How Kody Brown's Sister Wives Splits Have Affected His Remaining Wife Robyn

When polygamist Kody Brown set out on his reality TV journey with TLC's "Sister Wives" in 2010, he had three wives and was pursuing his soon-to-be fourth spouse. The self-proclaimed patriarch married his first wife, Meri Brown, in 1990. Three years later, he spiritually wed Janelle Brown, then Christine Brown in 1994. Meri and Kody have welcomed one child of their own, while Janelle and Christine have six children each with the controversial reality star.

Robyn Brown came into the picture in 2010 when Kody started courting her. She joined the Brown family that same year and became the fourth sister wife through a spiritual union with Kody. In order to adopt three of her children from a previous marriage, Kody wanted to legally marry Robyn, which he did in 2014. As U.S. law prohibits a person from having more than one spouse, the patriarch had to divorce Meri, but the two remained in a spiritual union.

However, the Brown family fell apart over the years. Meri and Kody officially called it quits at the beginning of 2023, making her the last of the sister wives to leave the joint family. Christine left Kody in 2021, and Janelle followed suit about a year later. The splits have affected Kody's only remaining wife, Robyn, who always wanted to live the plural family dream.

Robyn Brown has been very open about wanting to live a polygamous lifestyle. "I had proposals before Kody [Brown], and I turned them down, and I said, 'No, I want to live plural marriage,' and here I am. And I'm like, 'Hey, guys, I want to live plural marriage,'" she once shared in a "Sister Wives" episode, as In Touch Weekly reported. Kody's breakups have more than impacted his remaining wife, which is more than clear in the trailer for the show's 18th season, where Robyn can be seen sobbing.

"I wanted to sit on a porch with my sister wives, with our kids and our grandkids," Robyn says in the video, devastated after she found out Meri was leaving their family. She had also previously shared her concern over Kody not wanting to be a polygamist anymore. In the exclusive "One-on-One" sit-down for Season 17, Robyn stated she was scared to push the patriarch to bring in a new wife because all of his other marriages have failed, as per People.

However, she made it clear she wasn't all that ready for a new sister-wife herself. After all of Kody's splits, Robyn shared she felt it was disrespectful to bring in someone new. "I really, really struggle with it because it feels like, 'Oh, well. Those didn't work. So, onto [someone] new.' That's hard for me," she told the tell-all host Sukanya Krishnan at the time.

While Kody Brown's last standing wife, Robyn Brown, said it didn't feel right to bring in someone new after the patriarch's three failed marriages, the pair pursued a new woman, according to Pauline Bithell, who is a co-host of the Tender Loving Care...? podcast. "They have been courting a 'new potential wife' for about three months," Bithell revealed to The U.S. Sun. Interestingly, Kody and Robyn purposefully went after someone who wasn't American, so they were thrilled to meet a South American woman in her early 20s, Bithell explained. So much so that they allegedly included her in the show's new season.

However, their courtship went more south than intended. Bithell's source claims that the woman felt uncomfortable with Kody and Robyn's advances and wanted to stop filming. "She was pretty much wanting to get out of the situation immediately. She said she didn't like their energy," Bithell shared.

As their potential new wife didn't work out, the Brown spouses might go after someone else, but not somebody new. The patriarch is reportedly considering taking back two of his estranged wives in an attempt to rebuild his family, which Robyn supports. We're set to see how the situation unfolds in the upcoming season of "Sister Wives."