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Kody Brown’s estrangement from several of his children continues to be a main focal point of “Sister Wives.”
Over the last few years, the father of 18 has transitioned from a plural marriage with four wives (Meri, Janelle, Christine and Robyn Brown) to a monogamous marriage with one wife (Robyn Brown).
After three breakups and a pandemic put his family to the test, Kody Brown now has tense relationships with several of his children. In an episode that aired in 2023, the reality star acknowledged that there was still “a lot of pain from divorce and the separation of family” influencing his dynamic with his children.
The women in Kody Brown’s life have spoken out on the matter extensively in recent years.
“My kids still want to have a great relationship with their dad. I still want them to have a great relationship with their dad and with Robyn too,” Christine Brown said in the Season 19 premiere.
Robyn Brown has lamented the dissolution of her plural marriage and urged her husband to mend fences with the children he’s estranged from.
In Season 19, Episode 4, Robyn and Kody Brown have an intense conversation about his approach to parenting.
“Robyn is extremely upset that I’m not reaching out more to my children,” he said. In his mind, he isn’t “abandoning” his children — they have “betrayed” him by rejecting him. His kids have “shut him out,” treat him with “contempt” and are “colluding against (him).”
Kody Brown also said that his divorces require more attention than his kids. “So I’ve spent a year here just lamenting the situation. When I get over that, those children who are open to me will get my attention,” she said.
He said he expects a reciprocal relationship from his children, where they approach him first. “Some people think that parental-child relationships don’t have to be reciprocal, but when they’re adults, yes they do,” he said.
Robyn Brown disagreed, saying she thinks her husband has to make more of an effort than his kids do.
“I don’t want to judge Kody, but at the same time, I don’t think Kody should be accepting it. I think that Kody should be camping out on their doorsteps and saying, ‘Hey, you’re going to talk to me,’” she said in a confessional. She told him directly, “Your kids need you in your life.”
Robyn Brown concluded that the estrangement is “hard on” their relationship, but Kody Brown said he isn’t ready to ask for forgiveness. “It’s going to take a change of heart,” he said. He promised to keep trying “a little bit.”
With a new season of “Sister Wives” underway, we’re recapping what Kody Brown has said about his strained relationships with his children and giving an update on the status of their estrangement as of this season.
Madison (Maddie) Brush
Who is Maddie?
Maddie Brown Brush is Kody and Janelle Brown’s second eldest child and was born in 1995. She is married to Caleb Brush. They share three kids and are currently expecting their fourth child.
Why are Maddie and Kody estranged?
Brush’s estrangement from her father has been covered extensively in Season 19. In Episode 2, Janelle Brown suggested that Kody Brown was responsible for the ongoing feud.
“Kody really did cut off communication with Caleb and Maddie when the family started to really dissolve and (their) kids really don’t know who (Kody) is. He’s not been out to visit. He doesn’t call,” she said.
Kody Brown refuted Janelle’s statement and said, “To be honest with you, I didn’t really cut off communications with Madison. She cut them off with me. Every time I talked to her, it was a fish for gossip and I got tired of it.”
In Season 19, Episode 4, Kody Brown said Brush “spreads gossip about me to the rest of the family.”
Janelle Brown offered her own perspective in a confessional interview, saying her ex-husband is “as big of a gossip” as he says Madison is.
“He’d always say that Meri was difficult or Christine was, like whatever. He would always say things like that to me about Meri and Christine. He never said it about Robyn,” she said.
Janelle Brown described her daughter as “mama bear to an extreme” and said she doesn’t want her father to be in his grandchildren’s lives until he “can be consistent and show up and not be dramatic.”
Maddie’s relationship with Kody now
Recent episodes from Season 19 have explained the extent of Brush’s rift with her father. According to Janelle Brown, Brush had “not had any conversations with her dad” at the time of filming. The season began filming in late 2022, TLC confirmed in the premiere episode.
