How Sister Wives' Kody Brown Plans to Fix Estrangement From His Kids

Janelle Brown Is Considering a Spiritual Divorce From Ex Kody Brown

Officially done with former husband Kody Brown (and his nice pecs and six-pack abs), Janelle Brown revealed in Sister Wives' season 20 opener that she's borrowing a page from Meri Brown's playbook. 

Never legally entwined to Kody during their 29-year marriage, "I had sort of thought about a spiritual divorce a long time ago and didn't even realize it was an option," the patriarch's second wife detailed on the Sept. 28 premiere. "And so when Meri got one, I'm like, 'Oh, hey, Meri, who do I call?'" 

And her former sister wife—who was granted a spiritual release from their former church on the grounds of abandonment—was more than happy to fill in some blanks. Said Janelle, "She has been kind of helping me get in touch with everybody."

Madison Brush Would Like to Reconcile With Dad Kody Brown

Madison Brush is still working through the sins of her father. Amid her ongoing estrangement from dad Kody, Madison—the second oldest of his and Janelle's six kids—admitted on the Sept. 28 episode that she's still struggling with the separation. 

"You want your dad to show up," the mother of four shared in a confessional alongside husband Caleb Brush. "You want reconciliation. I know I played a part and I’m angry because I’m still trying to learn to not be disappointed.”

It's a lesson she's struggling to master. "I’m still learning how to just see him for who he is," she noted. "I’m trying to understand that maybe he didn’t know how to show up. He might be hurting." 

He also might not be willing to cede too much ground. 

Kody stressed his desire to have healing with Meri, Janelle, third wife Christine Brown and their children, explaining, "I think we're in an impasse here because this healing can only happen on their terms only."

Kody Brown Has This Concern About His Sex Life With Wife Robyn Brown

To hear Kody's fourth and sole remaining wife Robyn Brown tell it, she always wanted the family, not just the man. "I had marriage proposals," she revealed on the Sept. 28 episode. Not necessarily an on-bended-knee situation, she noted, just "different men at different times said, you know, 'I'd marry you in heartbeat.'" 

Her response never wavered: "I was just like, 'Well, I plan to live a plural marriage.'" And had Kody been single when he pursued her, rather than a devoted family man with three wives, "I would have said the same thing to you." 

But now that they find themselves as unintentional monogamists, asserted Kody, "It's you and me, baby."

Though he admittedly had one concern. 

"There's something I want maybe more than you do," Kody told Robyn, alluding to their sex life. The way he saw it, Kody continued in a confessional, "A polygamist is getting more than he wants and a monogamist isn't getting enough."

Meri Brown Reveals an Ex Broke Up With Her Over Her Polygamous Past

Throwing herself into dating, Meri knows precisely what she's looking for in a man: In addition to a tall guy, "super important for me is to find somebody who wants to travel with me," the avid road-tripper explained in the Oct. 5 episode. "And also must not have cats. Must love dogs." 

And she definitely needs someone who won't scare easily. 

"There was a guy that I was talking to," she detailed of one of her more troubling dating adventures. Once he discovered she was a polygamist, "He was like, 'I can't continue talking to you. This is not something that I'm even interested in or open to,'" she shared. "And it was very hurtful to me. Because I was a polygamist, you're not interested in pursuing a relationship with me?"

For Meri, she continued, "It was like my first real big realization that that's going to inhibit some people from even wanting to start talking to me."

Janelle Brown Thinks No One Else Really Wanted to Live on Coyote Pass

Janelle is convinced she was the only member of her sprawling fam who truly wanted to land on Coyote Pass. 

Discussing the family's standoff over the 14-acre property they purchased ahead of their 2018 move to Flagstaff, Ariz., Janelle admitted on the Oct 3 episode, "I'm not actually sure I ever had the dream of us all being out on Coyote Pass." 

Because while Kody's second wife could imagine herself settling out there—"It's a beautiful piece of property, why not?"—she alleged that it was more of a passing phase for her ex and his other brides. 

"Nobody really wanted to live out there," she said, adding that Christine definitely didn't and Meri would have obliged "if everybody else had done it." 

As for Kody and Robyn, they "had a house that was pretty much there without being there on the property," Janelle surmised of the two-acre, five-bedroom spread they have since sold for $1.7 million. 

So as much as they all howled over the land they initially split into four separate parcels, said Janelle, "I just could see very soon after we moved to Flagstaff that that was not going to be a thing."

Why Kody Brown Thinks He Has a Strained Relationship With "Most" of His Adult Kids

Kody has a theory about why his bonds with the majority of his adult kids (save for Robyn's eldest Dayton, Aurora and Breanna) are kinda garbage. 

"I think most of the relationships between me and my adult children are strained," he acknowledged on the Oct. 5 episode. "It's an issue of trash talk and innuendo, and it has challenged loyalties and trust on all sides."

And these days, not many of his grown kids are on Team Kody. 

Though Mykelti Padron—one of his six children with Christine—had been the most outwardly supportive of her father, months after she and husband Tony Padron made the move to North Carolina with their three children, she gave her take on the rift.

"I think that if he took more accountability in any of his actions, his kids—maybe not all of them, but at least some of them—would reach out," she noted during an October 2024 fan Q&A shared on the Instagram account @withoutacrystalball. "Instead of blaming the children, or blaming how they feel about his relationship with his other wife or blaming the parents or blaming gossip or whatever, if he just said, 'Look, I understand I did blank wrong. I’m sorry. Can we talk about it?' I feel like that would go such a long way."

Janelle Brown Admits She Would Have Taken Half of Kody Brown's Assets

With the April 2025 sale of Coyote Pass, Janelle and Meri walked away from their marriage to Kody with a nice parting gift. (Christine had already signed over her portion of the land in exchange for keeping the proceeds from the sale of her Arizona home.) 

As Janelle joked to Meri on the Oct. 5 episode, it was "a nice way to just be like, 'See you later. Hope I never see you again. Goodbye.'"

But she certainly wouldn't have waved off an even nicer present. 

Had she been "legally married to Kody," she noted, she absolutely would have taken half of his assets "because it would have been half mine."

Kody Brown Agreed to Sell Coyote Pass for This Reason

Before Kody and Robyn agreed to close the door on their Coyote Pass dreams, they had to open, not a window, but the contract on their new $2.1 million manse. After months of going back and forth with his exes about unloading the massive property, "Selling Coyote Pass became a reality for us," Kody detailed in the Oct. 12 episode, "only when we, we discovered we really wanted this other house."

The dad of 18 is also eager to unload the bad memories of their previous home. "We've experienced a lot of heartache here," he posited. "And we want a new beginning, something different, something new."