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‘Sister Wives’ fans have spent decades watching the Brown family navigate polygamy. They’ve also seen them lie to their fans.
In 2010 TLC introduced reality TV fans to the Brown family on Sister Wives. Fifteen years later, viewing audiences know plenty about polygamy. They’ve connected with the family and picked favorites and villains. They have even learned about competing polygamist sects. By now, viewers also know that the Brown family lied a lot. Over 19 seasons of Sister Wives, the cast has lied to its audience many times. We’ve gathered the three most egregious.
Meri and Janelle Brown downplayed their familial connection
When Sister Wives began, Kody Brown had been married to Meri Brown, Janelle Brown, and Christine Brown for years. While early episodes of the show covered how Kody ended up with each of his wives, the family glossed over Janelle’s connection to Meri before their marriage to Kody. Janelle was married to Meri’s brother when Kody showed up on the scene. Instead of admitting the connection, the Sister Wives cast lied. They claimed Janelle had been a “friend of the family,” instead of being honest.
Once news of the failed marriage broke, the Browns continued to downplay the connection, insisting it was a short marriage. Only now, years after both Janelle and Meri left Kody, is Meri willing to admit that the entire situation was strange and uncomfortable.
Christine Brown insisted she didn’t know anything about the FLDS
Christine Brown has always been a bit more dramatic than the rest of the Brown family. While she’s largely liked, there have been moments where viewers have found her to be a bit much. In one season 5 Sister Wives episode, Christine appeared to blatantly lie about her knowledge of the FLDS and what went on inside the more conservative polygamist sects. Christine dramatically insisted she didn’t know men could be such “bastards.”
Reddit users point out that Christine’s family tree is proof that she was well aware of the darker side of polygamist sects and how the men inside them operated. After all, her grandfather was murdered during a spat of polygamist in-fighting, and her mother and cousin left polygamy behind. Both have spoken out aggressively against the practice. Christine had a front-row seat to some pretty harrowing moments inside her own polygamist community. While Sister Wives fans didn’t expect Christine Brown to do anything about the troubling societal dynamics, they remain bothered by the fact that she so dramatically claimed complete ignorance.
The Brown family once claimed they were happy to add Robyn to the group
Perhaps the biggest lie the Brown family sold to Sister Wives fans was their actual functionality as a group. During the show’s earliest seasons, the entire family claimed they wanted Robyn Brown to join them. Kody’s three original wives insisted they were each in good places with their husband at the time.
Apparently, that could not have been further from the truth. In recent years, both Meri Brown and Christine Brown have admitted their marriages were troubled when Kody started dating Robyn Brown. Christine later revealed that she never wanted another wife to join the family. She liked being the third and final wife. Meri recently admitted that she had almost no say in the matter. The only wife who might have actually been mostly satisfied with her marriage at the time and mainly indifferent to Robyn joining the family was Janelle.
