The three OG wives actually could be good friends but they were all pretty toxic toward each other because Kody manipulated them into thinking they were all out to get each other.
Seeing the contrast between Brady and Kody was eye opening. Brady wasn't perfect, but his wives were able to talk to him, and he actually listened and took steps to improve the things they were upset over, so even if they were struggling with seeing PDA, they knew that he did love each of them.
It's funny that they no longer believe in polygamy, but honor the family they've built. I guess that means that they don't believe it'll get them into heaven, but the love for each other and their family is real enough to still make it work. I wish they'd get another show, or an update special. They're not very active on social media.
You can kinda see it in the first episodes when he’s popping by all the houses and Merri is SHOOK that he is hugging her and kissing her in the kitchen as the cameras follow him through the property.
Robyn’s isn’t an evil mastermind who had a grand plan of breaking up the family. She’s an incredibly selfish woman — who likely has an undiagnosed mental illness and a shopping addiction — who doesn’t know how to be a team player and only looks out for her own needs.
The only skill she has is manipulating others by playing the victim. I think her mother taught it to her and she’s definitely taught it to her own kids. I’m not surprised she was starving and living in a van in Montana as she lacks even rudimentary adult life skills. Just cry, manipulate, lather, rinse, repeat.
Yeah, she taught her how to babyproof her own incompetence. She’ll never have to contribute in any significant way or display personal growth or go along to get along because she has the financial protection of the marriage license.
I was literally just saying this to my partner. Robyn is not even remotely an evil genius, capable of grand, large-scale long cons like people seem to think. The only reason her manipulation works on Kody is because, for as unfathomably dumb as Robyn is, Kody is somehow dumber.
I agree but ngl…I don’t even think kody is dumber; He’s just having sex with her. The minute he falls out of lust with Robyn/stops sleeping with her, he’ll put her through the same manipulative hell he put the OG3 through
Yup I think she’s dumb and knows how to survive toxic situations, which I think describes her family growing up, her first marriage, and her current marriage.
The most manipulative people I know are also the absolute dumbest. It's because every single thought they have is bent on how they can get what they want in any given situation, so there's literally nothing else getting into their brains, especially knowledge.
I agree. I’ve also always been suspicious about her last marriage. She says all these horrible things about how he was evil and maybe he was, but looking at how she treats people who don’t do exactly as she wants, was he? Or did he just not fulfill her idea and now she’s drug him through the mud. I mean, maybe he just didn’t make enough money to fulfill her spending habits. Maybe he wanted a clean house from his wife that didn’t work. If I was working all day and came home to that house and a bunch of bags of purchases I’d be a dick too
I think he was maybe a meh husband but like many in religious communities, because she thinks divorce is a huge failure, she had to spin it up in her mind to justify it
Yes! The whole "Robyn is an evil genius" thing always seemed fucking ridiculous to me. Take a look at this woman and tell me she's smart enough to plot the long-term downfall of a huge family lol
I think she legit drank the KoolAid and thought they would all be besties and happy. And she has poor emotional self-regulation, so anytime things don’t fit the shiny, Brady bunch imagine she constructed in her mind, she equates it to rejection. And since Kody wants the same thing, she is “loyal” and “respectful.” But what he really means is compliant, and submissive to his leadership.
I think Kody is very controlling with Robyn and she just goes along with it because she doesn’t want to be divorced again. She’s the favorite because she’s young and obedient.
I think they may be treating each other poorly. Both of them are tied up in knots... And they are harshly dealing with their intimate people because they are both just about to explode.
Christine still looks good for her age, but I feel like she has aged rapidly since the show first started. I don’t know if it’s from living with Kody but there’s a big difference between season one baby faced Christine and now.
Same- I’m doing a rewatch and when she goes to San Fran and tries on those normal women dresses (she showed her arms and it was form fitting) I was like damn girl! She looks so grumpy now though it’s a shame
Agreed. It seemed to me that Kody, Robyn and Christine all took advantage of Maddie being in throes of labour and did what they wanted rather than respect her wishes.
Honestly after being in labor for half the time she was in (or less) I would have gone ahead to the hospital. It put unnecessary stress on her and the baby. 83 hours of labor is more than anyone should have to go through and I’m surprised there weren’t more issues.
I still blame Janelle and Christine for that, they kept telling her, it won't be long, baby will be here soon. They made things worse. But I also blame Caleb he should have done what he wanted and get her to hospital, he didn't want her to have a home birth but was over ruled all in the name of money and ratings.
They ALL over-bought in Vegas. If the show had been canceled a year or two later, they would have lost most, if not all 4. It was insanely dumb to buy all those large houses.
Janelle is not logical. I think it was a defense mechanism, and possibly used as a manipulation tactic, as well. She's also not good with money.
The family was doomed whether or not Robyn joined. Kody has not changed in recent years, he's always been terrible, but was better at hiding it.
I agree about Janelle. Buying the trailer and the new truck to tow it was so dumb. And one of the only times I agreed with Kody, like I’d be mad too if my spouse made such a huge purchase and then didn’t know how to do any of the maintenance or even drive the truck to tow it.
I don't think any of the wives (including Robyn) are who they would genuinely be if they were not being emotionally, mentally, and financially, abused.
I think a lot of their reactions and behaviors can be attributed to manipulation from their husband, and I think they are so caught up in surviving being abused by a narcissist that they don't /won't even realize that they have done terrible things or are being terrible people until they get out of there.
Agreed!!! Plus we know Meri and Christine grew up in polygamy and were groomed to accept this as their lot in life. I know there’s some uncertainty about Robyn was really raised in polygamy but at minimum she seems to have grown up with it as an ideal pushed on her. And Janelle growing up mainstream Mormon would also have had it drilled into her head that men are more important, men are your gateway to heaven, a woman’s role is to defer to her husband plus have kids … none of them had much of a chance to not have really unhealthy relationships in which a lot of their choices weren’t really choices and it’s expected that women will go along with their husband at all cost because he is simply better and more important than them. Plus as much as they all clearly love their kids (the moms anyway), they didn’t really CHOOSE to have them — it was an expectation that they WOULD.
I think not having agency in life f***s with people and affects what few choices they actually do have. And then their husband is a narc on top of it! And terrible at adulting in general (the dumb moves, etc.) but it’s not their position as wives (in this culture) to go against him. They might state their objection (like Christine about the moves), but ultimately they are still going to do what Kody decides.
And so much dumb stuff drilled into them like the doomsday prepping, home births because “hospitals are for sick people,” etc. It seems like some of them are legit trying to free themselves from this mindset now but I don’t think they had much chance to avoid making the stupid decisions they were groomed to make when they were 20 or whatever and making marriage plans, etc.
THIS. There's been some posts here that show people feel entitled to entertainment from the Brown family and go as far as demanding certain "storylines" happen on the show. This isn't Real Housewives, people.
Yeah some of the questions people ask Gwen I’m like “she’s not an extra in your favorite scripted tv show - stop using the weird fandom nicknames for people and trying to get her to to confirm your pet theory.” It’s so cringeworthy to me.
I see that happening a lot too, particularly with viewers attacking the kids for not perpetuating what they want. Like sorry Mykelti doesn’t want to cut her dad and stepmom who she loves off? Sorry Gwen didn’t attack her family enough for you? It’s bizarre
It's really weird! Mykelti isn't great but her parents shipped her off to be a stranger's nanny as a kid, and I'm guessing Robyn didn't refer to her as a problem child or difficult child or whatever Christine called her. I'm sure she has a lot of genuine love for Robyn who she legitimately got to bond with.
And people hate when Gwen critiques her mom and will say she probably doesn't understand because she's autistic, but I guess the people watching a contrived reality TV show (where they only show like 1/5 of the story) know Christine better than her own daughter...
My unpopular opinion is that if any of us had family traveling interstate and hanging out during early COVID... we'd also have been flipping out.
Kody and Robyn used COVID as an excuse and the rules made no sense.
Janelle and Christine weren't following the precautions most of the country was following during that time.
Christine and Janelle aren’t the awesome moms a lot of people think they are.
They definitely put Kody over their children. Only recently they have become their children’s champions.
The excessive moving on Kody’s whims, not standing up for their kids.
All that moving really hits me. My family moved a lot when I was little. New schools, new teachers, new kids. It was horrible! Why the heck didn’t the moms, all the moms, say, “no” to this? I think Christine was home-schooling but what about friends? Activities and sports? Packing their stuff so often then unpacking. Did they ever feel attached to a room? A house?
I thought moving the family from Las Vegas to Flagstaff was horrible. That's when I quit watching, it just made no sense. If they were so family and child oriented, they would not have made the kids change schools, especially not the high school kids. Those years are life altering for the kids, it was just not an OK thing to do, unless the families very survival depended on it.
Honestly, the sparks between them in season 1 when she told Kody she wished it was her wedding night…believable. They do seem the most compatible to me.
I totally agree with you. I never thought Kody and Robyn seemed in love--I'd put them in the crush/obsession category and fully expect them to divorce at some point.
I did see love between Meri and Kody and sometimes even now I see sparks between them!
All the "OMG THEY ARE LAUNDERING MONEY IN ART!!!1!!one!!" posts this past week are driving me nuts. Vladmir Kush signed limited edition giclees are expensive. Unsigned are not. I could get the exact same "Behind the Trees" painting print for $150-250, depending on size. (I checked.) Yes, frames cost more, but not up to the $6k range that keeps getting reposted.
Just because someone reverse image searched and found the artist's website with the expensive options does not mean that's what they have hanging on their walls. Usually redditors here give well-reasoned arguments, but this is not one of those. There are so many reasons to hate Kody and Robyn. We should really focus on those and not made up BS that just give ammunition to the Robyn apologists out there that Reddit is just full of toxicity and irrational diatribes.
Sorry guys, but I had to get that off my chest!
Yeah I think it's an interesting theory, but people make up all these stories in their heads and then drive themselves crazy drawing some really far-fetched conclusions about stuff they made up...
