The Untold Truth Of Sister Wives' Meri Brown

Meri Brown is no strange to plural marriage. Like her fellow sister-wife, Robyn Brown, Meri grew up in the unconventional and often controversial lifestyle. In the Brown family memoir, "Becoming Sister Wives: The Story of an Unconventional Marriage," Meri recalled her upbringing in the LDS faith, her parents' awakening and calling to plural marriage, a move from California to Utah and her mom's desire for her father to take a second wife with fondness. 

Following her family's conversion to polygamy, she found herself surrounded by five mothers and 27 siblings. In the book, Meri recalled being excited at new moms or sister wives joining her growing family. In Meri's memory, the wives and children were all happy, and her father was a fair and kind dad. Looking at Meri's childhood experience, it is no surprise that once she was grown and ready to start her own family, Meri sought plural marriage for herself.

Kody and Meri Brown have been together for over 30 years, and in those three-plus decades, they have biologically welcomed one child into the Brown family. While many families choose to have a single child, Meri and Kody had certainly hoped for more baby Browns. Meri has openly struggled with her fertility. While she was Kody's first wife, it was five years into their marriage before she had her first and only baby, Leon. In those five years, Kody went on to have a son with his second wife, Janelle, and a daughter with his third wife, Christine. Leon, who also goes by Leo, came out as transgender in June 2022 and uses they/them pronouns. 

With the birth of her child, Meri was confident that her spell with infertility was broken. Sadly, that wasn't the case, and it would be 12 years before Meri got pregnant again, only to suffer a miscarriage at 10 weeks. "I completely assumed that after I had [Leon], it would be very easy for me to conceive again," Meri said in a 2012 episode. "And that just didn't happen. So, after years of a rollercoaster, we had finally backed off. ... I was so frustrated and so angry. I didn't understand why, after another 12 years of trying, and then, it was just taken away from us. I didn't understand that. It was really hard."

Social media can be a very deceiving and dangerous place, and Meri Brown has learned this fact the hard way. In 2015, she started connecting with people via the internet. One person in particular began to pay close attention to her. Of the interaction, Meri said, "I got into this situation talking to one person who really made me trust him. He was just saying all the right things."

Meri thought she had a genuine connection to this person, whom she thought was a Chicago businessman. It turned out that the person Meri was confiding and trusting in was actually a woman. Meri came clean with her family about the catfishing ordeal, and for all intents and purposes, it looked as if the Brown family was willing and ready to support her. She told People, "My family has supported and stood by me. I am grateful to them for their love and strength through this difficult time." Not all of Meri's family relationships bounced back to normal, however.

While Meri is still very much a part of the Brown family, things with her and Kody never really rebounded following her internet indiscretion. They tried therapy, but as of this writing, their relationship is platonic.

Relationships like Kody and Meri Brown's, ones that span several decades, are bound to go through peaks and valleys. It seems that Kody and his first wife have been living in a valley for a long time now. Meri revealed that the pair have not engaged in physical intimacy in about 10 years. She went on to say that she "would love it if he would hold my hand, but that's just not where we are."

Meri's husband, Kody, doesn't seem to be all that interested in ever lighting the fire that once burned between them. Kody told his wife, "Meri, I just don't see us getting back together," before saying they couldn't reconcile because "there's just no chance that I ever want that again." He went on to explain, "There's a point where intimacy is just damage. It's misleading to have intimacy in a relationship where there's no real safety. I'm not going there. No, and I never will again. I will be her friend. I will do what I can to protect her. I'm never going to feel safe in an intimate place." As things stand, Meri Brown will have to be satisfied with playing the role of friend to Kody.

Sharing a husband is going to come with its own set of unique challenges, as Meri Brown knows all too well. She was Kody's first wife, and while the pair always knew more wives would enter their family, that doesn't mean the transition to plural marriage was a seamless one. Meri has admitted to faults in how she handled Janelle's entry into the clan, per "Becoming Sister Wives." "I never took the time to think about how I should upon up my space — both physical and emotional — to accommodate a new wife ... The biggest mistake we made when we married Janelle was us all moving into a house together and not giving Janelle and me the space we needed to develop and nurture our own relationships with Kody. Having us all in the same house brought Janelle face-to-face on a daily basis with the romantic relationship Kody and I had."

Meri and Christine have had contention over the years as well, primarily due to insecurities and jealousy issues. Meri and Robyn haven't had the same relationship woes as Meri and her other sister wives, and for the most part, Robyn has championed Meri, even ticking off Kody in her unwavering support.

Out of the four wives who are or have been wed to Kody Brown, three of them have been legally divorced. Second wife Janelle Brown was first briefly married to Adam Clark Barber before divorcing him and joining the Brown family. For nine years, Robyn was hitched to her three oldest children's father, David Jessop. Meri Brown has also been divorced ... technically.

While Janelle and Robyn were married to other men before marrying Kody Brown, Meri has only ever been linked to Kody. She first married him in 1990, six months after they first laid eyes on each other. From their "I do's," Meri remained Kody's legal wife (with the other three women joining him in a spiritual union) until 2014. Kody and Meri legally divorced that year so that he could marry his fourth wife, Robyn. The swap had to occur so that Kody could legally adopt Robyn's three older children, solidifying their standing in the Brown clan should anything ever happen to their mom. 

The Brown family has certainly moved around quite a bit, with each wife feeling a different connection to a certain space. In 2018, it was announced the Browns would say farewell to Las Vegas and head to Flagstaff, Arizona, to start anew. Some wives, like second wife Janelle Brown, love living in Flagstaff! On the other side of the spectrum, former third wife Christine pleaded for a leave before calling her marriage quits. (She now calls Utah home.)

Meri Brown has found a balance between her new home in Flagstaff and old-ish stomping grounds. When she is not in Arizona, she is likely at her bed and breakfast establishment. Parowan, Utah, where Lizzie's Heritage Inn is located, is of sentimental significance to Meri, as it has been in her family for generations.

Meri, like Janelle and Christine, has also been traveling. Christine and Janelle Brown took their kids to the "happiest place on earth" in March 2022. Janelle and her sister set sail for adventures across the big pond in bright and beautiful Portugal in May of that year, and Meri found her inner peace in Oregon. Meri took to Instagram to express her joy while taking in the breathtaking beauty of the west coast. "Days by the beach, nights by the fire, all of it surrounded by people I love!" Meri continued, "The time I spent on the Oregon coast last weekend was fulfilling, relaxing, invigorating, rejuvenating, all the things my body and soul needed."