'Sister Wives' Season 17: Christine and Kody Brown's Bombshell Revelations
No longer holding back. As Christine Brown and Kody Brown faced the issues in their relationship, cameras were rolling to capture their split for season 17 of Sister Wives.
In the season premiere, which aired in September 2022, the events picked up right after Christine moved Kody’s belongings into the garage. The duo discussed the ups and downs of their marriage while dealing with the beginning stages of their separation.
“OK. So, we can unravel this further because it’s true that I wasn’t attracted to you when we got married,” Kody told Christine during a tense moment.
Christine, for her part, revealed she was also holding back about her feelings toward him. “Being married to you has been heartache. And it’s been pain,” she said. “Because I’ve tried for so long, so hard to be what you needed and to do everything that I could do to make it so you would want to be around me.”
In a confessional interview, Kody admitted his heart had been broken for “years” because of Christine’s “complaints and hatred” for their life together. The former couple spiritually married in 1994. The Wyoming native was previously legally married to Meri Brown from 1990 to 2014. He later tied the knot with Robyn Brown and remains in a spiritual marriage with sister wife Janelle Brown.
In November 2021, Christine announced her decision to part ways from Kody.
“After more than 25 years together, Kody and I have grown apart and I have made the difficult decision to leave,” the reality star, who shares six children with Kody, wrote via Instagram after previously moving back to Utah while the rest of the family stayed in Arizona. “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.”
Christine later opened up about how she was dealing with the major life change. “I’m like, ‘Am I being super selfish?’ I’m changing the whole dynamic of a huge family with so many people,” she explained during the Sister Wives: One on One tell-all special in February 2022. “Is it just selfish? Is that what it is? I just decided I’ve got to live my life for me too. I wasn’t present. I wasn’t happy. It just wasn’t working anymore.”
Kody, for his part, noted that he was still dealing with the aftermath, adding, “I love her and I, um … I don’t know what to do because I’ve got the grief, but I’m still angry. I’ll take the grief right now to be out of the anger phase.”
Scroll down for Christine and Kody’s most candid comments about their relationship:
During the season 17 premiere, Kody got honest about how he felt while courting Christine. “It’s true. We married under circumstances that were not romantic," he said to his former partner, who responded, “They were for me. They weren’t for you. It was romantic for me.” After Kody said he didn’t “know better," Christine asked, “And had you known better? You wouldn’t have married me?” Courtesy of Christine Brown/Instagram
“I felt pressured into the marriage. And I didn’t know better at the time,” Kody revealed to Christine amid a tense conversation. The Cooking With Just Christine star, for her part, wasn't thrilled with the statement. “So, did he marry me out of an obligation? You know, our church doesn’t have the whole arranged marriages, but it sounds to me that he felt like he had to marry me,” she said in a confessional. “That’s so sad.” Courtesy of Christine Brown/Instagram
In a September 2022 episode, Kody claimed staying in a relationship with Christine required great “sacrifice” that he didn't feel was reciprocated. Courtesy of Christine Brown/Instagram
During season 17, Christine questioned the lack of intimacy in her marriage through the years. After Kody expressed confusion about her comments, Christine revealed that they only had sex “a couple times a year.” She added: "I had all these criteria I had to meet in order for him to be attracted to me. Can we just say then that it's over? If I have to meet all these criteria in order for him to be attracted to me, I just can't be myself." Courtesy of Christine Brown/Instagram
During season 17, episode 2, Christine got real about how Kody had treated her and her kids compared to his fourth wife. “It’s hard to see just such a contrast with Kody with how he is at Robyn’s house versus how he is at my house,” she said. “He’s just disengaged at my house. My kids and I hike all the time. Kody came hiking with us once and he brought Robyn’s kids because he was babysitting them.” Robyn, on the other hand, revealed that “plural marriage is hard for me too” and denied that she got special treatment. “Kody’s been at my house a lot just by default because of the decisions the other wives are making,” she claimed. “His other relationships are stressing him out so much that it’s not like it’s really fun to have him around much anyway. He’s an angry man right now. What’s going on with him and Christine … I’ve never seen him like this before.” Courtesy of Christine Brown/Instagram