“He’s not called, she’s not called him, and she doesn’t have any relationship with Robyn (Brown),” Janelle Brown said in the Season 19 premiere. “She’s pretty much written them both off. She doesn’t really want him to have any contact unless he can commit to it like a consistent presence.”
When producers asked Kody Brown to talk about his daughter in the same episode, he declined. Meanwhile, Robyn Brown questioned why her husband wasn’t “reaching out” to Maddie and some of his other children.
“I know he’s in a very angry and hurt place, but he should just be putting in the effort,” she said. “But I think the kids should be doing the same thing, too.”
Gabriel (Gabe) and Garrison Brown
Who are Gabe and Garrison Brown?
Garrison Brown was Kody and Janelle Brown’s fourth child and was born in 1998. He died in March 2024. Police in Flagstaff, Arizona told NBC News the 25-year-old appeared to have died by suicide.
Gabe Brown is the former couple’s fifth child and was born in 2001.
Why was Kody estranged from Gabe and Garrison?
Kody Brown’s estrangement from Gabe and Garrison Brown was covered extensively in Season 17 and 18 of “Sister Wives.” During the pandemic, the father of 18 set strict protocols and butted heads with his two sons on the extent of his rules.
“My boys think it’s fine that they’re going out and continuing social lives while I’m making these humongous sacrifices,” he said in one episode.
Janelle Brown found herself stuck in the middle as Kody Brown wanted to “have Gabriel and Garrison move out of the house.” However, she stood her ground and said she wouldn’t kick them out.
In an October 2023 episode, the mother of six said she was worried about her sons’ mental health amidst the feud with their father.
“Gabriel feels everything very very deeply … and Garrison just seems angrier, sadder. He’s not as happy-go-lucky as he used to be,” she said.
Two weeks after Garrison’s death, Maddie Brown Brush shared a video emphasizing her brother’s mental health.
“Mental health is so important and I don’t think we talk about it enough and I don’t think we do enough to bring awareness. It wasn’t bullying. It wasn’t a lack of love that Garrison had. It was mental health,” she said.
While discussing the rift with his father in Season 18, Gabe Brown offered the following thoughts: “Me and Garrison are at odds with our dad because when we expressed our discontent with how things were going with COVID, I was met with just a wall, there was no line of dialogue. I think that was what really drove the wedge between us.”
Meanwhile, Garrison Brown shared his feelings in a Season 18 episode, saying, “We’ve reached out and tried to be open, but it’s been neglected and overlooked for offenses that were believed to have happened but they never did.”
Kody gave a perspective in his own interview. “The idea that Robyn and I are rejecting them is not true. I have reached out only to get rejection. They’re not being fair,” he said.
Garrison and Gabe’s relationships with Kody now
In January 2023, Kody Brown opened up about his relationship with his sons during a “Sister Wives: One on One” special. He addressed the camera directly and said he hoped to reconcile one day.
“Boys, I’m sorry. I was trying to protect my family. Next time, I’d manage it differently and I’m sorry,” he said when asked what he wanted to tell his sons.
During the same special, Janelle Brown said her sons hadn’t heard from their father and felt “rejected.”
“(Kody has) not even made any effort. He’s still acting like they need to come to him,” she said.
In March, the couple announced the death of Garrison Brown. TLC confirmed Season 19, which started filming in late 2022, will address Garrison Brown’s death.
Ahead of Season 19 premiering, Kody Brown shared his “only regret” in an interview with People.
“The only regret is just, take advantage of the time,” he says. “I want to go out to dinner again. I want to sit down. I want to have a beer. I want (Garrison) to try and make me laugh because he was that way.”
Ysabel Brown
Who is Ysabel?
Christine and Kody Brown welcomed their fifth child, a daughter named Ysabel, in 2003.In Season 17 of “Sister Wives,” Ysabel Brown graduated high school and got ready to move away to college.
Why are Ysabel and Kody estranged?
Ysabel and Kody Brown haven’t spoken extensively about their relationship. However, the father of 18 acknowledged that he made “two huge mistakes” during the pandemic in a Season 19 episode that aired on Oct. 6, 2024.
