Sister Wives’ Kody Brown Vows to ‘Always Have a Relationship’ with Meri, Who Can ‘Call Me If She Ever Needs Anything’

Despite Meri Brown once telling the ‘Sister Wives’ patriarch she’d “wasted” her life being married to him, Kody tells PEOPLE he sees a friendly future with his ex

Kody Brown is hoping that he can stay on friendly terms with ex Meri Brown.

The Sister Wives star, 54, tells PEOPLE that he plans to be part of Meri’s life despite the pair confirming their split in December 2022.

“The evolution of everything that happened with Meri and I over the past 20 years has had an effect to where we’ve come to here,” he explains of their decision to remain friends. “Her and I separating permanently was basically just what I thought was a very gentle negotiation of where we’re at — what our personalities are like, and what we can give to each other and what we can’t.”

Kody adds the “honest evaluation” of their relationship made them aware they “needed to move forward without being in a relationship of a marriage.”

“But I think the realization of that has brought us to a place where we can be friends again,” he affirms. “Meri and I do, I believe, go forward very quickly — I hope — with love and grace, forgiveness and charity to where I want her to feel free to call me if she ever needs anything.”

He also says, “I want to have that dialogue between her and I [that is] open. Her and Robyn are still, I think, close. She still wants to come and see the kids. We’ll always have a relationship of what I hope is at least [some] kind friendship.”

Meri, 52, and Kody got married in 1990. The now-exes — who share child Leon Brown — eventually entered into a polygamous arrangement with Janelle Brown before welcoming Christine Brown and Robyn Brown into the plural marriage. Meri later divorced Kody so that he could legally adopt Robyn’s children from her previous marriage.

Meri and Kody worked through many issues over the years, though Meri’s catfish drama — in which she virtually connected with a woman posing as a male admirer — seemed to serve as the tipping point in their strained relationship. That said, Meri’s previously told PEOPLE she and Kody had “definitely” been unsure in their relationship for a while before officially ending their 32-year marriage.

“I don’t like living in limbo land. And I feel like I live there a lot, but what I like now is that any limbo land I’m living in is on me, and it’s not based on anybody else,” she shared.
“I do wish that we could have had some of the conversations sooner. And also, I don’t know if I would’ve been ready to have some of the conversations sooner,” she continued. “So it’s not like I can live my life with regret and wish something would’ve happened. I think we all do that to some degree, but I know that there’s things that I needed to learn, and I know there’s things that I needed to do to be able to be in the place that I am right now with the whole thing.”

Kody tells PEOPLE that Meri shared a similar sentiment when he told her that he longer believed their relationship could work out. He recalls her saying, “We could have been broken up so much sooner. I wouldn’t have wasted my life here.”
Despite staying in limbo for an extended period of time, Kody says he and his ex are now in a better place: “I don’t know how to rationalize that, but we’re not angry with each other anymore. .. I’m like, ‘We are in a place where we are finding friendship in this breakup.’”

Christine, 51, and Janelle, 54, also decided to end their marriages to Kody in the 14-month period that took down the Browns’ polygamous arrangement. Robyn, 45, is now Kody’s only wife.