“I’m afraid I’m on the edge of losing my s--t. And I’m afraid she’s on the edge of losing her s—t,” Kody told the cameras. “She is the doorway of me to get to my children.” When the family patriarch sat down with Christine during episode 2, he confessed that he’d done “a lot of introspection” about their split. He explained that while he was concerned they were “making a mistake” by ending things, he understood that it was Christine’s decision. “I want to apologize for getting so angry,” he told his former spouse. “I need to get to a place where I can rejoice about your happiness and your freedom.” Christine later revealed during a confessional, “I’m really grateful that he’s just being real. I just want to thank him for trying to support me.” She also noted: “I didn’t know that being alone and not being married would feel OK.” Courtesy of Christine Brown/Instagram
Kody told Christine during episode 2 that he had “always loved” her despite not being “in love” for some time. While Christine understood how that happened, she confessed to the cameras that her girls were the ones who really suffered by Kody’s distance. “I feel broken. And Isabelle is leaving and it’s a heartbreak to me that she’s leaving under these circumstances,” Kody said during a confessional, referring to their daughter moving away for school amid their split. Christine, for her part, said, “It’s been hard for me that Kody hasn’t been around but it’s absolutely devastating for my daughters. Because they’re moving.” Courtesy of Christine Brown/Instagram
“I don’t consider myself married to him anymore,” Christine said of Kody during a confessional from season 17, episode 3. “I don’t wear our wedding rings anymore most of the time. I just feel like they’re a noose. … It felt so good just to take them off.” The Utah native — who filmed her confessional on what would have been the couple’s 27th anniversary — noted that since she and Kody “never had a legal marriage” she didn’t know at “what point our marriage is technically over because there was no real marriage contract.” While her anniversary was “a weird day,” Christine remembered having a “lot of great times” with Kody throughout their two decades together. However, she pointed out that she wasn’t “going to pretend” on their special day and therefore told Kody she wouldn’t post anything on social media about their love. Courtesy of Christine Brown/Instagram
In the fourth episode of the season, Kody questioned why Christine needed to relocate to Utah after their split. “What do you gain by leaving?” he asked her, to which she responded, “My parents. Family.” Kody, however, wasn’t buying it. “I’ve never understood her need to move. I don’t understand it at all unless there’s some guy she wants to date there,” he told the cameras. “Or she wants to get away from me so my stink isn’t on her so she can date.” Courtesy of Christine Brown/Instagram; Inset: TLC
After Christine told the sister wives about her and Kody’s split, the patriarch took issue with Christine taking Truely with her to Utah. Christine, for her part, was surprised by his reponse since she claimed he knew about it well before she told the rest of the group. “I find it ironic that now he wants to be involved in my kids’ lives, now that I’m leaving. Now he wants 50/50 time with them,” she said in a confessional. “Well, hell, he could’ve had 50/50 time with us the whole f—king time we lived here. If he wanted 50/50, he should’ve been around more. He doesn’t get 50/50. He hasn’t been around enough for that.” Courtesy of Christine Brown/Instagram
“I did see it coming. Of course, I’m sad about it,” the pair’s daughter Ysabel, 18, said during season 17, episode 5. “Sometimes it just doesn’t work out. I’m happy that my mom will be able to find somebody who she’s really, really happy with.” Mykelti, 25, also opened up about her feelings, telling the cameras, “I was honestly relieved when I heard that my mom was leaving my dad. They’re not happy. They’re not in love.” Mykelti’s husband, Antonio “Tony” Padron, added: “I thought it was a little inevitable.” Courtesy of Christine Brown/Instagram
“I’m just blue. We will never be there again,” Kody said during episode 5 after celebrating Ysabel’s high school graduation with the whole family. “I’m living in a delusional world where I’m wishing Christine didn’t leave. I’m struggling with sort of a state of regret and frustration.” He continued: “It’s a weird thing to be getting left. It’s made me question getting into plural marriage. Question my faith. The message we had to the world about functional polygamy seems so dysfunctional now.” The patriarch later confessed that amid his drama with Christine, his dynamic with some of his children has become rocky. “I’ve got what feels like very strained relationships with a bunch of the kids. I don’t feel like I’ve got the respect that I should have,” he explained. “No, I’m not OK. I’m here. I’m in a funk. It’s this loneliness combined with a bitterness with the entire family.” Courtesy of Christine Brown/Instagram; Shutterstock
