Kody Brown is complaining that several of his adult children want nothing to do with him. In the October 15 episode of Sister Wives, the patriarch discusses his struggle to communicate with two of his six children, with ex-wife Janelle Brown.
“I’ve reached out to Garrison and Gabriel,” Kody admits in a confessional. “I reached out to them just before Christmas, and I reached out to them after. No, they’re blocking me.”
In addition to three of his four wives leaving him in recent years, Kody believes his own children have no interest “in talking to me.” E! News has the tea.
Kids blame dad for estrangement
Janelle’s son Garrison holds his dad responsible for the estrangement, blaming it on Kody’s difficult relationships with family members. Chief among them is Kody’s ex, Christine Brown. Christine left Kody in November 2021 following 25 years of “spiritual marriage.” She recently became a first-time legal bride when she married David Woolley in Utah.
“Since I last talked to Dad,” Garrison told Christine, with whom he’s still close, “I bought a house, I’ve gotten into school and I got the car that I wanted, that he told me I should never get.” Janelle’s son added that his father “doesn’t care” to know anything about his life.
In a show interview, Janelle remarked on how the children’s relationship with their dad had changed over the years.
“Kody seems to have trouble relating to his older children,” she said. “He seems to dote on the younger children … When my children were younger, it was very easy for him to be a father because he was still … important to them. His opinion mattered to them, his guidance mattered to them. [But] now, because they question a little bit, I think it might be harder for Kody to feel like he’s respected.”
Robyn blames Christine
Kody’s only remaining wife, Robyn Brown, places the blame on one person alone: Christine. She claims that Kody’s relationships with his older children were “really good,” until Christine left. “Christine left and all that changed.”
In actuality, anyone who watches the show knows that it was Kody’s restrictive rules and his distancing of himself from his family during the COVID-19 pandemic that caused the rift. He particularly seemed to target two of Christine’s boys, Gabrielle and Garrison. They both continued to work and see their respective girlfriends during the pandemic, which Kody saw as defying his lockdown rules.
Kody spent the better part of two years isolating with Sobbin’ Robyn and her children, basically ignoring the rest of his 13 children and his other three wives. Yet Robyn’s family still got coronavirus because the nanny brought it into their home. The rift resulting from that two-year separation may never be fully healed.
Sister Wives airs Sundays at 10/9c on TLC.
