Entertainment gossip and news from Newsweek’s network of contributors
Kody Brown got emotional while helping his ex-wife, Meri Brown, move into her new home.
On the Sunday, November 23, episode of Sister Wives, Kody assisted Meri in her move from Flagstaff, Arizona, to Parowan, Utah — help that Meri previously called her “severance package” in her split from Kody.
As he helped her move, Kody, 55, described Meri, 53, as his “favorite divorced wife” — getting teary-eyed as he realized it was “the end of an era” for the pair. Meri was shocked by the display of emotion, telling him, “It always blows me away that you get emotional like this. I just don’t understand.” (Kody, who is currently married to Robyn Brown, was previously in plural marriages with Christine Brown, who split from him in 2021, Janelle Brown, who called it quits with Kody in 2022, and Meri, who was the last to leave in 2023.)
The father of 18 explained that while he was happy with his life, it felt bittersweet to say goodbye to someone he shared so many memories with. Kody noted they “had something special” as he began to cry.
Gabe Ginsberg/Getty Images
“It’s all okay. I’m not bitter anymore. I’m not angry,” Kody cried. “I’m glad you and I got that figured out. I’m glad that we were able to be friends. I’m glad that you’re my favorite ex-wife, but it’s the weirdest thing to be in that place.”
The Brown family patriarch added that their split is “just heartbreaking in a way.”
“And I love the life I have, but it’s a very different life than what I had three years ago, you know?” he continued. “It just seemed like everybody else just went, ‘This isn’t important.'”
Kody began to sob as he explained he had already gone through the “anger phase” of the divorce with Meri. “I’ve been going through an anger phase of divorce all this time, and just that realization as like I’m not angry anymore; I’m sad. I’m mourning a loss,” he told her.
Meri told cameras in her confessional that she was “floored” by Kody’s reaction. “I do not understand. I don’t get it. I don’t know where this is coming from. I do not understand it. He has made [it] clear that he did not want me in his life. So why this emotion?”
The pair married in 1990, and have one child together: Leon Brown, 29. The duo legally ended their union in 2014 so Kody could marry his fourth wife, Robyn, 46, and adopt her four children, but officially ended their 32-year spiritual marriage in 2023.