During season 17, episode 6, Christine and Kody fought over when and how to tell Truely about their split. While Kody revealed that he felt like Christine’s move with Truely was “hostile” and a “backstab,” Christine told the cameras that her former spouse knew for months that she wanted to relocate in September 2021. The duo agreed to wait to tell their youngest child, with Kody pointing out, “I’ve heard so many kids being devastated by that kind of news.” He also confessed to the cameras: “I still think maybe we can get reconciled. I don’t want to tell Truely yet. I would like to find some way to get Christine to stay here and make it easier and more convenient for me to hang out with the kids.” Christine later revealed that Truely accidentally overhead her speaking with daughter Mykelti about the move so she had to tell her the whole truth — without Kody present. “That was the worst conversation of my life,” Christine said. “I sat Truely down and I told her we’re moving and she started to cry. I said, ‘Well, there’s more love.’ Rather than let her leave the room — she needs to know everything. … Her little face was heartbroken.” The mother of six also told Truely that she and Kody were “already divorced” so the youngster wouldn’t think there was a chance of them getting back together. Christine, however, told the cameras that she and Kody were never legally married so she took it upon herself in that moment to declare them divorced. “There’s not ever going to be a piece of paper. I really quickly made up my mind and told her, ‘No, we’re already divorced,’” she recalled. TLC (2)
“The first day when I found out, I was extremely upset. I’m fine now,” the preteen told her mom during season 17, episode 7. “I kind of noticed the signs earlier that you weren’t as happy …. It was a bit of a heartbreak at first but I’m fine [now].” Truely, who was 11 when her parents called it quits, revealed she was more upset that she was the last person to learn of the split and move to Utah. “She told me last after everybody else that I didn’t get to know, and we were about to leave. it was kind of hurtful,” the TLC personality told the cameras. “It did feel like a betrayal that she wouldn’t bother to tell me about it and I was going to be affected the most.” While Truely and Christine talked about the breakup openly, Kody expressed concern with how he was being portrayed amid the drama. “I do believe she’s being very unfair with me and to me,” he said during a confessional. “She’s marginalized me so much and our marriage so much that she’s kind of leading Truely into blowing it off. They’re blowing it off.” Justin Stephens/Discovery ; Courtesy of Christine Brown/Instagram
"I’m still in a very bad place about it,” Kody said of the divorce during season 17, episode 7. He later confessed that he and Christine weren’t seeing eye to eye on whether or not they should sell her Arizona house as she prepared to move. Kody and Christine also butted heads over custody of their youngest child, Truely. “You and I have to actually have a child custody agreement in place or the state takes her — essentially becomes the owner of her,” he explained to his estranged spouse. “It’s stupid.” Christine told the cameras that Kody “just doesn’t trust me” when speaking about sharing custody of Truely. The patriarch agreed, saying in a confessional, “No, I don’t trust her. What’s the next move she’s going to make against me?” Kody noted that Christine relocating to Utah after the family fled the state in 2011 also made him nervous. “My wives and I left Utah under duress. She’s going back to a state that hates me,” he explained. “I don’t trust her. Whether she’s going to be good to me is unknown.” TLC (2)
“It’s not really truly denial. It’s that everything that was special: the house, the kids, the furniture, everything is just like, ‘This is not mine,’” Kody said during season 17, episode 8, as Christine packed up their Arizona house. “It’s just a shock to me. The whole experience. The memories. Every bit of this. I just guess I better get used to this because this is the way that it is.” Christine argued during the episode that her name is the “only name on this house” and therefore the profits from selling it should go to her. She offered to give Kody her Coyote Pass Property land so the family would own all five lots. “Our family, the whole family helped Christine buy this house,” he explained. “That equity, technically, would be partly the family’s. It’s not cut and dry.” Kody, however, agreed to let Christine keep the money from the house sale to try and eliminate more back and forth. Christine was “thrilled” by his response. “Our marriage didn’t work and I’m moving on and I’m moving,” she later told the cameras. Puddle Monkey Prods/Kobal/Shutterstock
