Meri has been subjected to many embarrassing moments on Sister Wive by Kody and Robyn, and it looks like the pair might be doing so intentionally.
Kody Brown and Robyn Brown’s treatment of Meri Brown on Sister Wives was often downright intentionally humiliating. When fans met Meri during Sister Wives season 1, she was the alpha female of the Brown family. As the first wife and the only one Kody legally married, Meri was who the other wives looked to. However, things started turning bad for Meri when Kody asked to legally divorce her so he could marry his new bride, Robyn. Years later, Meri found herself in the center of a catfish scandal. She had unsuspectingly started a friendship with catfishing criminal Jackie Overton, who pretended to be a man named Sam Cooper.
Meri had sent compromising photos and voicemails, which were later released online. Despite publicly defending Meri, Kody never seemed to forgive Meri for the catfish affair. Her nightmarish reality only continued as Kody rarely visited her home, and it was even more shocking when Meri revealed the two had not been physically intimate in over a decade. Despite constantly speaking about hoping to reconcile with Kody, their hostility further intensified. Eventually, on January 10, 2023, Meri and Kody announced they were terminating their union.
Kody Gave Meri A Really Lame Christmas Gift
The relationship between Meri and Kody gradually deteriorated long before they announced the end of their marriage. Although Kody has consistently tried to avoid taking responsibility for his part in making Meri feel irrelevant and humiliated before she decided to move on from the marriage, his behavior towards her spoke volumes. Despite holding out hope that things might get better, the writing on the wall became more apparent to Meri during Christmas time when Kody showered Christine Brown with enormous gifts but didn’t get anything for Meri. What made it worse was Christine asking why Kody didn’t get Meri a gift.
Although Kody tried to defend himself by claiming Christine wanted to give Meri a gift certificate, it doesn’t negate that he went shopping for gifts and left his first wife out. Giving thoughtful gifts is one of the tenets of Christmas. For Kody, the husband of multiple women, getting one of your wives multiple gifts and deliberately ignoring the other was downright disrespectful and humiliating. Withholding time and affection showed Kody didn’t care about Meri, and not getting her anything for Christmas had an intentionally hidden message he wanted to send to his first wife.
Robyn Tells Meri Stuff That She Probably Knows Will Hurt Her
One of Robyn’s manipulative traits that has become very evident in Sister Wives is her ability to play peacemaker while sneakily stoking the fires of discord between Kody and his wives. Unsurprisingly, Meri was receiving another one of Robyn’s manipulations during a recent Sister Wives season 18 episode. Although she knew Meri felt heartbroken with how Kody had constantly neglected her, Robyn decided to reveal Kody met up with Christine’s daughters Mykelti, Truely, and Ysabel Brown for a belated Christmas celebration despite making himself scarce during the festive period.
The fact that Kody could make time for them while ignoring his first wife would always be painful, and Meri couldn’t help but feel hurt. Robyn knew how damaging this information was, and she still decided to toy with Meri’s emotions. Robyn always pretends to be the peace-loving wife hurt by the breakdown of her polygamous lifestyle. However, her cruelty has been one of the catalysts behind Kody and Meri’s relationship breakdown.
The S’Mores Incident Was Brutal
The fractured relationship between Meri and Kody was evident to anyone who looked closely at the relationship dynamics between the two, but those problems became compounded during the COVID-19 period. Kody placed his family on a strict lockdown rule, which meant he spent extended periods away from Meri and her kids. However, outdoor events presented an opportunity for the family to get together, and the Browns took advantage of this by organizing a barbecue. Despite the fraught relationship between the duo, Kody surprised everyone by making a s’more for Meri.
While the gesture suggested Kody was trying to smooth the ground with his first wife, sadly, the intentions behind the s’more weren’t as noble. Robyn was the one who encouraged Kody to make a s’more for Meri, and the first wife had overheard them. The fact that Kody didn’t think of doing this for Meri until Robyn suggested it was embarrassing. Not only does it indicate that Kody doesn’t value his first wife enough to think of performing that small gesture of his own volition, but it also plays into the narrative that Robyn is his favorite.
Robyn Took Meri’s Legal Wife Title
When Kody started planning to marry Robyn as his fourth wife, he was determined to adopt her three kids from her previous marriage and raise them as his own. However, to do this, Kody needed to “legally restructure” his family by divorcing Meri, to whom he was legally married. At the time, the move presented no real danger to Meri and Kody’s relationship since Kody explained he decided this with his family’s support, including Meri. However, in hindsight, removing Meri as Kody’s legal wife was the first step for Robyn to displace her from the family entirely. From then on, Robyn became the favorite wife.
Giving up her legal wife title to please Kody might not have meant much to Meri initially. However, she soon realized what she had lost as her influence in family decisions gradually diminished. During an episode where the wives were debating which Coyote Pass parcels of land to purchase, Meri refused to air her opinion despite being prompted by Robyn to speak as the first wife. Instead, she quipped, “You’re the legal wife,” seemingly accepting defeat and her reduced role. After countless humiliations, Meri made the right decision to leave Kody officially, and it’s good to see her forging a different path away from the family.
