Janelle Brown didn’t hold back on Sunday’s episode of Sister Wives, opening up about the “poor parenting” decisions she believes her ex-husband Kody Brown and his wife Robyn made in regard to not preparing their kids for life in a polygamist family.
On Sunday’s episode– which was filmed entirely too long ago in 2022, after Kody’s marriages to Janelle, Christine and Meri Brown had ended– Janelle reflected on the “separateness” of Robyn and Kody’s home over the years– one she claims that all six of her and Kody’s children could feel when they would visit. She also talked about some of Robyn’s rules that made her kids feel unwelcome in her home.
“My children like, were scolded if they would open up Robyn’s fridge,” Janelle claimed.
While it wasn’t shown on Sunday’s episode, fans of ‘Sister Wives’ may remember a scene from Season 10 that seemingly backs Janelle’s fridge claim. In the scene, which was filmed inside of Robyn and Kody’s Las Vegas home, the camera showed a sign pinned to Robyn’s refrigerator with the following message: “Please ask Robyn or Mindy before you take any food. Thank you!” (As viewers may remember, Mindy is Robyn’s niece, who was also Robyn and Kody’s nanny at the time.)
Aside from Robyn’s strict rules regarding snacks and whatnot, Janelle also claimed on Sunday’s episode that there was tension in the family due to Robyn not allowing Kody to spend equal time with his other wives and their children. (As fans know, Kody shares six children with Janelle, six children with Christine and one child with Meri.)
After Robyn joined the family in 2010, Kody adopted her three children from a previous marriage and the couple went on to welcome son Solomon in 2011 and daughter Ariella in 2016. According to Janelle, while her– and presumably Christine and Meri’s– children knew that Kody “was not going to always be there,” due to him needing to split his time with his other wives/children, Robyn’s children didn’t experience this.
Janelle went on to say that Robyn didn’t explain to her kids that their father needed to spend time with his other families, too.
“I always felt, like, that Kody and Robyn mismanaged the situation with [Robyn’s] children,” she stated, adding that Kody “couldn’t be away for more than three or four days because [Ariella] just gets so sad or whatever.
“ … I feel like that was poor parenting,” Janelle continued. “Through all [the] history of the family, the other kids did it. They’re fine. They’re well-adjusted adults. I think they’re fine.”
When asked about this situation on Sunday’s episode– more specifically, an instance Kody recalled from years ago when he was trying to leave his and Robyn’s house and Ariella was “melting down”– Robyn denied her children ever received special treatment, only noting that her daughter “loved her dad” and wanted to be around him.
“Did it ever stop Kody from going to another mom’s home? No, it didn’t,” Robyn insisted. “I wouldn’t have allowed it.”
Robyn also alleged on the episode that, while Meri “was very accepting” of her and her children when they joined the family, “the rest of the family really struggled to accept” them.
“All we wanted to do was be a part of this family,” she claimed.
New episodes of ’Sister Wives’ air Sundays on TLC.
RELATED STORY: ‘Sister Wives’ Star Maddie Brown– Estranged Daughter of Kody– Expecting Fourth Child with Husband Caleb Brush
(Photos: TLC)
18 Responses
I homely think all of Robyn’s tears and manipulation is because they can’t bully and beat the other children into submission. She was able to get him to treat the former wives like that, so why not the kids too!
She uses her crybrows to emote sadness and he spouts threats and his thesaurus’s word of the day but it’s always the same conclusion NO ONE IS LOYAL AND DOES WHAT I WANT!!!!
Seriously fire the both of them, I cannot take another fake season with those two.
Kody is such a hypocrite too. He literally has said repeatedly that he wasn’t “in love” with Jenelle (and Christine and Meri). Then he turns around and says “I just don’t understand why Jenelle & I can’t reconcile”. Reconcile for what? So Jenelle could be in a loveless marriage but still help to buy Kody & Robyn’s obnoxiously oversized love nest?
Robyn is insanely manipulative. I don’t care how much she tries to smush her weird eyebrows to try and give her face emotion to prove she cares. She NEVER wanted to share Kody. And worse she NEVER wanted Kody to have a relationship with any child that didn’t come from her. Then she tries to pretend that she has constantly been encouraging Kody to have a relationship with his other kids.
Kody has no self awareness whatsoever. He just can’t grasp that the reason his marriages have failed is his fault. I don’t give a shit if Robyn was encouraging him to not speak to his other wives or children. If Kody was a man and a good father there would be no one that could influence whether he is a father to the other 13 children that were there long before Robyn & her kids were.
Robyn always says that her children weren’t welcomed but what about the other children? It seems that the only one she welcomed into her house was Mykelti. I remember her yelling at Gwen and Padon for getting too much of her food in the beginning. I remember her complaining about Hunter, Maddie and Aspyn quite frequently and telling Maddie she had to conform or move out(Kody actually disagreed with her then… something he probably wouldn’t do now.). She is like a broken record with her complaints about her kids not being welcomed into the family because what effort did she really put into making the other kids feel safe and comfortable in her home? It wasn’t just her kids who deserved to feel welcomed but all the kids.
Mykelti was welcomed because she was taking care of Robyn’s children, she was free childcare so of course Robyn welcomed her.