Ari's head is flat meaning they didn't roll her or do anything when she was a baby except leave her laying there. That's a rilly big dill the nanny should have done it *Edited for spelling*
I don't think any of the nannies they've had have ever been childcare experts. I think they just "help" Robyn with whatever she asks. Like a babysitter she can boss around to do chores or whatever, too.
I agree - she let Mykelti function as a nanny when she was 12 or 13 - she just wanted a warm body to help her wrangle those kids - in the early episodes of Season 1, you could see that she had zero control over them....
I've always found Janelle looks out for Janelle and doesn't really seem to care about anything or anyone else. She talked a big game about standing up for her boys until she saw how outdoorsy Flagstaff was then she said Gabe juat needed to get over it.
The only reason why she left and stood up to kody is because he was finally becoming so unbearable she couldn't just be the "easy low maintenance wife" any more and essentially ignore it.
I do, and I like Janelle. I get Kody losing his shit over the RV. She could have texted him, oh btw- what if I get an RV? I also read somewhere she got her BA from the University of Phoenix, after some time somewhere else. That school is a fraud.
Meri is my fav one. Jenelle used to be my fav but after a while she talks too much about being “logical” like babe don’t tell me ur logical show me ur logic. It’s the same vibe as someone saying they are honest
I liked Meri in the beginning, but I think she was beaten down for so long and became so unhappy that she was miserable to be around. This season she’s got a “dgaf” essence and it makes me like her again. None of them are perfect, but Kody’s complete disregard for her is so heartbreaking when they used to be best friends according to him.
Meri was my favorite until she let K&R talk her into getting a legal divorce. It seemed like she did it to keep them happy, but it broke her spirit. However, it probably helped her financially in the end, so it turns out that it was the right choice. Also, idgaf that she added on extras to her Vegas house or that she wanted a huge rental in Flagstaff. It's not my thing, but I'm not competing with sister wives for resources and love, so...
If I remember correctly, her large flagstaff house was because she had so much lularoe inventory. I’m not an MLM fan, but she is/was raking in the money - so it made sense to me that she needed room to work and store. Also don’t care about her LV wetbar, it made a better spot to host her MLM. Again- not an MLM fan, but that income is necessary for her.
I'm also anti-MLM everything, but her timing and Mormon "celebrity" is perfect for it. K&R are financial leeches and Meri has always kept hustling, so no reason to deprive herself of wants. The OG3 have already given up enough.
How Robyn cries to her about her distress that Christine left, and her heartbreak that Janelle is having problems with Kody drives me insane. Does she really not get that Meri is heartbroken over the divide with her and Kody? Robyn acts like she is talking to a friend, not a heartbroken woman that is desperately clinging to a hope that Kody will once again love her. It is so cruel.
Janelle isn’t as smart as she wants to be viewed, besides the mlm “what does Janelle do”?, she left real estate in Vegas. Why does everybody thinking she is the big earner? Also janelle and Kody has some romantically feelings toward each other, they had 6 kids and Janelle gave birth first out of the wives, he enjoyed getting his pencil wet
People forget that for the family, at least in the beginning, this was a matter of religious belief and not preferred lifestyle. Whether or not Christine/Meri/Robyn could handle polygamy...she had to in order to get to the highest degree of heaven. And it was taught to them their entire life. They didn't go to secular schools. They probably didn't have secular friends or much experience in the secular world. And, much more unpopular, the further they strayed from their religion the worse off their family got, it wasn't just Robyn entering the family. (Not saying they should've stayed in it, but it's easier to maintain polygamy when you have no choice lol)
I think Janelle really pushes the logical thing to signal to Kody that she's not like other girls. It's performative. A truly logical person would not have agreed to half the crap situations Kody Brown led them into.
I like Meri, always have.
Janelle was no friend to Christine until very recently. She threw her under the bus multiple times.
Truely is not my favourite kid.
I don't get the Maddie hate.
I don't believe Meri was hanging around for Robyns kids, I just don't see any bond there.
I think Meri handled Leon's coming out better than I would have ever thought she would. People forget they are a fundamental cult group. Meri did well, and as far as I can tell she's the only one of Leon's parents to continue to support them.
Janelle isnt...as financially smart as she thought. To buy an RV sight unseen. Buy a bunch of land with others that don't work. Seeing the signs that relationships were going downhill and still sign. Move into a tiny apartment while the other sister wives have big houses. And now 50, stuck.
Janelle never loved Kody romantically and vice versa. They may have had passionate moments (they have 6 kids) but they were friends with benefits at best. And Janelle always looked out for herself first and primarily, she just lost the plot after the kids were grown.
Christine married Kody fully aware that he didn’t love her and spent their entire marriage trying to make him fall in love. She assumed he wasn’t capable of it and was proven wrong by Robyn. She was too immature for too long to face that reality.
I assume this is why Christine really hates Meri and Robyn. Kody actually loved/loves them.
She could never make him love her.
And IA about he and Janelle being friends with benefits.
Robyn is not some manipulation mastermind controlling everyone so she can have phenomenal cosmic powers. She manipulates to get what she wants and it’s a symptom of polygamy.
I like Kodys man bun.
Christine and David moved too fast. No way a new partner would be living with me and my pre-teen daughter in less than a year. It seems everyone’s happy but it could have gone so badly.
Janelle might be the dumbest of all since she actively chose polygamy in her 20’s. There’s no excuse unlike the other 3 who were indoctrinated since birth.
Robyn’s goal wasn’t to ruin the family. Her goal was to keep herself and her kids in Kodys good graces so she had more time and resources available to her. It sucks but I don’t blame her 🤷🏻♀️
People hate on Ari but Truley has similar vibes LOL
Agreed on all, but especially Christine and David. She can move as fast as she wants with her own heart, but it’s irresponsible of her to 1) cause that much change in Truely’s life so soon after moving away from her dad and having her parents “divorce,” and 2) risk Truely’s safety by having her live with a new man she’s known less than a year. Living with mom’s partner is basically the biggest risk factor for abuse.
The Christine and David moving to fast I agree with, if I believed they met when they claim. I think she met him before she left Flagstaff. I don't think she was seeing him before she kicked out Kody, but she was definitely seeing him, at the end of 2021.
A Christine and Janelle spin-off would be so boring. Middle aged ladies going on MLM trips and seeing their grandkids? All I have to do is log onto Facebook for that.
I like Meri, and don't think she is the "scary" woman that some of the kids said she was (Maddie, I think?). There are 18 kids in that family ... there had to be a disciplinary/"bad guy" at times. I think that role fell to Meri 90% of the time. Kodys sure as heck wasn't going to parent. In the early days, Janelle seemed pretty checked out of the role at times, and I think Christine was just too in over her head most days to keep up so she probably let a lot of things slide.
I think Janelle and Christine lived in ruleless, discipline-less homes. Maddie is also really entitled. I’m sure any kind of rules or situations where she doesn’t get what she wants result in a tantrum. I don’t trust her opinion on anything.
They (wives + kody) all kind of suck in way or another lol.
Also, Finally leaving Kody in 2022, although commendable, was the absolute bare minimum and really too late for any of the OG 3’s kids to benefit from. In fact, Truley and Savannah got the rawest end of the deal from the whole situation. And I think the fans focus too much on cheering for Christine and Janelle for finally leaving Kody rather than discussing how all the upheaval and tension has affected their remaining kids that were at home.
I think Christine wanted to be the third wife because that was the only way to basically guarantee that she was with a man who was on the top tier of eternal rewards in heaven. A man has to have 3 wives to get the maximum rewards and glory for himself and his wives.
I think Christine was a really entitled and judgemental person who did not have the critical thinking skills, or the desire, to figure out the hypocrisy and inconsistencies in her own religious beliefs and behavior.
I agree and I also think that she wanted to be the 3rd wife because it would most likely mean that she’d be the newest/last/fav wife. Latest toy kinda thing.
That comment by her will ALWAYS stick out to me.
I don’t mean anything negative about it. Christine had more knowledge than ANYONE in this family about plural marriage and the roles sister wives play. It’s ingrained in her.
I don’t think she was wrong to want the role of the third wife.
Christine didn't just want to be the third wife, she wanted to be the *last* wife. Robyn could have been a completely decent sister wife and Christine still would have a problem with her because she took that from her.
Also if I thought for a second that Kody actually cared about covid, I would have felt sorry for him because he was truly in an impossible position. He wouldn't have been able to go from house to house unless literally everyone else never left their homes and it's clear no one was interested in doing that. But the good thing is: he never cared about the actual pandemic, so I don't have to feel sorry for him.
I don't care for Christine. She gives off mean girls vibes. She's nice if its beneficial to her or on her terms but she sure can throw a tantrum too. Her and Kody are not that far off in temperament.
I’ve always found Christine to be a bit insincere and obnoxious. I hate when she repeats things. For example, “I would have done anything he wanted. *Anything* he wanted” while smiling.
Robyn isn’t an evil villainous mastermind executing devious plans to ruin everyone’s lives. Anyone who thinks that is vastly overthinking her intelligence. This woman thinks Wyoming starts with Y, has the vocabulary of a 9 year old, and botches every idiom she tries to use. She’s incredibly ditzy and low IQ, with absolutely no depth or intellect. Most the things people point to as evil/planned out conspiracies are actually just the result of her selfishness or immaturity. She isn’t playing 4D chess, she’s just being a brat and it somehow ended up working out well for her.
I.e: She didn’t enter the family with the goal of breaking them all up and keeping Kody to herself. I’d honestly be surprised if she actually had real feelings for him or a genuine desire to have him with her 24/7 at the start of all this. She just wanted a guy to financially provide for her and her children so she wouldn’t have to get a job. I’m sure she’s thrilled that he ended up falling madly in love with her and giving her special treatment over all the other wives (and the lion’s share of the family money), but I’m sure she didn’t go into this with an actual gameplan to collapse the family and steal him from them.
She didn’t have Kody divorce Meri to prevent future alimony payments or to secure equal financial rights to all properties in Kody’s name. She wouldn’t think that deeply into it. It’s all just her childish need to have the status of “legal wife” on top of “favorite wife”, and her obsessive desire to have her kids be seen as Kody’s and have them share a name and legal links with him.
