Meri Brown Reveals How Kody Broke Her Heart While Dating

Sister Wives stars Kody and Meri Brown don't have anything like a typical relationship. For one thing, they've been appearing on a reality show, sharing their lives with millions of people, for over a decade. For another, Kody is married to three other women aside from Meri. In recent years, their marriage has been strained, with certain factions even convinced it's over. They tied the knot all the way back in 1990 so, naturally, things have evolved in the meantime.

In their memoir, Becoming Sister Wives: The Story of an Unconventional Marriage, the couple describes their early courtship in sweet detail (via Cheat Sheet). Meri was one of the first women Kody fell for, and the pair actually met through her sister, with whom Meri had attended an all-girls camp organized by their church. Meri was "impressed with the strength of his convictions and the depth of his spirituality." Their bond grew quickly, but their initial relationship wasn't without issues.

After a few weeks of dating, the two were clearly falling for each other but then, out of nowhere, as Meri revealed, "Kody broke my heart" by abruptly telling her that he just wanted to be friends. Adding insult to injury, Meri was expecting him to confess his feelings for her at that exact moment. Cheat Sheet notes Kody told her, "I can't get involved in any relationships with girls right now. I like our friendship, let's continue that." Although Meri was heartbroken, the Sister Wives patriarch admits in their shared memoir that he was simply treading carefully.

Kody explained, "I'm a hopeless romantic and too easily infatuated," describing himself as having been "careless" with previous women. His mother actually suggested Kody try to be friends first, so he did exactly that, advising, "Meri was my experiment in friends." Although he thought Meri was the one, Kody stayed strong until he knew for sure. As Soap Dirt reports, lately Kody seems as though he wants more attention from his first wife but Meri has understandably been preoccupied with her daughter going off to college. Only time will tell whether these two can truly go the distance.