Yeah, Robyn and her children are upset that they weren’t welcomed with open arms into the family. I can understand why the kids were struggling they probably already didn’t see their dad a lot and now they were seeing him less, and the time they did see him they were being yelled at to not eat snacks or not to play in Robyn’s backyard, which was the only finished backyard.
Robyn was the ADULT she should have been trying harder to make Kody’s kids feel welcome, and more understanding that they were kids and just struggling, but the other kids were welcoming. A lot more welcoming then Robyn.
It’s ridiculous that the children have always been more mature than Robyn. And all these years later she and her ADULT children are still holding grudges. While they get to play family picnic with their dad full time. Like Gabe and Garrison were mad at Kod. They just wanted to spend some time with him.
Also, Robyn is so mad that the ADULT children refuse to have a relationship with her kids. She is brainwashing her kids to think they hate them, not that’s not what is happening.
They are just grown-ups, they don’t live at home, they have their own partners, children, jobs, and lives and they can’t just make it to every stupid dumb party you throw, especially when you have so much animosity toward them. Hunter was right, one Zoom call isn’t going to fix the relationship. Nor did she even ask if they wanted to fix it at this point, or if they were all available to get on a zoom call that minute. They live in different time zones, work schedules, and some have young children.
No, they can’t just drop everything right now because Queen Robyn demands things.
Also, this is kind the cons are having kids with big age gaps, and divorce. It happens. It was Kody responsibility to foster the relationships with his kids, so they would come home. He didn’t and now he doesn’t have a relationship with any of his adult children.
I suspect that the way the sibling gift exchange text thread went down was similar to how the merging of the families went. Because obviously Robyn’s kids were included in that until she got involved and freaked out on everyone because they wouldn’t do what she wanted immediately. Then suddenly it all became about Robyn’s kids not being included somehow even though they were the ones who said they didn’t want to be involved. I 100% believe that Robyn is the one telling her kids that they aren’t included and making it a thing. She just has to be the victim at all times.
I remembered distinctly it was Kody’s time with either Christine or Janelle‘s kids and he showed up with Ariel and you can see the shock on her face because that was the time with her children and her…he just said Ariel was sad and was having a meltdown so he had to bring her. I don’t remember which wife it was, but I remember feeling so weird and there was tension in the air because he brought the little girl during their family time outing.
Dodie and Bobbin are so obtuse. Bobbin raised her children to have a victim mentality as she has prefected. They’re never responsible for anything that happens, it always happens to “them”. The other “polygets” were open and welcoming when they joined the family.
As for the rest, I loved how Janelle’s son shut down any mention of his name and his nuptials was referred to “as the wedding”. And Dodie moaning about how he wished he and Janelle could work it out and he wished he and the other OG wives ended their relationships as “friends”. Friends don’t throw someone out like garbage, use people and bleed them dry financially. You made your bed, lie in it.
Was “the wedding” one of the boys wedding??
Jenelle & Kody’s oldest son, Logan got married. Logan left Sister Wives tv behind quite some time ago.
That family game night scene was so odd. Don’t get me wrong I love my kids, but my teenagers have a way more active social life than I do, they are never home! Do those girls have friends or social activities outside of the house? It’s like they are held captive….
I don’t know if the older boy is autistic or something?
He’s very hands on and clingy with Kody. That much affection from pretty much, an adult, is just odd to me.
Maybe I’m weird for finding it odd?
Dayton is a little off & yes, I totally agree with you. Very creepy
Hmmm….still no tears from sobbin robyn
Robyn felt the other women not Kody’s partners. They were the other mother’s houses and her house had the kids that needing fathering the most. How can Ari who can’t remember any of her siblings remember Christine who she have seen even less enough to hate her. And Christine is Mykelty’s mom, the person she can hug and Truely’s mom who still has access to that house. Who she could not hug the month before when that mom moved. The only way Ari could hate Christine is if the adults in the house told her to and talked trash about Christine. Kody said he would leave Robyn’s to go to ‘Janelle’s’. Not to go to work. Funny isn’t it? There really need not be a grand goodbye with dad going to work. But Kody only left around 7 to go to the other houses, bed by 10 and first thing in the morning left for Robyn’s house. Ari was maybe 5 when Christine left? She would have no memory of this person. She could have been brought to Mykelty’s baby shower. Surely Mckelty worthy of the 2 offspring. The older kids could be working. But Ari who is 7 or 8 at this point in time surely could go, see Truely again, Avalon her niece. But NO! After the theft and lies of the last episode casting shade at their ability to live off their MLM when Robyn was living off 5 incomes from the show and all proceeds of the homes in Vegas to her benefit I found one more reason to find them insincere.
I love the part that Kody was sad Ari didn’t want him to leave. Can you imagine if he had a normal job? I remember my babies doing this at like 2 not 5.
and she STILL has a pacifier at 7…. terrible parenting
That is really terrible. It was hard work getting them from my kids. My oldest daughter carried one in each hand and one in the mouth. I got her to give it up by 2 though. It’s just super lazy (non) parenting.
God it’s almost like having an a best parent was hard for a small child….who would have thought.