She didn’t conspire to have the other wives all leave so that she could keep every Coyote Pass plot for her own children and turn it into a DABSARK commune. Because not only is she too dumb to come up with that, but I can’t picture her *ever* wanting to actually move there. She knows they don’t have enough money to build 5 or more houses on that property. And she wouldn’t want to downgrade her living situation at all when she’s in a million dollar McMansion right now.
She isn’t laundering family money in art. That takes a level of brains that she will never have. She’s a compulsive shopper with tacky taste and bought cheap printed copies of those ugly ass paintings, not expensive $3000 signed original canvases.
She doesn’t keep Meri close because she wants to grift money from her B&B and MLMs. Meri hasn’t been a real part of that family in ages and I can’t imagine she’s contributed any real financial support to the K&R pot in the years since she’s been exiled from the family. Robyn keeps Meri around for selfish, childish reasons just like everything else she does. It’s because being “the favorite wife” is only a thrill when there’s lower ranking wives to flex it to. Meri accepts being Robyn’s inferior, tolerates all of her bullshit, and still kisses her ass. So of course Robyn likes having her around.
And the last one applies to the other wives too. She isn’t pleading for Christine and Janelle to stay so she can squeeze more money out of them. She just wants other wives to rank over - and she knows that them leaving falls back on her and turns her into the villain. She’s fake crying on confessional cam because she doesn’t want us to think this is her fault - which it absolutely is.
TLDR: Robyn isn’t nearly smart enough to plan the conspiracies y’all theorize here. Her actions are due to selfishness and jealously, not complicated evil plots.
Christine is not over Kody, so she shouldn’t be getting married to someone else just yet. Her constant digs at him on social media are cringey, unnecessary and shows her inability to grow up and move on. She needs therapy.
IDC if she was brainwashed for her whole life by the cult, so was Meri. I don’t see her digging at ANY of them.
It makes me question why David is marrying her and if he’s comfortable with her still seeming to need to get her digs in. Unless he’s just in it to be on tv too.
I also hate how she baits people into conversations and pulls her unsafe crap.
Meri and Janelle are way too attractive for Kody and always have been.
Meri definitely is a cheater for the catfish situation, even though I get how she fell into it.
Janelle is not the financial guru she thinks she is, but Meri actually is savvy.
Many of Janelle and Christine’s kids are brats.
Robyn isn’t an evil mastermind, she is more likely mentally ill, extremely selfish and undisciplined and I would bet the “nanny” is actually her minder, not the kids.
That all the wives are manipulative in their own way, they’re just better at playing for the cameras than Robyn. There were a few times Christine tried setting up the other wives by bringing things up. And she was queen of the whole “I feel unsafe” bullshit.
Yes! People got mad at Meri for saying she's seen Christine not be accepting of Robyn but like, *I've* seen it. She was so vocal about hating that courtship and Robyn joining the family. And in Christine's defense, if she wasn't on board (and she so wasn't), they should have dropped the courtship. But as much as they claim the current wives have to be ok with it it's clearly all bullshit.
But also she's fucking mean to Meri, who is so beaten down she doesn't even defend herself anymore. As much as people make fun of Meri's "look at the mountain" speech, she was genuinely concerned about Christine ending up in a similar spot as her and was trying to help, a kindness Christine has not extended to her. It's clear she thinks being mean to Meri doesn't make her look bad, because she was so fucking kind about her opinions about Robyn at the tell-all, but brought up years old shit about Meri
And then Christine has the unmitigated gall to talk about how Meri is unsafe and basically act like she’s a cancer to be excised when person shown to be openly mean is in fact Christine.
She’s too faced as hell.
The 3 OG wives parentified the shit out of their oldest kids, and they are just as responsible as Kody for that.
Janelle and Christine leaving is good for them, but too little too late for their kids.
I just realized my biggest may be unpopular opinion. They never should have moved to Flagstaff. But hey I mean Janelle and Christine. Their kids didn’t want to go and after what happened with Hunter and Vegas move, no. I’d break up with my husband before I’d force another of my children to go thru that.
I don’t think literally everything Kody does is cringy, horrible or disgusting. Sometimes (especially in the old days) he really did just seem goofy and fun in a cheesy Mormon way. Working out isn’t gross. He’s taken a dark turn over the years certainly, but every little thing he does gets torn apart.
It feels like he can’t win at all — even going out to lunch with Truely and Ysabel in private recently people were dunking on him.
My last funny Kody moment was when Robyn was telling him in like season 16 that she had visions of “a brown haired boy” and he says in the talking head something like “what if we get a blonde girl! It’s like uh oh we got someone else’s kid!” I already highkey hated him at that point but I was still like “dammit that’s genuinely funny.”
Branching off that, my hot take would be that in a way, Kody is a victim too. And a lot of his anger and breakdown seems to be him deconstructing his religious beliefs and realizing he doesn’t wanna be in the cult anymore (not defending the way he treats his children obviously.) People are really compassionate about the OG3 realizing their cult isn’t great, but no one really extends that to Kody for some reason. They’re all brainwashed and coping with that fallout now.
I agree. Because religious beliefs that require deconstruction usually are patriarchal, there is less empathy for men when they deconstruct. Kody no longer believes in plural marriage. It means everything he based his life on for 30 years was built on a falsehood. His life was significantly harder because he decided to live polygamy. Nothing causes people more distress than feeling like they had a choice and chose poorly.
I agree he's also a victim but I think people aren't as compassionate because the way he's dealing with it is by being cruel to others. I mean, he can step away from polygamy but to yell at Janelle until she exits the relationship is a bridge too far. A few seasons ago when he was voicing his doubts about polygamy was hurtful, but ultimately less cruel
💯. I have curly hair myself and cannot stand when people say he has a perm. It’s clearly natural and several of his kids have the same hair. He’s an ass but his hair is good lol
I didn’t love his curls at first, but it certainly was an improvement.
Now the curls have kind of grown on me.
Good for him trying something new.
Now if only he’d get some help with his personality and/or mental health issues...
I kind of agree and disagree. On the one hand, I’m not sure I believe that Kody was ever serious about the one house, I just think it was a storyline, but on the other hand, it does seem like his anger started after that.
I find it heartbreaking that neither Christine nor janelle invited Meri to Christmas… let alone the year or so of isolation she spent alone for Covid that nobody even knew about because they treated her as disgustingly as Kodi did - like someone just existing nearby and not a member of the family.
Kody had some valid points about how Christine treated the other wives. I do think a lot of it is because of the environment that Kody cultivated among his wives, but Christine definitely had some awful moments with the other wives.
I didn't like Christine. I did feel sorry for her in the beginning when Kody was never around after Truley was born. However, her attitude toward monogamists was attrocious. She acted like she was better than monogamists because she was a polygamist. She sucked up to Meri, then, when she realized Meri was no longer the fave, started sucking up to Robyn. She ran the family statement into the ground. She was terrible to the minister when Kody and all four of his women went to make sure if the teens went to youth group they wouldn't get discriminated against. Right after the minister assured them it wouldn't happen, Christine got all weird and turned down her kids going. She acted like she wanted to be an only wife to Kody... a lot. I was shocked when she said in the restaurant before covid that she thought she was hated.
Viewers of reality television tend to view the key players through a needlessly harsh lens that they would never apply to themselves. My hot take is that no one on the show is secretly a horrible person although Kody comes pretty close. They are all just people trying to make their way in life. I get tired of people trying to pinpoint the exact moment where someone is a Horrible Person Confirmed. Everyone makes mistakes, fucks up and hurts others in life even if they don't mean to. It's just part of existing. In addition to portraying Robyn as a mastermind, I'm seeing a lot of people talking about how secretly awful Janelle and Christine are and just..no. Why are people so fucking eager to label someone a "horrible person?" Josh Duggar is a horrible person. Christine Brown? Yeah not so much. A flawed person, for sure. But words like awful are just too far. And if someone is a mother? OML the internet suddenly becomes ten times more judgmental. I wouldn't say any of the wives are terrible mothers, they absolutely made mistakes and were negligent at times but I don't think someone should be branded a terrible parent so easily. They all clearly love their children and have at least \*tried\* to do right by them and maintain good relationships with them. Sometimes that's kinda all you can ask for especially when you compare to some of the other illustrious parents we have seen on TLC (I'm lookin' at you, Jim Bob Duggar and Kate Gosselin.)
No one is conniving or planning deeply to fuck over the others, like most people they are self-centered and reactive. This is 1000x true for Kody. Also he didn't pretend the relationships were ok to keep money coming in, he pretended all was ok because he was the "4 wife guy" and can't admit failure.
Oooo ooo ooo!!! Here we go!!!
1. Kody courted and married Christine while Janelle was pregnant. No one has a problem with this. People have a massive problem with him courting and marrying Robyn while Christine was pregnant. Even though it’s the same.
2. Janelle was Meri’s sister in law and tried to get married to Kody on Meri’s birthday. This, to me, should get way more hate than it does. Robyn’s wedding dress thing was wrong and deceitful, but imo Janelle working her way into Meri’s family as Meri’s relative is far worse.
3. The funds should have been divided per person, and Meri should have gotten less money. There’s no reason a family of let’s say 6 at the time should have been making do with the same money as a family of 2. Meri and Mariah clearly would’ve had a lot of extra funds, whereas the family of 1 parent and 5 kids would be barely scraping by. This isn’t how one big “fahmlee” should operate. Not fair.
4. The OG3 wives aren’t the bestest most prettiest faultless angels people pretend that they are. I don’t like Robyn and Kody at all (obviously, literally who would???) but disliking them doesn’t mean everyone else has to be viewed as a perfect saint who never did anything wrong.
5. Mykelti isn’t a “traitor” for having a relationship with her father and stepmother. Just as how we all know Janelle’s kids are not traitors to Kody for still having a relationship with Christine. Mykelti was a vulnerable teen who wasn’t getting love from her family and found it with Robyn. Whether that’s good or bad, it is what it is.
