Meri & Janelle Brown Reveal The Truth Behind Their Relationship

Janelle and Meri Brown/YouTube

Sister Wives stars Meri and Janelle Brown reveal the truth about their relationship. Keep reading for all the details and where they stand today.

Meri Brown was Kody’s first wife

Meri Brown has the distinction of being the first of Kody’s four wives. The two married in 1990, and divorced in 2014. However, their spiritual marriage continued. The pair only legally divorced so that the family patriarch could wed Robyn Brown, wife number four.

After more than 30 years together, the romance in Kody and Meri’s marriage is gone. In fact, he puts her firmly in the friend-zone in the Sister Wives episode airing on Sunday, December 19.

Did Janelle play a role in Meri’s declining relationship with Kody?

Sister Wives/YouTube
Sister Wives/YouTube

Did things go sour when Janelle joined the family?

Kody’s first wife is the one who introduced him to his second one! Meri and Janelle were friends before Meri even knew Kody. TLC shared a clip on their Facebook of a deep conversation between Meri and Janelle about their relationship.

While explaining how they knew each other, Meri said in a confessional, “Janelle was in my picture before I even knew Kody.”

However, Meri admits to thinking her sister wife relationship with Janelle would be different from what it was. In a vulnerable moment, the reality star confesses to feeling “rejected” by Janelle. How did Janelle feel?

Meri and Janelle reveal truth about their relationship

In addition to one-on-one interviews with the camera, Janelle and Meri discuss their relationship face-to-face. Meri was taken aback when Janelle said, “I can remember trying to make all these little overtures” after joining the plural family. However, in Janelle’s view, Meri was the one who “wouldn’t respond” to her attempts to be friends.

Furthermore, Janelle Brown admits that her coming into the plural marriage “changed the dynamic” between her and Meri. They could never “forge a new friendship,” Janelle said.

According to Janelle, she wasn’t used to someone as opinionated as Meri. She shut down, not knowing “how to interact with somebody who was just so direct and so brutally honest.”

In her own confessional, Meri seems to express regret over the failed friendship. “You look back at yourself and you’re like, ‘No. That wasn’t the best that I could have done.'”

She admits to Janelle that she’s not perfect. As the clip ends, Meri wonders, “Now, what do we do with [their relationship]?”

Click here to watch the full clip.

Do you think there’s a chance Meri and Janelle Brown could repair their relationship? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

Don’t miss new episodes of Season 16 of Sister Wives, Sunday nights on TLC. If you’re a discovery+ subscriber, you can watch the episodes early.

Jennifer Havener
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