Kody & Meri Brown Officially Split & ‘Permanently Terminate’ 33 Year Marriage
After nearly 33 years of marriage, Kody and Meri Brown are calling it quits for good. They confirmed the news with a statement on Jan. 10.
Kody Brown and Meri Brown have been struggling in their marriage for years, but on Jan. 10, they officially announced their decision to end their relationship. They shared the news in a joint statement on Instagram. “After more than a decade of working on our relationship in our own unique ways, we have made the decision to permanently terminate our marriage relationship,” the statement said.
“During this process, we are committed to kindness and respect toward each other and to all members of our family, and we are also committed to the continued healing of any and all relationships with the family so that we can move forward with forgiveness, grace and love,” the statement continued.
This official announcement comes following a recent Sister Wives episode, where Kody and Meri discussed the state of their marriage in one-on-one interviews. Meri pointed out that Kody previously said he “no longer considered himself married” to her. Previous clips reveal that he also stated that he would be fine if she found someone else to be with amidst their struggles.
However, when officially announcing the split this week, Meri made it clear that those interviews were NOT her way of confirming the breakup. “The information, content and timing was inaccurate and was based on a highly edited version of events that had been filmed months prior,” Meri explained. She revealed that it wasn’t until AFTER filming that she and Kody made the decision to end things. “In the months since the taping of those interviews, Kody and I have had many open and honest discussions that have led to our announcement today.”
Kody and Meri married in 1990. They have one child together, Leon, who came out as transgender in 2022. Meri was Kody’s first wife before Janelle Brown and Christine Brown joined the family, spiritually marrying Kody in the years that followed. Meri and Kody ended their legal marriage in 2014 when he wed Robyn Brown, so that he could adopt Robyn’s children from a previous relationship.
Meri and Kody’s struggles began years ago, but the tension in their marriage hit a high point in 2015. Meri began an online relationship with another man, but eventually found out she had been catfished by a woman who had taken on a fake identity. The scandal caused Kody to lose trust in Meri, and their relationship has been severely strained ever since. However, Meri has always insisted that she’d be willing to make it work if Kody would.
Meanwhile, Kody’s marriage to Christine ended in 2021 when she told him that she was leaving him. She moved away from the family and now resides in Utah. Janelle and Kody separated in 2022, which they confirmed during the Sister Wives special earlier this month.