For the duration of Sister Wives Season 17, attention has been focused on Christine Brown’s decision to walk away from Kody Brown.
This past Sunday night, however?
The storyline shifted at least a little bit to Meri Brown’s decision NOT to do the same.
The former couple got married way back in 1990, only to then get divorced 20 years later so that Kody could exchange vows with Robyn and legally adopt her kids from a previous relationship.
In an indirect manner, Meri has addressed this topic on numerous occasions, admitting that her romance died a long time ago… but also admitting she’s happy and not going anywhere.
On the latest Sister Wives installment, though, Meri couldn’t help but reflect on how things fell apart.
“I’ve been in the same situation with Kody in the past,” she said early on the episode, citing Christine and Kody’s split.
The 51-year-old went on to reference her 2015 catfishing scandal, where she entered an online relationship with a person she thought was a man, only for it to end up being a female pulling a cruel prank.
“It got really, really ugly and scary because I knew what I needed from Kody and I wasn’t getting it. He was like very, very, very distant with me and our relationship,” she explained in regard to what happened back then.
Meri told viewers she asked Kody if they could take a break and even requested that he move out, but then it all backfired.
“I said, ‘Can we just get through some of this stuff? Can we just take a break?” she said on air this week, adding:
“He has interpreted that as I kicked him out and he’s never come back.”
Hence, she continued, why Christine’s breakup with Kody “so familiar.”
“I’ve seen Kody give up on me and him,” Meri said.
For his part, however, as you might expect, Kody saw the duo’s past as being extremely different.
“I didn’t give up on Meri. 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,” he said in his own confessional.
Previously, Kody blasted Meri for cheating on him via this whole catfishing debacle.
Cut to Meri’s conversation with Robyn on Sunday, and Meri stating that critics often ask her why she stays part of the plural marriage dynamic if she no longer has an actual relationship with Kody.
“I think on it and I pray on it and I meditate on it and I always come to peace with it,” she said to Robyn, who later confessed that she thinks Meri should cut ties.
So… why hasn’t she done so?
“When I married Kody it wasn’t just because I loved him,” she said on Sunday, citing a higher power and emphasizing:
“I felt like I had a confirmation from God that I was supposed to be married to Kody and I still feel like that.”
At the end of the day, Meri also said she still believes in the concept of polygamy.
“I will never say that the problem within our family is plural marriage. I believe that each and every one of us has the capacity for greatness and has a capacity to work through this stuff,” she said, sounding either optimistic or insane.
Sister Wives airs on Sunday nights at 10/9c on TLC.
