Kody Brown’s ex-wives Meri Brown and Janelle Brown sounded off on his alleged “ego” during part 3 of Sister Wives: 1-on-1 reunion — and didn’t hold back.
“Kody definitely has a big ego. He always has,” Meri, 54, claimed during the Sunday, January 25, episode. “But, like, I enjoy him. He’s fun, right? He’s fun to hang out with. He’s charismatic.”
She confessed, “He’s a little bit too cocky. I don’t like cocky. And that kind of goes along with ego. So there’s times that he does have that.”
Janelle, 56, agreed that “yeah,” Kody does have a “big ego,” but like Meri, she didn’t take issue with it.
“It’s fine. It’s not my problem anymore,” Janelle quipped. “I think he has an ego and I think that’s OK.”
Meri became Kody’s first wife in 1990 when they legally got married. He entered into a spiritual union with Janelle in 1993 followed by a spiritual marriage to Christine Brown in 1994. Fourth wife Robyn Brown entered the family in 2010 with her own spiritual ceremony.
Four years later, Kody divorced Meri — but remained spiritually tied to her — and legally married Robyn, 47, while also adopting her three children from a prior marriage.
In 2021, the Brown family began to unravel after Christine, 53, announced her split from Kody. Janelle revealed in 2022 that she and Kody had separated and Meri confirmed her own split from the patriarch in 2023.
While Meri and Janelle agreed that Kody has a “big ego,” Janelle noted on Sunday’s episode that she doesn’t think men have to have that personality trait to be a polygamist.
“I think you have to feel pretty confident in who you are. An ego can be misconstrued. I think a healthy ego is a good thing to feel confident in who you are and being able to lead. Yeah, I think that’s great,” Janelle explained. “But an ego, like, [Christine’s new husband David Woolley’s] talking about machismo or whatever, like where it’s like, ‘I’m the man.’ Like, that’s not — that wouldn’t be good.”
Janelle’s remarks came after Christine’s husband, David, 61, claimed on season 20 of Sister Wives that men in polygamy “love the fighting” and “love the competition between the women.” He alleged the religion was about “controlling” women.
During Sunday’s reunion special, David doubled down on his allegations, claiming that “all guys have egos.” He alleged Kody “does have an ego.”
While Christine revealed that she sees “more sadness in polygamy than anything else,” she noted she finds it “hard” to fully agree with David’s perception of the practice.
When it comes to whether Kody was guilty of wanting his wives to “compete” for this love during their relationships, neither Janelle or Meri said they felt that pressure.
“No, I never felt like that. I never felt like I had to compete,” Janelle told reunion host Sukanya Krishnan.
Meri pointed out that she has seen polygamist women fighting for their spouse’s affection, but claimed, “I’ve never felt that I had to compete.”
She then confessed, “But I did look at myself and be like, ‘OK, what do I need to change to be accepted and change to be loved and change to be welcomed in?’”
Meri revealed that she’s not sure “how empathetic” her former sister wives were to her emotional struggles during different parts in her and Kody’s marriage — especially when it came to her issues conceiving a child. (Meri and Kody share one child. Kody welcomed six kids with both Janelle and Christine while married and two more with Robyn. Kody is also the adoptive father of Robyn’s three eldest children.)
“It’s one thing to watch my sisters or friends or whatever have babies when I want them, right. It’s a whole other level to watch my husband have them with other people,” Meri shared.
Robyn, who is still married to Kody, recalled having “special circumstances” with Meri as each family expanded over the years.
“Each of us would go and tell Meri when we were pregnant before we would tell anyone else to help her be able to have the time to process that,” Robyn recalled. “Just to let her feel supported in that and say, ‘You know, I know this is hard for you and I am pregnant and I love you.’”
Robyn added that she took it a step further, offering to do surrogacy for Meri. “I was trying to support that part of her, her pain and her story,” she said.
Looking back at the ups and downs with his exes — especially at the beginning of his plural family with Meri and Janelle — Kody admitted that he did play a part in their tension as his wives.
“I can go back and I can say they didn’t honor me or they had too much contention with each other. I could sit and blame everything on them,” Kody said. “And what it [really] was is I was just over my head in leadership that I couldn’t manage.”
Part 4 of Sister Wives: 1-on-1 special airs on TLC Sunday, February 1, at 10 p.m. ET.