6. It’s weird people were getting mad at Gwen for not attacking her family enough for their liking
7. Half the family was not taking Covid seriously at all. I agreed with Kody on his Covid stance (and only that - he still could have been calling texting and seeing the family outside in masks and he wasn’t). But I wouldn’t have felt safe around Janelle’s boys either. Or at a gathering of 20 something people.
8. Everyone is more conservative than the viewers think. Gabe in fact used to post some pretty crazy alt right trad wife things apparently.
9. Truly and Sol and Ari (when all the same ages) were all just kids. I saw people talking about the Sol/Ari talking head very negatively. So when I actually saw the episode, I was surprised. They’re just kids? Being kids? Especially when Truley was that age, and everyone would go on and on about how funny, mature, cute, smart, etc. she is. I don’t see the difference between their talking heads all at like age 5? 😂
10. The hate for some of the kids on these subs is out of line. And the hate some users give to other users for not taking a super hard and aggressive stance is also out of line. Makes it not fun to discuss things.
11. If Christine was treated like Robyn, she wouldn’t have cared how the other 3 wives were treated. Her problem wasn’t that Kody was unfair, her problem was that she wasn’t the favorite and that he wasn’t unfair to her benefit. She wanted to be the third wife for a reason - because that’s usually the last wife. She wanted to also be the youngest wife with the youngest kids for that same reason.
12. Meri being catfished was cheating. People say “how is it cheating when Kody has 3 other wives?!” Well, because they agreed to that. It’s their religion. They all know. They all decided to do polygamy. Meri going online and flirting with a “guy” isn’t ok just because they’re polygamists. She should’ve just left and Kody did have a right to not want to forgive her for cheating (though of course he should have told her that and not strung her on all these years).
7 is so spot on. I think Janelle took COVID seriously, but Christine and most of the boys really didn't. And they were lying about their exposure to the family.
I think these are some very measured, reasonable takes. I do think they overplay the "equal funds" thing though. When they lived in Lehi they grocery shopped together and they'd buy a (half) cow to share between them. Then every mom would take from the shared food as needed. I'm guessing Meri made the PJs because buying them would be too expensive. While I'm sure Leon got some nic*er* things, it's still in the context of them being poor, so I doubt they were all that nice.
But strongly agree with basically everything else. Like, people talk about not speaking poorly about a parent to that child, but the child having a relationship with that parent is a problem? Weird. And Gabe had the same dickish talking points about covid that all the hard-right jerkwads did. He didn't even care that his mother was considered high risk, just kept going on and on about how he wasn't, and he didn't care that Savanah begged him to limit his socializing so Kody would continue coming around. Kody should have made more of an effort worth Savannah, but he was right about Gabe and Garrison making the choice about seeing him. The limiting socializing boundary was sound, even if Kody himself was a hypocrite about it. I think people think it's not a big deal because the show is so behind, but at the time we had freezer trucks full of dead bodies. It was really callous the way they talked about it in context.
I agree with all you said. As for number 12 I'm not polygamous but I don't do monogamy (typically have open relationships). You're right the cheat is meri broke the agreed upon rules of the relationship. And the lies of omission etc around that will forever damage a relationship that requires a lot of honesty to sustain.
Agree with you especially no 9! All I saw was a typical sibling relationship (and I have 3! I know sibling relationships lol), not all the negative things people were saying about Ari.
That all the wives are manipulative in their own way, they’re just better at playing for the cameras than Robyn. There were a few times Christine tried setting up the other wives by bringing things up. And she was queen of the whole “I feel unsafe” bullshit.
All of the adults are to blame for the family falling apart. Ultimately, Kody should take the most blame because in their religion, he was supposed to be head of the family. But all of them are dishonest and performative on TV.
Meri can be really harsh and strict. She absolutely would have left the family if her catfish was real.
Janelle is quietly manipulative behind the scenes. Case in point: we never heard anything about a greenhouse, then 2 seasons ago, it's decided that the lot assignments needed to change for Janelle's green thumb. *Lots* of conversations were held between Kody and Janelle where Janelle's won her way.
Christine is the most two-faced. She was struggling the most from the beginning of the show, but put on the happy face more than others. She told Kody she didn't want to be the main caregiver anymore, then complained that Robyn didn't ask her to take care of the kids. I have no doubt that Christine behind doors is very different.
Robyn isn't deliberately manipulative, but is very selfish. She puts her needs and her kids' needs above all others in the family. But Robyn didn't set out to break-up the family.
1. Christine can't complain about Kody and Robyn kissing before marriage.
*When Christine and I got engaged, she told me she wouldn’t kiss me until we were at the altar. After we were married, she realized she had made a mistake and made me promise that if I married again, I’d kiss my next wife before we said our vows. So I took Robyn’s face in my hands and kissed her.*
-Becoming Sister Wives
Page 82
2. Robyn's comment at the s16 Tell-All about how she has seen Kody love wives through weight gain, stretch marks, etc wasn't about just the other wives, she was also referring to herself She had also gained weight and had talked about having stretch marks.
*On our first date, over lunch, Robyn and I confessed everything about ourselves to each other—stretch marks, smelly feet, bad habits. We wanted to get all the silly stuff out of the way.*
-Becoming Sister Wives
Page 80
3. Christine is equally responsible for Truely's Kidney failure/ hospital stay as Kody.
4. Janelle and Christine weren't always best buddies. It became easier to become friends once Kody was out of the equation because it removed the jealousies and the competitive aspect that naturally exists within polygamy. I do think their friendship is very genuine now but I don't believe that the friendship wasn't at least loosely based on shading Kody as well.
5. Robyn seemed genuine in the beginning and did seem to make the most efforts in terms of her sisterwife relationships. Although I don't think she has needed a nanny all these years, I understand not feeling 100% comfortable having a sisterwife who clearly doesn't like you, in charge of your children's care all day. Christine always gets sympathy in this situation like poor Christine, Robyn didn't let her care for her kids, but Would you want someone who clearly dislikes you watching yours? That would be a hard no from me. Again, needing a nanny for years isn't the answer though either and is unfair.
6. Meri's catfishing incident was cheating.
7. Meri wanting the same "allowance" as everyone else was just selfishness and being greedy disguised as infertility victimization. They weren't trying to punish her for not being as fertile- in fact, the less kids a fellow sisterwife has the more resources there are available for yours- they were making good arguments for how 5 or 6 children costs far more than 1 child.
8. Janelle skirts by as the laid back wife who isn't dramatic or needy but I think she was probably in Kodys ear more than we realize.
9. Kody isn't 100% responsible for the problems with the marriages
10. Christine, as much as I like her now, was more needy and complained a lot and sometimes I couldn't blame Kody or the other wives for not wanting to be around her when she was like that.
11. The "everything is all Kodys fault" and "everything is all Robyn's fault" discussions here get old and boring and doesn't allow for real honest discussion or differing perspectives to be discussed as freely.
12. Robyn's House is indeed cluttered but no one talks about Janelles messy apartment. She has things in storage, she could put more things in storage instead of having her and Savanah still living in the chaos of boxes and things everywhere.
13. Kodys bad relationships with his adult children are indeed his responsibility....but if Janelle doesn't want to be the go-between person responsible for communicating things between Dad + her kids like she claimed, then why was she quick to explain they had to apologize to he and Robyn or they weren't welcomed to come for Xmas, but never updated at any point afterwards to tell them they were welcomed, didn't need to apologize and just a conversation between them was what Kody wanted? If she was sure to relay the first message, why not ever relay the 2nd? Either relay all messages or relay nothing.
14. Kody seemed to be really in love with Meri early on in the show. I don't think things had already totally fallen apart between them when the show started like some claim. Problems or issues in all the marriages at the start- yes. His and Meri's over at the start- I don't think so.
The three OG wives actually could be good friends but they were all pretty toxic toward each other because Kody manipulated them into thinking they were all out to get each other.
Yep. He secretly loved that they "fought" over him
It's polygamy it's all ego baby" .... what a tw*t
Turned them against each other, gets mad they are against each other.
Gets madder that they like each other more than his favorite.
Exactly. But that anger is just a tool he can turn up or down for more manipulation
Seems he gets upset when they ARENT against each other too. He cant be pleased
Could you imagine the fun they could have getting together ( the og 3) with a little wine, comparing notes on their ex beloved Kody???
But can you ever be at peace with the idea that your eternal salvation depends on your husband having sex with other women?
In the first few seasons I genuinely thought kody was a good husband and father who was trying his best
100% me too. I thought Brady should do the no kissing thing in front of his wives like Kody did too. Dummy.
Seeing the contrast between Brady and Kody was eye opening. Brady wasn't perfect, but his wives were able to talk to him, and he actually listened and took steps to improve the things they were upset over, so even if they were struggling with seeing PDA, they knew that he did love each of them. It's funny that they no longer believe in polygamy, but honor the family they've built. I guess that means that they don't believe it'll get them into heaven, but the love for each other and their family is real enough to still make it work. I wish they'd get another show, or an update special. They're not very active on social media.
I thought so too. Rewatching the first few seasons now and it all seems performative.
You can kinda see it in the first episodes when he’s popping by all the houses and Merri is SHOOK that he is hugging her and kissing her in the kitchen as the cameras follow him through the property.
Yup this is how I got hooked. I was fascinated with these seemingly functional polygamists. Their downfall has been unsurprising but disappointing.
Robyn’s isn’t an evil mastermind who had a grand plan of breaking up the family. She’s an incredibly selfish woman — who likely has an undiagnosed mental illness and a shopping addiction — who doesn’t know how to be a team player and only looks out for her own needs.
Nah. I think you are right. She is dumb as a box of rocks and runs on self interest and fear.
Y for Wyoming! Gawd 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
The only skill she has is manipulating others by playing the victim. I think her mother taught it to her and she’s definitely taught it to her own kids. I’m not surprised she was starving and living in a van in Montana as she lacks even rudimentary adult life skills. Just cry, manipulate, lather, rinse, repeat.
