Sister Wives’ Meri Brown understood that dwelling in polygamy meant having to share her husband with different ladies — however she wasn’t prepared for the emotional toll each new addition would carry.
“I knew that I might have [an] emotion about it when any individual did lastly come into the household. And I did,” Meri, 54, recalled in the course of the Sunday, November 9, episode of the TLC collection. “I didn’t deal with myself one of the best on a regular basis.”
She continued, “I keep in mind being very jealous. You recognize, folks ask on a regular basis, ‘Had been you not jealous?’ Effectively, sure, I used to be. How will you not be jealous?”
Meri was Kody Brown’s first spouse, legally marrying him in 1990. Three years later, they expanded their household with the addition of Janelle Brown, who spiritually wed Kody, 56, in 1993. Christine Brown joined the polygamist brood in 1994, and Robyn Brown rounded out the household in 2010.
With each new spouse got here extra feelings for Meri, who confessed, “I assumed I used to be dwelling polygamy unsuitable.”
She remembered pondering that due to the jealousy, she was “a human being [doing it] unsuitable.”
“I assumed I used to be a lady unsuitable, a spouse unsuitable. I couldn’t also have a child, for heaven’s sake, you recognize?” Meri stated. “So every little thing about me was unsuitable. It was exhausting.”
All through her marriage to Kody, Meri weathered many storms, together with solely having the ability to have one baby, Leon, in July 1995.
After Meri legally divorced Kody in 2014 so he may marry Robyn, 47, and undertake her three kids from one other marriage, their relationship took successful. Meri and Kody did overcome Meri’s catfishing scandal in 2015, however the plural household as a complete started to unravel a number of years later.
“Polygamy dilutes a wedding since you don’t should spend the time that it takes to make your relationship higher,” Christine claimed throughout Sunday’s episode.
Christine, 53, introduced her break up from Kody in November 2021, and Janelle confirmed their separation in December 2022. Meri and Kody, in the meantime, launched a joint assertion in January 2023, revealing that the 2 had parted methods.
Wanting again on their polygamist life-style and values, each Meri and Christine revealed on Sunday’s episode that the faith allegedly promotes unhappiness within the hopes of getting a greater afterlife.
“It’s an attention-grabbing concept within the church tradition that we got here from, that struggling was going to make you higher,” Meri informed the cameras. “As a result of when you undergo, then you will have it made.”
Nonetheless, that mind-set doesn’t sit nicely with Meri. “I don’t suppose that we have to endure the ache and the struggles and the challenges,” she stated. “I believe what we have to do is determine undergo them.”
Christine had an identical outlook on the church’s practices after getting married to David Woolley in October 2023 and selecting to dwell monogamy.
After David, 61, informed Christine that in his opinion polygamy creates “a variety of hate, a variety of jealousy, a variety of management,” largely by the hands of the boys, she confirmed that jealousy and competitors among the many ladies does occur.
“If I’m having a nasty time with Kody in a nasty state of affairs, I don’t wish to see him being bodily affectionate with different wives in entrance of me,” Christine defined, calling it a “slap within the face.”
Whereas Christine stated she by no means felt like Kody “managed” her, she informed David that the church did preach that having the ability to cope with the person’s ego and the jealousy issue made them “higher” folks.
“They educate you that it makes you higher. You’re feeling these emotions, you study to cope with these emotions, and you then transfer on and also you grow to be a greater particular person,” she recalled.
David argued, “No, they inform you to let go of these emotions,” to which Christine agreed.
“The well-known quote is, ‘Endure to the tip,’” Christine stated. “Principally go forward and have a depressing life as a result of if you die, you earn the celestial kingdom, you earn all the way in which up and also you get to dwell with God when you endure. That’s unhappy.”
Christine famous that for her, she simply needed to “get pleasure from to the tip,” as an alternative of struggling.
Sister Wives airs on TLC Sundays at 10 p.m. ET.
