Sister Wives star Meri Brown revealed she felt “jealous” during her past polygamous relationship to ex-husband Kody Brown in a new interview.
“I’m human. I’m going to get jealous,” Meri, 52, told People on Friday, August 18, two days before the Sunday, August 20, season 18 premiere. “He’s human. He is going to not know how to deal with a woman’s jealousy.
Meri went on to explain how Mormon Church practices contradicted with how she felt throughout her and Kody’s marriage after he welcomed Janelle Brown, Christie Brown and Robyn Brown into the family.
“Anytime that you expand your family, there’s going to be a shift,” Meri added. “You’ve got just the logistical things, but then you’ve also got the emotional things.”
The Lizzie’s Heritage Inn owner then confessed that in hindsight, she didn’t realize how much her feelings of insecurity would affect her down the road. She noted that “when you’re 20, 21, 25, 30, whatever, when this is happening, you’re not grown up enough.”
“You think you are, but you’re really not grown up enough sometimes,” Meri explained. “Or maybe it’s more not that you’re grown up enough, but more that you just don’t have the tools in your tool belt to know how to deal with some of these issues. We’re taught in our church structure that jealousy is a thing that you just need to deal with and you just need to hide it, and you need to be a good person. Now, I understand that jealousy is OK. It actually can be used as a guide. And before, it was like, ‘Oh, it’s wrong. I’m a bad person.’”
The TLC personality then recalled a moment when Kody, 54, challenged her on why she felt insecure when she accepted the other sister wives into their family.
“I remember Kody would ask me, ‘If you’re OK with them coming in the family, why are you jealous? Why are you having a hard time?’” Meri said. “Well, one, I’m human. Two, I didn’t understand that it’s OK to be jealous. I thought I was a bad person for having those emotions.”
In 1990, Meri and Kody legally married. He then spiritually wed Janelle, 54, in 1993, and Christine, 51, in 1994. When he spiritually married Robyn in 2014, the family patriarch legally divorced Meri so that he could legally wed Robyn, 44, that year to adopt her children from a previous relationship.
Christine and Kody announced their split in November 2021, and fans watched their breakup play out during season 17 of Sister Wives, which aired in September 2022. Later that year, In Touch exclusively confirmed in December 2022 that Janelle had also split from the businessman. The following month, Meri and Kody formally announced their split in a joint Instagram post. Robyn is Kody’s only wife now.
Earlier this summer, Meri unveiled that she had embarked on a personal “evolution.” Though she didn’t mention Kody in her caption, the reality TV star explained in an August 13 Instagram post that she has been going through a “season of change” in the months following their split.
“A time to look inward, decide what is me now, what is not anymore,” Meri wrote alongside a selfie. “A time to cherish the past and the memories it holds, while also letting go and reaching for my future. It’s been a time to part ways with all the ‘stuff’ holding me back, holding me down and what is holding on to me. That stuff that doesn’t serve me anymore. Physical stuff, emotional stuff, all the unneeded stuff. A time to shed resentment, pain, hurt, even those same emotions of others that I’ve been carrying, that are not mine to carry.”