“I feel so pathetic because I am the divorce denier,” Kody revealed during season 17, episode 8, after Christine told him she was selling almost all of the belongings they shared. “I don’t want to carry anything that could bring up painful memories with Kody in my next house,” she explained. Christine noted that she wasn’t going to take “toxic” energy with her as she relocated to Utah. “The best years of my life I gave to him and he shrugged his shoulders at me,” she claimed. “What I do know is that I would rather be alone and love myself then to be with someone who doesn’t love me.” Kody argued that he was present in the early days of their relationship as well. “I gave Christine the best years of my life too and it hurts to have her try and have me own it,” he alleged. Arlene Richie/Shutterstock
As Christine prepared to move daughter Ysabel to North Carolina for college, she reflected on how little her kids interacted with their father pre-split. “The hardest part of my whole life is that my kids don’t have a great relationship with their dad. He doesn’t even know them,” she confessed during season 17, episode 8. “You know what’s sad too, is they don’t know how amazing he is either. Kody has this awesome side to him that my kids don’t know and who I feel in love with. Of course, he’s not that person anymore and neither am I.” Courtesy Christine Brown/Instagram
“That last year, like, I obviously have been very emotional. Everything was changing. Then like mom and dad’s divorce. [My mom’s] been going through a hard time,” Ysabel revealed during season 17, episode 9. “I think that she depended on me. I think it got quite heavy in the house. I think it’s hard for a young kid to see their mom in such a sad state.” The teenager noted: “It was really hard living at home the last year. It’s good for [my mom] to be able to live with herself. And also for me to not need her anymore.” Courtesy Ysabel Brown/Instagram
“When I chose to leave Kody I knew I would be open publicly about it. It wasn’t a private decision,” Christine confessed during season 17, episode 9. “One of the things that I was concerned about was, would I be considered a fraud. Would I be considered a liar. I know without a doubt that I have tried for years to make this work. I have a clear conscience knowing that I gave it my best.” She continued: “Being a mom is my most important thing. But I couldn’t with a clear conscience stay married to someone who had favorites and made it very known. And someone who was breaking my kids’ hearts. I needed to stand with them instead. And I wanted to do it for them.” Courtesy Christine Brown/Instagram
“I thank you for coming into the family and helping me sort of gather up this mess that I was in,” Kody said during season 17, episode 10, seemingly referring to Christine marrying into the family in 1994 amid tension between Meri and Janelle. “I also thank you for ripping off the Band-Aid so quickly.” The patriarch then quipped: “You came into our lives. You did us a favor. You’re leaving. I almost feel like it’s a favor too. But I don’t know, because I’m still upset.” Kody later claimed that he was the one “putting in so much effort” while he “wasn’t in love” and that it was Christine who gave up. “I was doing it as my duty as a husband,” he alleged. “She quit loving me years ago. Now that were here, I’m just so upset. It’s not the breakup of two people. It’s the breakup of a family.” TLC ; Courtesy of Christine Brown/Instagram
“A year ago when I looked at mine and Kody’s relationship it really felt like I couldn’t stay. But I hadn’t quite decided to move and to leave,” Christine told Kody during season 17, episode 10. “And I looked at our relationship, how it was, and I just got to thinking, it’s not a relationship I would wish on any friend of mine.” After she explained that she decided to leave Kody once he vetoed her desire to move the family to Utah, he alleged that Christine was never a team player. “This is what I remember: ‘I was interested in the family not in the man.’ That’s been your mantra. But it became about the man and not about the family. That’s the reason that I’m struggling in this,” Kody alleged. “It wasn’t about that family. This is my frustration. I’m angry that you weren’t interested in investing in the family. It breaks my heart. Now were at this point where it’s just over.” Christine argued: “I did so much for the family. My house was always open to everybody. The big family is great, but when you feel like you’re a minimal person in Kody’s big picture and you really don’t even matter — it changes the perspective on everything.” Although Christine said she’d been “heartbroken for years” before she ultimately made her decision to exit their plural family, Kody still couldn’t get over the betrayal. “I’m so upset about how this has gone down. I don’t know the exact reason. I have no idea what’s going on with me,” he told the cameras. “If I really boil it down — it feels like after all I have done I’m being rejected anyway. And it’s just not rejection for me. It’s rejection for some of my kids and my other wives.” He later confessed: “I just feel like for the past 14 years I’ve just been sucking it up with her. Just trying to be a loving husband. Now that she’s leaving I felt like giving her a piece of my mind. This ain’t my fault. You did this. [That’s] what I feel like. I don’t care if that’s not fair. That’s how I feel. She did this. She’s going to go around and tell my kids that I didn’t love her. I feel like she needs to realize here with this that she wasn’t loving me.” Courtesy of Robyn Brown/Instagram ; Youtube/TLC
