During the season 21 premiere of the TLC series, the women also discussed the sale of the family’s Coyote Pass property

NEED TO KNOW

• Kody Brown and wife Robyn Brown abruptly left the TLC show after 16 years of filming
• In the season 21 premiere, Meri, Janelle and Christine Brown reacted to the news that their ex was not returning to the show
• During the episode, the three women reunited to look through family photos despite lingering tensions

Sister Wives is entering a new chapter without Kody and Robyn Brown.

During the Sunday, Oct. 4, season 21 premiere of the TLC series, Kody’s ex-wives Janelle, Christine and Meri were filmed reacting to the news of Kody and Robyn’s exit from the show.

“I don’t know how to process it all,” Christine said in a confessional. “I don’t know how to feel about this whole thing. It’s just bizarre they’re done. I don’t know what it means. I have no idea.”

In confessionals of their own, Meri said she was “surprised” when she heard that Kody and Robyn were not coming back, while Janelle said she was also “very shocked.”

Over the last few years, the Brown family has experienced a series of major shakeups. First, Christine decided to end her spiritual marriage to Kody in 2021 after 25 years and six kids together. 

Shortly after, Janelle also split from him after nearly 30 years and six kids together. Meri was the last of the three to call it quits.

Kody’s only remaining wife is Robyn, whom he legally married in 2014 after legally divorcing Meri. Robyn came into the marriage with three children from a previous marriage, whom Kody has since adopted. They also welcomed children Solomon and Ariella after their union. 

Kody ended last season by going on what he called a “pilgrimage to apologize to my ex wives.”

During the season 21 premiere, footage from each sit-down was shown, as he apologized to Janelle, Christine and Meri separately.

“I feel like the apology tour was, in the end, something he was trying to redeem himself with, and I don’t think it was necessarily that sincere because there’s been no contact since,” Janelle said in a confessional. “And he very publicly torpedoed my character afterwards, so I’m like, yeah, whatever.”

Janelle was referring to Kody’s public comments claiming that she allegedly told him she knew that he could sell the family’s Coyote Pass property out from under her, Christine and Meri, but that she knew that he’d pay her. A narrative about a “backdoor deal” between Janelle and Kody followed, upsetting Meri.

“When we first bought Coyote Pass, I think most people in the family were so excited about it,” Meri explained in a confessional. “Once all the divorces happened over those couple of years, it was like, there’s really no point in keeping the property, let’s just be done with it and get rid of it.”

As for the “backdoor deal,” Meri said she’d heard “it was basically Janelle and Kody talking about wanting to sell the property out from under me and giving me the money however much they felt like I was owed.”

Janelle denied ever making a deal with Kody about the property, which Christine said was paid for by the family pot of money. During the season 20 tell-all, Kody said that he’d received an offer and earnest money on Coyote Pass.

“As a parting gift, because Kody and Robyn aren’t filming with us anymore, he felt like he should make up this story that I had somehow tried to go behind Meri’s back,” Janelle said. “I’m like, what? Kody even publicly said he went to his lawyer and his lawyer said, ‘You could sell it, you don’t have to give them anything. Your name on the title is really what matters. It doesn’t really matter what the agreements were.’ Meri believed him, or sort of believed him. It was not true.”

“Months after the deal is closed, he starts talking about how I was doing this backdoor deal,” she continued. “I was like, ‘Where did that come from?’ If I had been scheming, you would not have known it … This accusation not only felt very personal, like a final F— you while he was leaving or whatever, and it’d be one thing if he just said it, but everybody’s believing him.”

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To set the record straight, Janelle asked Meri to meet.

“I’m meeting with Meri today because Kody openly accused me of trying to cut Meri out of the land deal, which is not true,” Janelle said in a confessional. “It has really hurt my feelings and made me really angry, so I’m just trying to make sure that’s all cleared up.”

While sitting down with Meri, Janelle told her that in her conversation with Kody, he said, “Well, maybe I’ll just sell and I’ll hold some money in reserve for Meri so when she does what I want her to do, I’ll give her the money.”

“There was so much on his part of threatening and saying, ‘You guys are only owed a certain amount, a certain amount, a certain amount,’” she said. “I’m frustrated that he wants to continue to stir up the drama. I don’t want to give him that kind of power .. [He was] making all kinds of veiled threats. It got way more complicated than it needed to be, and I don’t know why. But, it’s done, and I was not trying to cut you out of a deal.”

At the end of the conversation, Meri told Janelle that she appreciates her. The episode concluded with Meri, Janelle and Christine putting aside their differences to meet and go through family photos together.

New episodes of Sister Wives air Sundays at 10 p.m. ET on TLC.

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