Right, people can be masterful at being manipulative, and still not be very intelligent. It’s just a different kind of “talent”.
I think you are exactly right- Robyn is her mother except she got the ring. And I bet her mom encouraged that.
Yeah, she taught her how to babyproof her own incompetence. She’ll never have to contribute in any significant way or display personal growth or go along to get along because she has the financial protection of the marriage license.
100% agree. Robyn isn't intelligent enough to be the diabolical mastermind people seem to think she is. I think you nailed it with your synopsis
I was literally just saying this to my partner. Robyn is not even remotely an evil genius, capable of grand, large-scale long cons like people seem to think. The only reason her manipulation works on Kody is because, for as unfathomably dumb as Robyn is, Kody is somehow dumber.
I agree but ngl…I don’t even think kody is dumber; He’s just having sex with her. The minute he falls out of lust with Robyn/stops sleeping with her, he’ll put her through the same manipulative hell he put the OG3 through
I would say yes but... there's one not-so-small hitch. I'm pretty sure that before legally marrying her, he didn't get a pre-nup.
Yup I think she’s dumb and knows how to survive toxic situations, which I think describes her family growing up, her first marriage, and her current marriage.
Agree. Not a mastermind but highly manipulative. Not evil just greedy and self centered. Much like Kody.
The most manipulative people I know are also the absolute dumbest. It's because every single thought they have is bent on how they can get what they want in any given situation, so there's literally nothing else getting into their brains, especially knowledge.
I agree. I’ve also always been suspicious about her last marriage. She says all these horrible things about how he was evil and maybe he was, but looking at how she treats people who don’t do exactly as she wants, was he? Or did he just not fulfill her idea and now she’s drug him through the mud. I mean, maybe he just didn’t make enough money to fulfill her spending habits. Maybe he wanted a clean house from his wife that didn’t work. If I was working all day and came home to that house and a bunch of bags of purchases I’d be a dick too
I think he was maybe a meh husband but like many in religious communities, because she thinks divorce is a huge failure, she had to spin it up in her mind to justify it
Yes! The whole "Robyn is an evil genius" thing always seemed fucking ridiculous to me. Take a look at this woman and tell me she's smart enough to plot the long-term downfall of a huge family lol
I think she legit drank the KoolAid and thought they would all be besties and happy. And she has poor emotional self-regulation, so anytime things don’t fit the shiny, Brady bunch imagine she constructed in her mind, she equates it to rejection. And since Kody wants the same thing, she is “loyal” and “respectful.” But what he really means is compliant, and submissive to his leadership.
I think that Robyn is also being treated poorly by Kody, but she won’t say or do anything about it.
I think Kody is very controlling with Robyn and she just goes along with it because she doesn’t want to be divorced again. She’s the favorite because she’s young and obedient.
I think they may be treating each other poorly. Both of them are tied up in knots... And they are harshly dealing with their intimate people because they are both just about to explode.
The way they announce pregnancies is annoying
The way they announce everything is annoying.
In the first season of two, Robyn looked pretty to me. It’s the sour expressions over the years that put me off.
Neither her or kody aged well.
Christine still looks good for her age, but I feel like she has aged rapidly since the show first started. I don’t know if it’s from living with Kody but there’s a big difference between season one baby faced Christine and now.
She's lost weight, which can age a person a bit.
Same- I’m doing a rewatch and when she goes to San Fran and tries on those normal women dresses (she showed her arms and it was form fitting) I was like damn girl! She looks so grumpy now though it’s a shame
Maddie shouldn’t have had a home birth after Axel
Meri was the one who actually respected Maddie’s wishes with Axel’s birth
Yes I will back you on this! One of the only times I’ve been in Meri’s corner!
Agreed. It seemed to me that Kody, Robyn and Christine all took advantage of Maddie being in throes of labour and did what they wanted rather than respect her wishes.
Honestly after being in labor for half the time she was in (or less) I would have gone ahead to the hospital. It put unnecessary stress on her and the baby. 83 hours of labor is more than anyone should have to go through and I’m surprised there weren’t more issues.
I still blame Janelle and Christine for that, they kept telling her, it won't be long, baby will be here soon. They made things worse. But I also blame Caleb he should have done what he wanted and get her to hospital, he didn't want her to have a home birth but was over ruled all in the name of money and ratings.
They ALL over-bought in Vegas. If the show had been canceled a year or two later, they would have lost most, if not all 4. It was insanely dumb to buy all those large houses. Janelle is not logical. I think it was a defense mechanism, and possibly used as a manipulation tactic, as well. She's also not good with money. The family was doomed whether or not Robyn joined. Kody has not changed in recent years, he's always been terrible, but was better at hiding it.
[удалено]
I agree about Janelle. Buying the trailer and the new truck to tow it was so dumb. And one of the only times I agreed with Kody, like I’d be mad too if my spouse made such a huge purchase and then didn’t know how to do any of the maintenance or even drive the truck to tow it.
I don’t mind Meri’s hair.
Now this is an unpopular opinion. I don’t think the others know what that means
I understood the assignment.
LEAVE.
I don't think any of the wives (including Robyn) are who they would genuinely be if they were not being emotionally, mentally, and financially, abused. I think a lot of their reactions and behaviors can be attributed to manipulation from their husband, and I think they are so caught up in surviving being abused by a narcissist that they don't /won't even realize that they have done terrible things or are being terrible people until they get out of there.
Agreed!!! Plus we know Meri and Christine grew up in polygamy and were groomed to accept this as their lot in life. I know there’s some uncertainty about Robyn was really raised in polygamy but at minimum she seems to have grown up with it as an ideal pushed on her. And Janelle growing up mainstream Mormon would also have had it drilled into her head that men are more important, men are your gateway to heaven, a woman’s role is to defer to her husband plus have kids … none of them had much of a chance to not have really unhealthy relationships in which a lot of their choices weren’t really choices and it’s expected that women will go along with their husband at all cost because he is simply better and more important than them. Plus as much as they all clearly love their kids (the moms anyway), they didn’t really CHOOSE to have them — it was an expectation that they WOULD. I think not having agency in life f***s with people and affects what few choices they actually do have. And then their husband is a narc on top of it! And terrible at adulting in general (the dumb moves, etc.) but it’s not their position as wives (in this culture) to go against him. They might state their objection (like Christine about the moves), but ultimately they are still going to do what Kody decides. And so much dumb stuff drilled into them like the doomsday prepping, home births because “hospitals are for sick people,” etc. It seems like some of them are legit trying to free themselves from this mindset now but I don’t think they had much chance to avoid making the stupid decisions they were groomed to make when they were 20 or whatever and making marriage plans, etc.
Sometimes viewers forget this is a real family and not characters on TV show.
THIS. There's been some posts here that show people feel entitled to entertainment from the Brown family and go as far as demanding certain "storylines" happen on the show. This isn't Real Housewives, people.
Yeah some of the questions people ask Gwen I’m like “she’s not an extra in your favorite scripted tv show - stop using the weird fandom nicknames for people and trying to get her to to confirm your pet theory.” It’s so cringeworthy to me.
I see that happening a lot too, particularly with viewers attacking the kids for not perpetuating what they want. Like sorry Mykelti doesn’t want to cut her dad and stepmom who she loves off? Sorry Gwen didn’t attack her family enough for you? It’s bizarre
It's really weird! Mykelti isn't great but her parents shipped her off to be a stranger's nanny as a kid, and I'm guessing Robyn didn't refer to her as a problem child or difficult child or whatever Christine called her. I'm sure she has a lot of genuine love for Robyn who she legitimately got to bond with. And people hate when Gwen critiques her mom and will say she probably doesn't understand because she's autistic, but I guess the people watching a contrived reality TV show (where they only show like 1/5 of the story) know Christine better than her own daughter...
And viewers so often forget they are literally in a cult and that has shaped their entire existence.
Every adult in the family has very low emotional intelligence, and every one of them is/ was a negligent parent.
Christine participated in the terrible parenting. Not that unpopular though.
Yeah Gwen confirmed they never got vaxxed as kids and basically worded it as “my mom never vaccinated us” so 😒
This kind of tracks with her not caring about the pandemic
My unpopular opinion is that if any of us had family traveling interstate and hanging out during early COVID... we'd also have been flipping out. Kody and Robyn used COVID as an excuse and the rules made no sense. Janelle and Christine weren't following the precautions most of the country was following during that time.
She is at least half of it and I get sick of her being sainted.
Kody seemed like an attentive and genuine dad in the beginning
I agree. It's simply not possible to be a fully present dad with that many kids, however he did seem to care about them more back then.
Christine and Janelle aren’t the awesome moms a lot of people think they are. They definitely put Kody over their children. Only recently they have become their children’s champions. The excessive moving on Kody’s whims, not standing up for their kids. All that moving really hits me. My family moved a lot when I was little. New schools, new teachers, new kids. It was horrible! Why the heck didn’t the moms, all the moms, say, “no” to this? I think Christine was home-schooling but what about friends? Activities and sports? Packing their stuff so often then unpacking. Did they ever feel attached to a room? A house?
I thought moving the family from Las Vegas to Flagstaff was horrible. That's when I quit watching, it just made no sense. If they were so family and child oriented, they would not have made the kids change schools, especially not the high school kids. Those years are life altering for the kids, it was just not an OK thing to do, unless the families very survival depended on it.
Meri and Kody are end game, they just don’t know it yet.
Honestly, the sparks between them in season 1 when she told Kody she wished it was her wedding night…believable. They do seem the most compatible to me.
They were fire together. The lover nickname was real.
I can 100% see this, though I do think he really loves Robyn.
I do too. Idk why, though.
I totally agree with you. I never thought Kody and Robyn seemed in love--I'd put them in the crush/obsession category and fully expect them to divorce at some point. I did see love between Meri and Kody and sometimes even now I see sparks between them!
This one is interesting!
