t able to contact her, he stressed, “What has happened in my life has made me feel unwelcome.”
In other words, he feels his exes tried to, uh, x him out.
“I got alienated from my children when the divorces happened,” Kody claimed of Christine’s decision to end their marriage in November 2021, with Janelle and his first wife Meri Brown (mom to 29-year-old Leon) following soon after.
As he struggled in his relationships with Janelle’s kids Logan Brown, 30, Madison Brush, 29, Hunter Brown, 28, the late Garrison Brown, Gabriel Brown, 23, and Savanah Brown, 20, and Christine’s brood (Aspyn, plus her younger siblings Mykelti Padron, 28, Paedon Brown, 26, Gwendlyn Queiroz, 23, Ysabel Brown, 21, and Truely Brown, 15), “I have an assumption that the exes just weren’t protecting the privacy of the breakup at all,” Kody noted. “They’re just like ‘Your dad’s like this, your dad’s like this, your dad’s like this.’ And so I had all this relationship struggle with all of my kids.”
Since he wasn’t at home with any of those children, “We haven’t had a lot of connection,” he explained. “So I’m trying to establish this relationship where they’re no longer having me represented to them by my ex-wives.”
That’s fine by Christine, who stressed in the episode, “I don’t talk trash on Kody to my kids, ever. I wish Kody would reach out to them more and I wish he had a better relationship with his kids. I’ve done everything that I can to facilitate that relationship.”
In fact, she told E! News last October, “I just tell them, ‘You’ve got to accept him where he’s at. And be open, just be open when he calls, answer the phone.'”
And she’s hopeful his rocky status with several of the kids will serve as something of a wake-up call to Kody.
“I think his kids are some of the best people that I’ve ever met in my life,” Christine explained to E!. “They’re incredible people, and he has a choice to be in their life. And I just don’t think he’s really taking it so he can fully be in their life, and it’s his loss. ‘Cause they’re amazing people.”
Wondering what other thoughts Christine has on the matter? She and her former sister wives haven’t been shy about sharing. Check out all the tea they’ve spilled this season.
Ida Mae Astute/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty ImagesMeri Says Kody Gave Her Hope for Their Marriage
Kody Brown insisted he was ready to divide himself from first wife Meri Brown shortly after their 1990 vows. But “he led me to believe that he would work on things by saying, ‘Oh Meri, when we move to Flagstaff, this will be a good time to have a new beginning for us,'” Meri shared in the Sept. 15 premiere, referencing their 2018 move. “Like he led me to believe those things. This is what he’s done for many, many years.”
Her main gripe, she shared, is “his lack of communication and how he really felt and what he really wanted or what he really didn’t want and the story that he’s been telling for all these years.”
And while Kody acknowledged that there may have been “mixed messages,” it was only because as he started to work on things, “I’m like, ‘Why would I do this?'” he explained. “I would not court and date her now.”
Either way, Meri’s friends were thrilled when she finally pulled the plug in early 2023.
“They’re like, ‘OK, we’re here for you, we’re supporting you. And it’s about damn time,'” she confessed. Blinders off, she now feels that he had been trying to get her to walk away for years by insisting he didn’t love her, “Because if he can push me out and I leave, he’s not the bad guy because he didn’t walk away.”
TLCKody Wanted to Sell Coyote Pass
Years after the family purchased the 14-acre plot of land they planned to build on in Flagstaff, Ariz., Kody confessed in the season premiere that he was ready to let the dream wither. Unable to build without paying off the full $820,000 price tag (which the family reportedly did in 2023), he told remaining wife Robyn Brown, “I’d almost rather scrap it or sell it and then just start again somewhere else.”
As for Robyn, “I can’t talk about that,” she responded. “That is so not where I’m at.”
Photo by Gabe Ginsberg/FilmMagicJanelle Left Kody for This Reason
While second wife Janelle Brown previously told E! News, “We just kind of started to grow apart,” ultimately it was Kody’s lapses as a parent to some of their kids that pushed her to leave.
“The big spark for me was when his relationship broke down with my children and he didn’t seem like he would move heaven and earth to fix it,” explained the mom to Logan Brown, Madison Brown Brush, Hunter Brown, Garrison Brown, Gabriel Brown and Savanah Brown. “And I thought, OK, that was what was really holding me here.”
Even when Kody broached the idea of reconciling in the Nov. 3 episode, it was a non-negotiable for Janelle.
“I don’t know how I would ever reconcile with him and have him not have a relationship with my kids,” she said. “No, I’m going to always choose my kids.”
