Robyn Brown is the last wife standing. Her former Sister Wives, Christine Brown, Janelle Brown, and Meri Brown, have all left their former shared husband Kody Brown.
According to Robyn, the relationships began to pull apart when the family moved to Las Vegas in 2011. At that time, their children were starting to grow up and leave home, shifting the focus of the family away from patriarch Kody.
In an interview with People, Robyn said she believes the biggest factor tearing their family apart was the COVID-19 pandemic. She’s right, but not for the reasons she thinks. Kody’s restrictive rules preventing his family from gathering and his isolating himself with Robyn widened the rift.
The perfect storm
In 2018, the Brown family moved from Las Vegas to Flagstaff, Arizona. Reportedly the family relocated to enable Robyn’s oldest child, Dayton, to attend college there and still live at home (confirmed by at least two of the adult Brown children). But the official story was that Kody wanted to move his family away from “Sin City” and live in a place with “cooler temperatures, the mountain air, scenic views and the slower lifestyle of Flagstaff.”
Before the move, the Browns lived in four homes in a cozy cul de sac on the outskirts of Vegas. The children could play together and easily visit each other’s homes. But the move to Flagstaff brought all of that togetherness to an end, as the family was again spread over four houses in different parts of town.
The challenges created by the pandemic in addition to the family’s geographical separation created what Robyn calls the “perfect storm.” According to her, the other wives not only stopped maintaining their marriages to Kody but also their relationships with each other.
“That made us feel more independent of each other,” she added. “It was easier just to not spend time together because it was harder to get in the car and go hang out at someone’s house … I think that was the next step.”
Newfound independence was to blame
As the pandemic stretched out, the family became more and more divided. The other wives, the ones raising their children without the help of a live-in husband, understandably became more independent.
“We weren’t as united,” Robyn said, “and everybody [was] disagreeing about how to handle [the pandemic]. It became this fight, and people were so independent by that point.”
The mother-of-five also suggested that age could be part of the story. She believes that when married women reach a certain age, they have a shift in priorities and independence. Perhaps that’s due to having to do everything themselves? Or maybe they just got tired of putting up with Kody’s bullsh*t.
“I’ve heard them all talk about, ‘Well, I don’t know if I want this anymore,’ or, ‘I just want something different,’ or, ‘I used to be OK with this … but now I’m not OK accepting what it’s been,'” she shared.
The Sister Wives four-part One-on-One airs Sundays at 10/9c on TLC.
TELL US – WILL ROBYN BE HAPPY AS KODY’S ONLY WIFE? OR DO YOU THINK SHE’LL EVENTUALLY GET TIRED OF HIS BS, TOO? WHAT DO YOU THINK OF ROBYN’S “AGE” THEORY?