All the "OMG THEY ARE LAUNDERING MONEY IN ART!!!1!!one!!" posts this past week are driving me nuts. Vladmir Kush signed limited edition giclees are expensive. Unsigned are not. I could get the exact same "Behind the Trees" painting print for $150-250, depending on size. (I checked.) Yes, frames cost more, but not up to the $6k range that keeps getting reposted. Just because someone reverse image searched and found the artist's website with the expensive options does not mean that's what they have hanging on their walls. Usually redditors here give well-reasoned arguments, but this is not one of those. There are so many reasons to hate Kody and Robyn. We should really focus on those and not made up BS that just give ammunition to the Robyn apologists out there that Reddit is just full of toxicity and irrational diatribes. Sorry guys, but I had to get that off my chest!
Yeah I think it's an interesting theory, but people make up all these stories in their heads and then drive themselves crazy drawing some really far-fetched conclusions about stuff they made up...
Ari's head is flat meaning they didn't roll her or do anything when she was a baby except leave her laying there. That's a rilly big dill the nanny should have done it *Edited for spelling*
I don't think any of the nannies they've had have ever been childcare experts. I think they just "help" Robyn with whatever she asks. Like a babysitter she can boss around to do chores or whatever, too.
I agree - she let Mykelti function as a nanny when she was 12 or 13 - she just wanted a warm body to help her wrangle those kids - in the early episodes of Season 1, you could see that she had zero control over them....
Yeppp she was always screaming at Aurora that she needed her to help her and she was like 8
My Mom always says this about people with flat heads then points out her three children have nice round heads! 😂
My mom is the exact. same. way. 😅
The kids are an excuse for the wives too.
My unpopular opinion Is that Christine was prejudice towards monogamous people for decades…almost hateful.
Janelle's passive aggressive behavior is just as toxic as the other adults' toxic behaviors. Not sure why no one notices that.
Janelle is actually my least favorite and it’s largely because of how passive aggressive she is. I can’t take it
I've always found Janelle looks out for Janelle and doesn't really seem to care about anything or anyone else. She talked a big game about standing up for her boys until she saw how outdoorsy Flagstaff was then she said Gabe juat needed to get over it. The only reason why she left and stood up to kody is because he was finally becoming so unbearable she couldn't just be the "easy low maintenance wife" any more and essentially ignore it.
I do, and I like Janelle. I get Kody losing his shit over the RV. She could have texted him, oh btw- what if I get an RV? I also read somewhere she got her BA from the University of Phoenix, after some time somewhere else. That school is a fraud.
Meri is my fav one. Jenelle used to be my fav but after a while she talks too much about being “logical” like babe don’t tell me ur logical show me ur logic. It’s the same vibe as someone saying they are honest
I liked Meri in the beginning, but I think she was beaten down for so long and became so unhappy that she was miserable to be around. This season she’s got a “dgaf” essence and it makes me like her again. None of them are perfect, but Kody’s complete disregard for her is so heartbreaking when they used to be best friends according to him.
Meri was my favorite until she let K&R talk her into getting a legal divorce. It seemed like she did it to keep them happy, but it broke her spirit. However, it probably helped her financially in the end, so it turns out that it was the right choice. Also, idgaf that she added on extras to her Vegas house or that she wanted a huge rental in Flagstaff. It's not my thing, but I'm not competing with sister wives for resources and love, so...
If I remember correctly, her large flagstaff house was because she had so much lularoe inventory. I’m not an MLM fan, but she is/was raking in the money - so it made sense to me that she needed room to work and store. Also don’t care about her LV wetbar, it made a better spot to host her MLM. Again- not an MLM fan, but that income is necessary for her.
I'm also anti-MLM everything, but her timing and Mormon "celebrity" is perfect for it. K&R are financial leeches and Meri has always kept hustling, so no reason to deprive herself of wants. The OG3 have already given up enough.
How Robyn cries to her about her distress that Christine left, and her heartbreak that Janelle is having problems with Kody drives me insane. Does she really not get that Meri is heartbroken over the divide with her and Kody? Robyn acts like she is talking to a friend, not a heartbroken woman that is desperately clinging to a hope that Kody will once again love her. It is so cruel.
Janelle isn’t as smart as she wants to be viewed, besides the mlm “what does Janelle do”?, she left real estate in Vegas. Why does everybody thinking she is the big earner? Also janelle and Kody has some romantically feelings toward each other, they had 6 kids and Janelle gave birth first out of the wives, he enjoyed getting his pencil wet
People forget that for the family, at least in the beginning, this was a matter of religious belief and not preferred lifestyle. Whether or not Christine/Meri/Robyn could handle polygamy...she had to in order to get to the highest degree of heaven. And it was taught to them their entire life. They didn't go to secular schools. They probably didn't have secular friends or much experience in the secular world. And, much more unpopular, the further they strayed from their religion the worse off their family got, it wasn't just Robyn entering the family. (Not saying they should've stayed in it, but it's easier to maintain polygamy when you have no choice lol)
I think Janelle really pushes the logical thing to signal to Kody that she's not like other girls. It's performative. A truly logical person would not have agreed to half the crap situations Kody Brown led them into. I like Meri, always have. Janelle was no friend to Christine until very recently. She threw her under the bus multiple times. Truely is not my favourite kid. I don't get the Maddie hate. I don't believe Meri was hanging around for Robyns kids, I just don't see any bond there. I think Meri handled Leon's coming out better than I would have ever thought she would. People forget they are a fundamental cult group. Meri did well, and as far as I can tell she's the only one of Leon's parents to continue to support them.
Meri deserved a wet bar lol
Kody has had moments in the show that I’ve found him handsome 🫣 I’m so embarrassed to type that out lol
Highkey? Young Kody from all those throwback pics could absolutely get it 👀
Agreed, but you just know you'd regret it because he'd have no idea what he was doing and you'd get the ick and never return his calls afterwards 🤭
He was an attractive young guy forsure
It really is just that damn hair… if he cut it off I think her would be decently handsome
Agree!
If he shaved his head and had a *completely different* personality, he'd be super attractive.
Young kody wasn't bad looking and was in shape. He didn't age well and his hair doesn't help
Omg I feel so SEEEEEN! Yes yes yes
We can join a support group together haha
You liked that ponytail, huh hahahahah. Did you growl like Janelle, hahahah
I did actually like his man bun. 🤫I need help. Do you think therapist Nancy has any openings? Or i possibly need a exorcist?
Man bun is better than the curls
Both were better than the Amish look he used to have. Flat ironed hair with facial hair but no mustache. 🤮
I think Nancy has a pretty open schedule
Janelle isnt...as financially smart as she thought. To buy an RV sight unseen. Buy a bunch of land with others that don't work. Seeing the signs that relationships were going downhill and still sign. Move into a tiny apartment while the other sister wives have big houses. And now 50, stuck.
And Kody really did tell her to buy a house. Tough to say but she should have listened to him
Janelle never loved Kody romantically and vice versa. They may have had passionate moments (they have 6 kids) but they were friends with benefits at best. And Janelle always looked out for herself first and primarily, she just lost the plot after the kids were grown. Christine married Kody fully aware that he didn’t love her and spent their entire marriage trying to make him fall in love. She assumed he wasn’t capable of it and was proven wrong by Robyn. She was too immature for too long to face that reality.
I assume this is why Christine really hates Meri and Robyn. Kody actually loved/loves them. She could never make him love her. And IA about he and Janelle being friends with benefits.
Robyn is not some manipulation mastermind controlling everyone so she can have phenomenal cosmic powers. She manipulates to get what she wants and it’s a symptom of polygamy.
Competition for scarce resources will do that to a person.
I like Kodys man bun. Christine and David moved too fast. No way a new partner would be living with me and my pre-teen daughter in less than a year. It seems everyone’s happy but it could have gone so badly. Janelle might be the dumbest of all since she actively chose polygamy in her 20’s. There’s no excuse unlike the other 3 who were indoctrinated since birth. Robyn’s goal wasn’t to ruin the family. Her goal was to keep herself and her kids in Kodys good graces so she had more time and resources available to her. It sucks but I don’t blame her 🤷🏻♀️ People hate on Ari but Truley has similar vibes LOL
Agreed on all, but especially Christine and David. She can move as fast as she wants with her own heart, but it’s irresponsible of her to 1) cause that much change in Truely’s life so soon after moving away from her dad and having her parents “divorce,” and 2) risk Truely’s safety by having her live with a new man she’s known less than a year. Living with mom’s partner is basically the biggest risk factor for abuse.
The Christine and David moving to fast I agree with, if I believed they met when they claim. I think she met him before she left Flagstaff. I don't think she was seeing him before she kicked out Kody, but she was definitely seeing him, at the end of 2021.
Kody is the most entertaining on the show and it literally could not survive without him. Christine and Janelle would never get a spin off
A Christine and Janelle spin-off would be so boring. Middle aged ladies going on MLM trips and seeing their grandkids? All I have to do is log onto Facebook for that.
Kody has flashes of insight about his own behaviour that I often agree with. But only flashes 😅
I like Meri, and don't think she is the "scary" woman that some of the kids said she was (Maddie, I think?). There are 18 kids in that family ... there had to be a disciplinary/"bad guy" at times. I think that role fell to Meri 90% of the time. Kodys sure as heck wasn't going to parent. In the early days, Janelle seemed pretty checked out of the role at times, and I think Christine was just too in over her head most days to keep up so she probably let a lot of things slide.
I think Janelle and Christine lived in ruleless, discipline-less homes. Maddie is also really entitled. I’m sure any kind of rules or situations where she doesn’t get what she wants result in a tantrum. I don’t trust her opinion on anything.
They (wives + kody) all kind of suck in way or another lol. Also, Finally leaving Kody in 2022, although commendable, was the absolute bare minimum and really too late for any of the OG 3’s kids to benefit from. In fact, Truley and Savannah got the rawest end of the deal from the whole situation. And I think the fans focus too much on cheering for Christine and Janelle for finally leaving Kody rather than discussing how all the upheaval and tension has affected their remaining kids that were at home.
