Sister Wives’ Janelle Resists Kody’s Affection on a Birthday ‘Date’ When Cameras Went Dark

Janelle Brown says there’s no coming back from her broken marriage to Kody Brown despite his pleas for reconciliation.

On Sunday’s episode of Sister Wives, Kody revealed that he had a special surprise in store for his estranged wife Janelle on her birthday.

Janelle, 54, agreed to celebrate with the Brown family patriarch despite their marital woes but confessed they “had reached a point where we weren’t connected” and she “was very frustrated” before their last blowout fight.

She continued, “But, on a very superficial level, Kody and I can go and hang out and we can have a great time if I just compartmentalize and put away all the other stuff. So when he called them like, ‘Yeah, hey, it’s better than staying home and watching TV.’”

“At this point, I really don’t foresee Kody and I working our relationship out,” Janelle added. “I have to always be open to the possibility that we will somehow be struck by lightning and that will all be happily ever after. But I’m also a realist and I know that it doesn’t look good.”

Noting that their “last interaction was the worst fight we’ve probably had,” the TLC personality additionally shared: “I don’t want any fighting. I just want to be easy and have fun and celebrate the day.”

Later in the episode, Kody drove to pick Janelle up for her “surprise” birthday dinner and revealed his plans to “start over” since she asked for a “separation” four months ago.

“Here’s the thing, we’re obviously in different places,” he told the cameras. “And we have different points of view in the relationship, but she’s talking about not reconciling it. I don’t know why we can’t, which means I’m clueless [as] to what the real problem is. So, it’s complicated.”

The 54-year-old added that he sees “potential” for the estranged couple to “manage” and “keep that relationship.”

Janelle, on the other hand, admitted she felt the two were “kind in this place where there’s no connection anymore” as “neither of us are making great strides or declarations of ‘I want this to work out’ or ‘I found a counselor.’”

“I still enjoy his company,” she said in a confessional. “So this date to me, it’s just a fun time to go hang out and do something for my birthday — mark the occasion. We’re not going to discuss deep things. I just want to go easy, almost like it’s a date, just a first date, second date, third date, something.”

As Janelle got in the car, Kody wished her a “happy birthday” and revealed he had made a reservation at Mariposa, a restaurant that has been on her bucket list for a long time.

Kody admitted he felt like “a guy on a first date that’s, like, jonesing” while Janelle described their outing as an opportunity to see “if there is anything here.”

“It’s starting over, right? It’s redefining,” she said, while Kody reluctantly replied with a simple, “Sure, yeah.”

“I mean, all this effort to get to Mariposa and dress nice, specifically because I was looking for an edge into reconciliation,” he told the cameras, explaining how he feels continuous “blocks” in their relationship and Janelle “bringing me down a notch.”

Janelle confessed she didn’t feel there was a “path forward for Kody and I. We just are different people now. He thinks differently.”

She noted his commitment to her sister wife Robyn Brown and their children, “They want to live the same kind of life and I’m really looking for a relationship where I’m equally considered.”

Before heading into the restaurant, Janelle told Kody she’d like to leave the cameras out of their date. She shared that the “pressure of the camera” could be “intrusive” when she just wanted to “relax” and have “fun” for her birthday.

She later revealed that the “day was nice” and recalled a moment where she “slipped my hand into his out of habit.”

“I thought this feels really weird,” she said in a confessional interview. “And I took my hand back out of his hand, it just didn’t feel right anymore.”

“You know, there just isn’t anything there anymore. There just isn’t. Our relationship has been unraveling for years,” Janelle continued, while Kody doubled down on his desires for reconciliation.

“I’ve been in love with her before, so I can be in love with her again,” he said. “I just feel like we need to reestablish trust. I want to feel like I am a person to her, not an object.”

Sister Wives airs Sundays at 10 p.m. ET on TLC.