Summary
- Sister Wives star Kody Brown saw three marriages end after moving to Flagstaff, leaving him and wife Robyn monogamous.
- The Browns struggled to live apart in Flagstaff, causing division and disagreements, leading to the absence of a polygamous lifestyle.
- Disagreements over the Coyote Pass property further separated the families, as the dream home never materialized and land challenges arose.
Sister wives star Kody Brown saw three of his marriages end in a short period of time after the family moved to Flagstaff, Arizona. Christine Brown left the family first, followed by Janelle Brown and Meri Brown, leaving Kody and wife Robyn Brown monogamous. The Brown family had moved many times prior to the show, and in Season 2 they moved from Utah to Las Vegas to avoid prosecution for their polygamous lifestyle.
In Las Vegas, the Brown family lived in four custom-built homes next to each other at the end of a cul-de-sac. The arrangement seemed ideal, as each wife had her own space, while Kody could move freely between homes. The family even planted a tree to mark the establishment of their roots, which made Kody’s proposal to move again in season 13 even more shocking. Kody and his wife haphazardly moved to Flagstaff, Arizona with the intention of building homes on a plot of land called Coyote Pass.
Related
The 20 Best Reality TV Shows Right Now
Reality TV is more popular than ever. With so many to choose from, here are some of the best reality TV shows you can stream or watch right now.
The Brown family learned to live apart in the flagpole
Home wives found independence
The move to Flagstaff put enormous pressure on the Brown family. While waiting for construction to begin on Coyote Pass, the family struggled to find rental housing that would meet their needs. Kody’s four wives and their children ended up scattered around the city. Unlike Las Vegas, Meri, Robyn, Christine and Janelle were suddenly living very separate lives. They didn’t see each other every day, and more importantly, they didn’t see Kody or know where he spent his time.
Meri, Janelle, and Christine lived apart from Kody and their sister-wives, so they got used to being apart. The Browns were basically geographically divided, and the wives found that in the absence of large family gatherings, they could hardly live a polygamous lifestyle. The idea of living as a large family was suddenly less important when they discovered the ease of independent living.
The family would have been forced to agree to the COVID-19 rules in Vegas
Distance allowed them to stay apart
When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, each unit of the Brown family became socially isolated. Each wife and their own children were isolated together, and Kody moved between homes at times. Siblings and sister-wives could not only gather outside and at a distance. Kody stayed at Robyn’s house for the most part because she had small children. Kody insisted that Robyn was following proper COVID-19 protocols while his other wives and children continued to travel and socialize. The first deep differences in the family began with their differences over how the COVID-19 pandemic should be handled.
Kody felt that his children, especially Janelle’s sons, were irresponsible for continuing to date, and therefore did not want to see them. Because the family was used to living apart, there was no urgent need to reach an agreement regarding social distancing guidelines. If they were still living nearby in Las Vegas, the Brown family would have had to agree on guidelines for maintaining daily contact. Daily contact was a thing of the past, so months passed without a clear agreement on family gathering requirements.
Disagreements over the Coyote Pass property drove the family further apart
Their dream home never materialized
For a while, the Browns considered building one house for the whole family in Coyote Pass. When Christine made it clear that she would never agree to live in a shared home, the family continued to subdivide the property into individual lots. Kody and the other wives, who had mixed feelings about living together, began to understand that they would never live as one family unit again.
The Brown family’s communication problems came to the fore as each wife was afraid to share what plot they really wanted for fear of upsetting each other.
Dividing the land was another challenge because the lots at Coyote Pass were not all the same. Arguments broke out between Kody and his wives, which spilled over into relationships between sister wives. The Brown family’s communication problems were brought to the fore when each wife was afraid to say what plot they really wanted for fear of upsetting each other. It was also clear that Kody was ultimately in charge and had the final say as to which wife each piece of land was assigned to.
The idea of living in an idyllic country setting with a mountain landscape is what drew the wives to Flagstaff. However, the land had to be paid off before construction began, and the volatility of the real estate market made it more challenging than expected. Apartments in Las Vegas sold slowly, rentals in Flagstaff were hard to find and the family ended up depleting their reserves buying homes for Christine and Robyn. Meanwhile, Janelle was stuck living in a mobile home and tiny apartments, and she began to realize that she wasn’t Kody’s priority.
It’s easy to believe that the Brown family had the perfect set up in Las Vegas and would have happily stayed there. However, the move to Flagstaff did not cause problems for the family; it just lit them up. While the move to Flagstaff alone did not cause the Brown family to fall apart, it certainly did gave the wives a chance to ponder what a future without Kody would look like. Once Sister wives stars were basically no longer living a polygamous lifestyle, officially leaving their marriage didn’t seem like much of a leap.
Sister wives
seasons 1-18 are streaming on Discovery+ and MAX.