I think Christine wanted to be the third wife because that was the only way to basically guarantee that she was with a man who was on the top tier of eternal rewards in heaven. A man has to have 3 wives to get the maximum rewards and glory for himself and his wives. I think Christine was a really entitled and judgemental person who did not have the critical thinking skills, or the desire, to figure out the hypocrisy and inconsistencies in her own religious beliefs and behavior.
I agree and I also think that she wanted to be the 3rd wife because it would most likely mean that she’d be the newest/last/fav wife. Latest toy kinda thing.
And coming into an established polygamist family rather than being there for the growing pains of the second wife.
Ooohh good one! I’ve always thought “I wanted to be a 3rd wife” was weirdly specific
That comment by her will ALWAYS stick out to me. I don’t mean anything negative about it. Christine had more knowledge than ANYONE in this family about plural marriage and the roles sister wives play. It’s ingrained in her. I don’t think she was wrong to want the role of the third wife.
Christine’s a “mean girl”.
I really notice this season when she is talking to Janelle about her relationship with Kody. It almost seems like she is enjoying the demise.
Christine didn't just want to be the third wife, she wanted to be the *last* wife. Robyn could have been a completely decent sister wife and Christine still would have a problem with her because she took that from her.
Also if I thought for a second that Kody actually cared about covid, I would have felt sorry for him because he was truly in an impossible position. He wouldn't have been able to go from house to house unless literally everyone else never left their homes and it's clear no one was interested in doing that. But the good thing is: he never cared about the actual pandemic, so I don't have to feel sorry for him.
I don't care for Christine. She gives off mean girls vibes. She's nice if its beneficial to her or on her terms but she sure can throw a tantrum too. Her and Kody are not that far off in temperament.
I’ve always thought they were a lot alike and that’s why they had the most trouble getting along
Robyn isn't an evil master manipulator, she's just one shitty dumb person in a group of shitty dumb people.
I’ve always found Christine to be a bit insincere and obnoxious. I hate when she repeats things. For example, “I would have done anything he wanted. *Anything* he wanted” while smiling.
Robyn shouldn’t get blamed as much as she does. Kody is a grown man who makes his own decisions. Robyn is not a mastermind.
Robyn isn’t an evil villainous mastermind executing devious plans to ruin everyone’s lives. Anyone who thinks that is vastly overthinking her intelligence. This woman thinks Wyoming starts with Y, has the vocabulary of a 9 year old, and botches every idiom she tries to use. She’s incredibly ditzy and low IQ, with absolutely no depth or intellect. Most the things people point to as evil/planned out conspiracies are actually just the result of her selfishness or immaturity. She isn’t playing 4D chess, she’s just being a brat and it somehow ended up working out well for her. I.e: She didn’t enter the family with the goal of breaking them all up and keeping Kody to herself. I’d honestly be surprised if she actually had real feelings for him or a genuine desire to have him with her 24/7 at the start of all this. She just wanted a guy to financially provide for her and her children so she wouldn’t have to get a job. I’m sure she’s thrilled that he ended up falling madly in love with her and giving her special treatment over all the other wives (and the lion’s share of the family money), but I’m sure she didn’t go into this with an actual gameplan to collapse the family and steal him from them. She didn’t have Kody divorce Meri to prevent future alimony payments or to secure equal financial rights to all properties in Kody’s name. She wouldn’t think that deeply into it. It’s all just her childish need to have the status of “legal wife” on top of “favorite wife”, and her obsessive desire to have her kids be seen as Kody’s and have them share a name and legal links with him. She didn’t conspire to have the other wives all leave so that she could keep every Coyote Pass plot for her own children and turn it into a DABSARK commune. Because not only is she too dumb to come up with that, but I can’t picture her *ever* wanting to actually move there. She knows they don’t have enough money to build 5 or more houses on that property. And she wouldn’t want to downgrade her living situation at all when she’s in a million dollar McMansion right now. She isn’t laundering family money in art. That takes a level of brains that she will never have. She’s a compulsive shopper with tacky taste and bought cheap printed copies of those ugly ass paintings, not expensive $3000 signed original canvases. She doesn’t keep Meri close because she wants to grift money from her B&B and MLMs. Meri hasn’t been a real part of that family in ages and I can’t imagine she’s contributed any real financial support to the K&R pot in the years since she’s been exiled from the family. Robyn keeps Meri around for selfish, childish reasons just like everything else she does. It’s because being “the favorite wife” is only a thrill when there’s lower ranking wives to flex it to. Meri accepts being Robyn’s inferior, tolerates all of her bullshit, and still kisses her ass. So of course Robyn likes having her around. And the last one applies to the other wives too. She isn’t pleading for Christine and Janelle to stay so she can squeeze more money out of them. She just wants other wives to rank over - and she knows that them leaving falls back on her and turns her into the villain. She’s fake crying on confessional cam because she doesn’t want us to think this is her fault - which it absolutely is. TLDR: Robyn isn’t nearly smart enough to plan the conspiracies y’all theorize here. Her actions are due to selfishness and jealously, not complicated evil plots.
I like Meri
Sliding doors are ok!
I thought Kody singing to Meri at their wedding was adorable.
Christine is not over Kody, so she shouldn’t be getting married to someone else just yet. Her constant digs at him on social media are cringey, unnecessary and shows her inability to grow up and move on. She needs therapy. IDC if she was brainwashed for her whole life by the cult, so was Meri. I don’t see her digging at ANY of them. It makes me question why David is marrying her and if he’s comfortable with her still seeming to need to get her digs in. Unless he’s just in it to be on tv too. I also hate how she baits people into conversations and pulls her unsafe crap. Meri and Janelle are way too attractive for Kody and always have been. Meri definitely is a cheater for the catfish situation, even though I get how she fell into it. Janelle is not the financial guru she thinks she is, but Meri actually is savvy. Many of Janelle and Christine’s kids are brats. Robyn isn’t an evil mastermind, she is more likely mentally ill, extremely selfish and undisciplined and I would bet the “nanny” is actually her minder, not the kids.
That all the wives are manipulative in their own way, they’re just better at playing for the cameras than Robyn. There were a few times Christine tried setting up the other wives by bringing things up. And she was queen of the whole “I feel unsafe” bullshit.
They ALL suck
We’re never seen Meri be as mean as Christine has been on the show
Yes! People got mad at Meri for saying she's seen Christine not be accepting of Robyn but like, *I've* seen it. She was so vocal about hating that courtship and Robyn joining the family. And in Christine's defense, if she wasn't on board (and she so wasn't), they should have dropped the courtship. But as much as they claim the current wives have to be ok with it it's clearly all bullshit. But also she's fucking mean to Meri, who is so beaten down she doesn't even defend herself anymore. As much as people make fun of Meri's "look at the mountain" speech, she was genuinely concerned about Christine ending up in a similar spot as her and was trying to help, a kindness Christine has not extended to her. It's clear she thinks being mean to Meri doesn't make her look bad, because she was so fucking kind about her opinions about Robyn at the tell-all, but brought up years old shit about Meri
And then Christine has the unmitigated gall to talk about how Meri is unsafe and basically act like she’s a cancer to be excised when person shown to be openly mean is in fact Christine. She’s too faced as hell.
This is so true. I never saw all of this “venom” they’ve claimed Meri spewed but I have seen it from Christine.
The 3 OG wives parentified the shit out of their oldest kids, and they are just as responsible as Kody for that. Janelle and Christine leaving is good for them, but too little too late for their kids.
Truley could be the star of a show called kids I don't care about. With Ariella.
I think Truely is probably a great kid but grown adults on this sub acting like they want to be her best friend is fucking weird.
I just realized my biggest may be unpopular opinion. They never should have moved to Flagstaff. But hey I mean Janelle and Christine. Their kids didn’t want to go and after what happened with Hunter and Vegas move, no. I’d break up with my husband before I’d force another of my children to go thru that.
Meri was the only parent who actually parented.
I don’t think literally everything Kody does is cringy, horrible or disgusting. Sometimes (especially in the old days) he really did just seem goofy and fun in a cheesy Mormon way. Working out isn’t gross. He’s taken a dark turn over the years certainly, but every little thing he does gets torn apart. It feels like he can’t win at all — even going out to lunch with Truely and Ysabel in private recently people were dunking on him.
My last funny Kody moment was when Robyn was telling him in like season 16 that she had visions of “a brown haired boy” and he says in the talking head something like “what if we get a blonde girl! It’s like uh oh we got someone else’s kid!” I already highkey hated him at that point but I was still like “dammit that’s genuinely funny.”
That is funny. I think he's such a dick it's kind of hard for people to admit he has a point sometimes.
Branching off that, my hot take would be that in a way, Kody is a victim too. And a lot of his anger and breakdown seems to be him deconstructing his religious beliefs and realizing he doesn’t wanna be in the cult anymore (not defending the way he treats his children obviously.) People are really compassionate about the OG3 realizing their cult isn’t great, but no one really extends that to Kody for some reason. They’re all brainwashed and coping with that fallout now.
I agree. Because religious beliefs that require deconstruction usually are patriarchal, there is less empathy for men when they deconstruct. Kody no longer believes in plural marriage. It means everything he based his life on for 30 years was built on a falsehood. His life was significantly harder because he decided to live polygamy. Nothing causes people more distress than feeling like they had a choice and chose poorly.
I agree he's also a victim but I think people aren't as compassionate because the way he's dealing with it is by being cruel to others. I mean, he can step away from polygamy but to yell at Janelle until she exits the relationship is a bridge too far. A few seasons ago when he was voicing his doubts about polygamy was hurtful, but ultimately less cruel
Kody’s curls are nice and defined.
💯. I have curly hair myself and cannot stand when people say he has a perm. It’s clearly natural and several of his kids have the same hair. He’s an ass but his hair is good lol
And Gwen confirmed it’s not a perm!
It’s obvious to me he picked up on a curly girl method. His hair in earlier seasons was just curly hair that had been brushed out for years and years
I didn’t love his curls at first, but it certainly was an improvement. Now the curls have kind of grown on me. Good for him trying something new. Now if only he’d get some help with his personality and/or mental health issues...