“It feels like everything’s affected my relationship with everybody though,” Kody confessed to his and Christine’s daughter Mykelti during season 17, episode 11. “I’m always bad cop.” He later told the cameras: “I know that I can’t s—t talk Christine to my kids. I don’t want to s—t talk her at all. Even though that’s my natural urge. That’s not fair. In my brokenhearted state the anger is just flowing here.” Kody concluded, “I just want to blame someone. I’m angry. I want to break something. … I’m angry. But I don’t want people picking sides.” TLC; Courtesy of Courtesy of Mykelti Padron/Instagram
“I’m not in a good place here. This is such an awkward moment,” Kody said during season 17, episode 11, after going to Christine’s house the final night she was living in Arizona. “There is such a strike to all of my feelings, all the work that I’ve done for our family. It is way off course for me. It feels so demeaning. Bless Mykelti’s heart. 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 be in this place again. I don’t want to deal with this at all.” The patriarch added: “In my state of bitterness, I’m trying to box Christine in. I think she’s doing something wrong. She could’ve stayed here. I’m in a really bad state of mind. I feel out of control.” Christine, for her part, told the cameras that “none of us want to be here” but broke down before the group left her property. “I wouldn’t have asked for this. It was important for Mykelti. I certainly didn’t need it,” she said at the end of the episode. “It was worse than I thought it would’ve been. I think this was the worst goodbye that I’ve ever witnessed.” TLC (2)
“Everything that I was feeling before about being nervous is gone all of a sudden,” Christine told the cameras during season 17, episode 12, after packing up her last few boxes. “We had a lot of good memories in this house. A lot of great times and great parties and great gatherings. But I am so excited to just move on. Today, I get to be at home.” The TLC personality later explained that she doesn’t like being back in Arizona because she is no longer the person who once lived there. “I would prefer to be anywhere else. Because anywhere else I’m strong and independent and fun and fearless and can rise to any occasion,” Christine said. “You put me back here and I’m a wife in a loveless marriage that was going nowhere and I don’t like to be that. It’s like a farewell to that too.” Before returning to Utah, Christine enlisted Kody’s help to load her trailer, but the two couldn’t stop arguing over how to pack. “She’s proving she’s the independent woman now by telling me how the best way to pack this is. It bothered me to the core,” Kody said. Christine, meanwhile, had no problem sticking up for herself. “I think it’s super important to be independent as a plural wife. I think it’s so empowering to be able to get stuff done,” she said. “I think we all learned a lesson today: I can stand up for myself and be strong and make a stand and I can also not ask him for help ever again. Both have been great decisions made today.” Justin Stephens/Discovery
“She’s moving today. There’s a sense that I feel like I’m in a way coping. I really want to tell her, ‘I loved you. I loved you, why did you betray me?’ I worked for this,” Kody said during season 17, episode 12, of Christine’s last day in Arizona. “And that’s almost just pathetic because she’s leaving. She’s done. I’ve gotta accept that but I don’t want to. It’s breaking my heart.” The reality star later confessed: “I’m struggling so much with this divorce. It’s probably poisoning my relationship with Janelle a little bit and definitely poisoning my relationship with Robyn. I think that’s because I haven’t figured out what I am when we’re not this family. I’m out of my frame and I’m out of my purpose. I’m spiritually off course. I’m a mess.” Kody concluded, “This is the end of an era for our family. She’s gone. She’s done. I’ve got all these mixed feelings. I can’t tell if I’m just relieved that Christine’s going or if I’m disappointed. What I didn’t do is I didn’t quit. Once this anger settles, I hope I feel differently. I hope it’s not heartbreak.” Puddle Monkey Prods/Kobal/Shutterstock
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