“One of those mistakes was also not going to Ysabel’s surgery. And that put some bad blood between a bunch of us,” he said.
During the pandemic, Ysabel Brown underwent surgery and her father opted out of going with her because he was worried about catching COVID-19.
In a clip from the show, Christine Brown told Kody Brown their daughter wished he could come with her but wasn’t “frustrated with it” because she understood his perspective.
“I’m just having regret cause the while d— situation is breaking my heart. The whole thing with Ysabel going and doing the surgery and the whole thing with my family and this disparity in behavior during COVID. It’s really, really, really hard on our family,” Kody Brown said in a confessional interview.
In an emotional interview, Ysabel Brown called her father’s priorities “a little screwed up.”
“And l don’t want to disrespect him because he is my dad and I understand, I do. I do understand why he’s doing it, it’s just really frustrating and really, really hard,” she said.
Ysabel’s relationship with Kody now
Ysabel Brown addressed her father-daughter dynamic in Season 17 of “Sister Wives,” calling it “fine” as she prepared to move away to college.
“I’m going to miss my mom more than I’m going to miss (my dad), I think — because I don’t actually think we’re close at all. But I mean, he’s still my dad,” she said.
Kody Brown also shared his own assessment of his relationship with his daughter.
“You know, any time I spend time with Ysabel, I spend most of my time doing a lot of work to draw her out of herself. I don’t know what it is. I don’t think I’m that big an ogre. I don’t know why she’s not talking to me. I’m open to her,” he said.
While talking about her parents’ divorce, Ysabel Brown said her mother and father both “deserve to be happy” and said she didn’t think anyone could be happy in a “loveless marriage.”
In another episode that season, Ysabel Brown said her relationship with her dad had “never been like 100% solid.”
“And so with a divorce right now, everything’s rocky because nobody knows what to do in a divorce. And then in a divorce with a polygamist family, even more so, nobody knows what to do,” she said.
The father-daughter duo hasn’t shared much more about their relationship, but Ysabel Brown did pay tribute to her dad on Father’s Day in 2023 and shared a photo on her Instagram story, per People.
In an episode of “Sister Wives” that aired on Nov. 17, 2024, Ysabel Brown discussed her hopes for developing a stronger relationship with her father. The topic came up as Ysabel Brown was visiting with her mother, who was about to move in with her new boyfriend, David Woolley (whom she later married).
During the raw conversation, Ysabel Brown expressed her fears that Woolley would try to “replace” her own father. Christine Brown quickly reassured her daughter that that wasn’t his intention.
“No, because no one’s going to replace your dad. No one,” the mother of six said. “If you need a dad figure or a father figure or someone like that, (David will) be whatever you need.”
Ysabel Brown said she was surprised by how quickly her mother’s relationship with Woolley was moving and expressed her concerns about how this new dynamic would impact her relationship with Kody Brown.
“I worry that my dad and the chance of having a really close relationship with my dad is slowly going away,” she said in a confessional interview.
Christine Brown reflected on her daughter’s mixed feelings in her own confessional interview, saying, “She wants a dad, big time, but she wants her dad.”
Back in their meetup, Christine Brown told her daughter that Woolley was going to be a “great stepdad.”
“I agree. Yeah, but he can’t replace dad. He’s not trying to, right?
“Never,” Christine Brown said.
Back in her confessional interview, Ysabel Brown shared her fears for the future, saying she was “worried that my relationship with my father will be desolate (and) will not exist anymore.” She then clarified what she meant, saying she knew Woolley “would only ever come into any situation with everybody else in mind and only with respect to everybody else.”
Still, she added that she’d watched Woolley with his won children and it made her realize what was lacking in her own father-daughter relationship.
“David comes off as a very present dad with his children. So I mean, how lovely would that be, right? So I would love to have a relationship that is as amazing with my own father,” she said in her private interview while wiping away tears.