Christine and Robyn Brown have different ideas about what constitutes divorce in a spiritual marriage.
On Sunday’s episode of “Sister Wives,” Robyn, who is Kody Brown’s fourth wife, spoke out about her spouse’s divorce from the fellow plural wife after 26 years of marriage.
“Usually our church [would be the one to] say you’re divorced,” Robyn told Christine and other wives Janelle and Meri Brown, as quoted by People magazine.
“You have to go ask for a divorce,” said Robyn. “You have to get paperwork, you have to get approval. You have to prove that the marriage is broken.”
Christine, left, and Robyn Brown, right, of “Sister Wives,” have different views about divorce within a plural marriage.
(TLC)
Robyn then turned to Christine and said, “This is a little different, I guess, because you don’t consider yourself to be part of that church anymore.”
Last November, Christine took to Instagram and announced that her marriage to Kody was over. The outlet noted that in September 2021, she relocated to Salt Lake City with her daughter Truely, 12. The exes are also parents to son Paedon, 24, and daughters Aspyn, 27, Mykelti, 26, Gwendlyn, 20, and Ysabel, 19.
Kody has a total of 18 children between the women.
“Christine just saying she’s divorced is sort of invalidating our beliefs,” said Robyn in a confessional, as quoted by the outlet. “We are spiritually married to Kody by our church. If we want a divorce then we have to get their approval. Usually, they require counseling, lots and lots of meetings and technically, from my understanding, until Christine is physical with another man she’s not divorced. But I don’t know.”
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Kody Brown has a total of 18 children with his plural wives.
(TLC)
Christine said that her divorce came into effect when she decided that the marriage was over. She is no longer a member of the Mormon Fundamentalist faith and was never legally married to Kody.
“Since I don’t have any legal contract that binds me with Kody, there was no legal process that we’ve had to go through,” she explained.
Christine shared that the ending of her plural marriage was a difficult decision, but it was also the right one.
“I was 21 when I got married,” she explained. “I’m 49. I’m starting over again. All I know is that I’m moving forward, and I’m moving to something better. I do know I’m moving towards something better. And that’s enough most of the time.”
From left: Meri Brwon, Janelle Brown, Kody Brown, Christine Brown and Robyn Brown have opened up about the challenges that come with a plural marriage.
(Photo by Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images)
“I know without a doubt that I have tried for years to make this work,” she continued. “I have a clear conscience knowing that I gave it my best. If people want to look at me and think otherwise, OK – I can’t do anything about that. Being a mom is my most important thing, but I couldn’t with a clear conscience stay married to someone who had favorites and made it very known and someone who is breaking my kids’ hearts. I need to stand with them instead, and I wanted to do it for them.”
Kody and his family fled Utah in 2011 under the threat of prosecution following the premiere of their TLC series. After residing in Las Vegas, they moved to Flagstaff, Arizona, a liberal college city in a largely conservative state, in 2018.
Being married to more than one person, or bigamy, is illegal across the United States. The law in Mormon-heavy Utah is considered stricter because of a unique provision that bars married people from living with a second “spiritual spouse.”
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints abandoned polygamy in 1890 and strictly prohibits it today. The Browns consider themselves Fundamentalist Mormons.
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Kody Brown, right, said he has ruled out having a fifth wife.
(Photo by Gabe Ginsberg/Getty Images)
In a memo addressing legal questions about the family, Flagstaff police said Kody could not be charged with bigamy because he is legally married to one woman, Robyn.
“Sister Wives,” the reality TV series that chronicles Kody’s relationships with his spouses, has been airing since 2010. Season 17 premiered in September.
Back in 2019, Kody told Fox News Digital that the family has agreed not to consider a fifth wife anytime soon.
“We really took the fifth wife thing off the table a long time ago,” said Kody at the time. “And because we don’t want to snub the concept, we’ve always sort of been very casually dismissing it, and I think that’s one reason the question keeps coming up. But it’s technically been off the table as long as we’ve done the show.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
