Kody Brown and his wives prepared for the 2020 holiday season during the Dec. 26 episode of Sister Wives. The discussion about how to deal with the coronavirus continued to cause tension between Kody and Christine Brown, who had different opinions about how strict the families should be in order to see each other. “The whole COVID thing has really wrecked a lot of experiences for Christine and I,” Kody admitted. “I’m hoping COVID will go away so we can get back into a normal relationship with each other.”
After Christine returned from New Jersey, where her daughter, Ysabel Brown, was having back surgery, she and Kody got together to discuss the rules he wanted her to follow during COVID. Kody was frustrated that Christine didn’t want to follow the rules that he and Robyn Brown were abiding by. Christine’s decision not to follow the rules resulted in Kody not spending time at her home, and her kids not being able to see their siblings from the other wives. “My biggest concern is how we go forward,” Kody said. “We can’t keep living like this. It’s really important that you guys go back to a social distancing, quasi-quarantine system or situation so that I can start coming back and being here.”
Christine made it clear that she thought Kody’s rules were too strict. She argued that even when he was coming to her home, it was only a couple of times a week anyway. Meanwhile, when she and her kids would go visit other family members and friends, they would spend much more time with them. “We go places and they’re so excited to see us,” Chrsitine explained. “And they hang out with us all the time. Whereas we just see you a couple times a week.” Kody insisted that he was around much more than that, which led to the two arguing over the “semantics.”
By the end of the conversation, both Kody and Christine were frustrated. “They prefer to do things with other people than make it possible for me to be at home with them,” Kody ranted. “How does that play out long term in a relationship? I go people in my family that aren’t like that with me. I don’t have any more to say about it.” Meanwhile, Christine pointed out that Kody and Robyn have a nanny coming back and forth to the house. “What are the nanny and her husband doing that make it so they can come over?” Christine wondered. “Because when I’m home, I do exactly what I should be doing, but my girls can’t see their siblings?”
Chrsitine urged Kody to lift some of his COVID restrictions. “It’s been six months and we’re not doing well,” she told him. “I need a guarantee that we’re really going to do Thanksgiving [together] or I’m leaving. I’m leaving.” Kody couldn’t handle the back and forth any longer, and he left. “It would be great if everyone maintained our COVID protocols so we could all be together,” he said. “That would be awesome. But there’s no indication that everyone’s willing to do that. What we have is a fundamental breakdown of trust in the family.”
Eventually, Kody and all four wives got together to discuss things further. Robyn and Meri Brown both agreed to follow a strict list of rules that Kody laid out, but Christine and Janelle Brown were much more hesitant. Janelle revealed that she would not be joining the family for Thanksgiving, but promised that she and the kids would follow the rules leading up to Christmas so they could all be together. Christine was also leaning towards having Thanksgiving separately from Kody and the wives, but did not leave the conversation with a final answer as to what her plan was. “I don’t think these rules are realistic for the real world,” she admitted.
Christine and Janelle stood their ground with letting Kody know they didn’t agree with the rules, and he got very frustrated. “When these complaints are coming to me, I feel like it’s an undermining of what I’m trying to do,” he clapped back. His reaction pissed Christine off. “We’re in a marriage,” she said in a confessional. “If we can’t bring up things that are frustrating without feeling like we’re undermining [him]…doesn’t that sound like a dictatorship, not a marriage? I have a lot of unladylike words going on in my mind so I’m trying to filter it out a little bit.”
By the end of the conversation, things between Kody and Christine had not improved. “It’s a sad reality for me about where I’m at in some of my marriages,” he said, “The lack of loyalty isn’t good for a marriage, five, ten, 15 years from now. That’s going to be very hard for us.” Christine added, ‘It’s hard to be home right now. Kody and I are in a tough spot. I don’t want to be around that very often. It’s easier to leave.”
As the season progresses, we’ll see how the family navigates the holiday season. However, fans do know that Christine and Kody didn’t last long after this, as they announced their split in the fall of 2021.