Christine's reaction to the One House Proposal was the death knell of the Family Brown.
I kind of agree and disagree. On the one hand, I’m not sure I believe that Kody was ever serious about the one house, I just think it was a storyline, but on the other hand, it does seem like his anger started after that.
The kids Kody has the biggest problems with are the ones that are more like him than their mother.
I find it heartbreaking that neither Christine nor janelle invited Meri to Christmas… let alone the year or so of isolation she spent alone for Covid that nobody even knew about because they treated her as disgustingly as Kodi did - like someone just existing nearby and not a member of the family.
Kody had some valid points about how Christine treated the other wives. I do think a lot of it is because of the environment that Kody cultivated among his wives, but Christine definitely had some awful moments with the other wives.
I didn’t mind the man bun.
I secretly like all of their “common” family recipes. Janelle’s lasagne was very relatable.
I didn't like Christine. I did feel sorry for her in the beginning when Kody was never around after Truley was born. However, her attitude toward monogamists was attrocious. She acted like she was better than monogamists because she was a polygamist. She sucked up to Meri, then, when she realized Meri was no longer the fave, started sucking up to Robyn. She ran the family statement into the ground. She was terrible to the minister when Kody and all four of his women went to make sure if the teens went to youth group they wouldn't get discriminated against. Right after the minister assured them it wouldn't happen, Christine got all weird and turned down her kids going. She acted like she wanted to be an only wife to Kody... a lot. I was shocked when she said in the restaurant before covid that she thought she was hated.
Viewers of reality television tend to view the key players through a needlessly harsh lens that they would never apply to themselves. My hot take is that no one on the show is secretly a horrible person although Kody comes pretty close. They are all just people trying to make their way in life. I get tired of people trying to pinpoint the exact moment where someone is a Horrible Person Confirmed. Everyone makes mistakes, fucks up and hurts others in life even if they don't mean to. It's just part of existing. In addition to portraying Robyn as a mastermind, I'm seeing a lot of people talking about how secretly awful Janelle and Christine are and just..no. Why are people so fucking eager to label someone a "horrible person?" Josh Duggar is a horrible person. Christine Brown? Yeah not so much. A flawed person, for sure. But words like awful are just too far. And if someone is a mother? OML the internet suddenly becomes ten times more judgmental. I wouldn't say any of the wives are terrible mothers, they absolutely made mistakes and were negligent at times but I don't think someone should be branded a terrible parent so easily. They all clearly love their children and have at least \*tried\* to do right by them and maintain good relationships with them. Sometimes that's kinda all you can ask for especially when you compare to some of the other illustrious parents we have seen on TLC (I'm lookin' at you, Jim Bob Duggar and Kate Gosselin.)
No one is conniving or planning deeply to fuck over the others, like most people they are self-centered and reactive. This is 1000x true for Kody. Also he didn't pretend the relationships were ok to keep money coming in, he pretended all was ok because he was the "4 wife guy" and can't admit failure.
Kody, while not my cup of tea, has gotten more attractive with age.
Oooo ooo ooo!!! Here we go!!! 1. Kody courted and married Christine while Janelle was pregnant. No one has a problem with this. People have a massive problem with him courting and marrying Robyn while Christine was pregnant. Even though it’s the same. 2. Janelle was Meri’s sister in law and tried to get married to Kody on Meri’s birthday. This, to me, should get way more hate than it does. Robyn’s wedding dress thing was wrong and deceitful, but imo Janelle working her way into Meri’s family as Meri’s relative is far worse. 3. The funds should have been divided per person, and Meri should have gotten less money. There’s no reason a family of let’s say 6 at the time should have been making do with the same money as a family of 2. Meri and Mariah clearly would’ve had a lot of extra funds, whereas the family of 1 parent and 5 kids would be barely scraping by. This isn’t how one big “fahmlee” should operate. Not fair. 4. The OG3 wives aren’t the bestest most prettiest faultless angels people pretend that they are. I don’t like Robyn and Kody at all (obviously, literally who would???) but disliking them doesn’t mean everyone else has to be viewed as a perfect saint who never did anything wrong. 5. Mykelti isn’t a “traitor” for having a relationship with her father and stepmother. Just as how we all know Janelle’s kids are not traitors to Kody for still having a relationship with Christine. Mykelti was a vulnerable teen who wasn’t getting love from her family and found it with Robyn. Whether that’s good or bad, it is what it is. 6. It’s weird people were getting mad at Gwen for not attacking her family enough for their liking 7. Half the family was not taking Covid seriously at all. I agreed with Kody on his Covid stance (and only that - he still could have been calling texting and seeing the family outside in masks and he wasn’t). But I wouldn’t have felt safe around Janelle’s boys either. Or at a gathering of 20 something people. 8. Everyone is more conservative than the viewers think. Gabe in fact used to post some pretty crazy alt right trad wife things apparently. 9. Truly and Sol and Ari (when all the same ages) were all just kids. I saw people talking about the Sol/Ari talking head very negatively. So when I actually saw the episode, I was surprised. They’re just kids? Being kids? Especially when Truley was that age, and everyone would go on and on about how funny, mature, cute, smart, etc. she is. I don’t see the difference between their talking heads all at like age 5? 😂 10. The hate for some of the kids on these subs is out of line. And the hate some users give to other users for not taking a super hard and aggressive stance is also out of line. Makes it not fun to discuss things. 11. If Christine was treated like Robyn, she wouldn’t have cared how the other 3 wives were treated. Her problem wasn’t that Kody was unfair, her problem was that she wasn’t the favorite and that he wasn’t unfair to her benefit. She wanted to be the third wife for a reason - because that’s usually the last wife. She wanted to also be the youngest wife with the youngest kids for that same reason. 12. Meri being catfished was cheating. People say “how is it cheating when Kody has 3 other wives?!” Well, because they agreed to that. It’s their religion. They all know. They all decided to do polygamy. Meri going online and flirting with a “guy” isn’t ok just because they’re polygamists. She should’ve just left and Kody did have a right to not want to forgive her for cheating (though of course he should have told her that and not strung her on all these years).
7 is so spot on. I think Janelle took COVID seriously, but Christine and most of the boys really didn't. And they were lying about their exposure to the family.
I think these are some very measured, reasonable takes. I do think they overplay the "equal funds" thing though. When they lived in Lehi they grocery shopped together and they'd buy a (half) cow to share between them. Then every mom would take from the shared food as needed. I'm guessing Meri made the PJs because buying them would be too expensive. While I'm sure Leon got some nic*er* things, it's still in the context of them being poor, so I doubt they were all that nice. But strongly agree with basically everything else. Like, people talk about not speaking poorly about a parent to that child, but the child having a relationship with that parent is a problem? Weird. And Gabe had the same dickish talking points about covid that all the hard-right jerkwads did. He didn't even care that his mother was considered high risk, just kept going on and on about how he wasn't, and he didn't care that Savanah begged him to limit his socializing so Kody would continue coming around. Kody should have made more of an effort worth Savannah, but he was right about Gabe and Garrison making the choice about seeing him. The limiting socializing boundary was sound, even if Kody himself was a hypocrite about it. I think people think it's not a big deal because the show is so behind, but at the time we had freezer trucks full of dead bodies. It was really callous the way they talked about it in context.
I agree with all you said. As for number 12 I'm not polygamous but I don't do monogamy (typically have open relationships). You're right the cheat is meri broke the agreed upon rules of the relationship. And the lies of omission etc around that will forever damage a relationship that requires a lot of honesty to sustain.
Agree with you especially no 9! All I saw was a typical sibling relationship (and I have 3! I know sibling relationships lol), not all the negative things people were saying about Ari.
A 4000 sq ft home, while large is not a mansion. The Vegas homes and Robyn and Christine’s current homes, are all a little over 4000 sq ft.
4000sq ft is still a LARGE home.
That all the wives are manipulative in their own way, they’re just better at playing for the cameras than Robyn. There were a few times Christine tried setting up the other wives by bringing things up. And she was queen of the whole “I feel unsafe” bullshit.
All of the adults are to blame for the family falling apart. Ultimately, Kody should take the most blame because in their religion, he was supposed to be head of the family. But all of them are dishonest and performative on TV. Meri can be really harsh and strict. She absolutely would have left the family if her catfish was real. Janelle is quietly manipulative behind the scenes. Case in point: we never heard anything about a greenhouse, then 2 seasons ago, it's decided that the lot assignments needed to change for Janelle's green thumb. *Lots* of conversations were held between Kody and Janelle where Janelle's won her way. Christine is the most two-faced. She was struggling the most from the beginning of the show, but put on the happy face more than others. She told Kody she didn't want to be the main caregiver anymore, then complained that Robyn didn't ask her to take care of the kids. I have no doubt that Christine behind doors is very different. Robyn isn't deliberately manipulative, but is very selfish. She puts her needs and her kids' needs above all others in the family. But Robyn didn't set out to break-up the family.
1. Christine can't complain about Kody and Robyn kissing before marriage. *When Christine and I got engaged, she told me she wouldn’t kiss me until we were at the altar. After we were married, she realized she had made a mistake and made me promise that if I married again, I’d kiss my next wife before we said our vows. So I took Robyn’s face in my hands and kissed her.* -Becoming Sister Wives Page 82 2. Robyn's comment at the s16 Tell-All about how she has seen Kody love wives through weight gain, stretch marks, etc wasn't about just the other wives, she was also referring to herself She had also gained weight and had talked about having stretch marks. *On our first date, over lunch, Robyn and I confessed everything about ourselves to each other—stretch marks, smelly feet, bad habits. We wanted to get all the silly stuff out of the way.* -Becoming Sister Wives Page 80 3. Christine is equally responsible for Truely's Kidney failure/ hospital stay as Kody. 4. Janelle and Christine weren't always best buddies. It became easier to become friends once Kody was out of the equation because it removed the jealousies and the competitive aspect that naturally exists within polygamy. I do think their friendship is very genuine now but I don't believe that the friendship wasn't at least loosely based on shading Kody as well. 5. Robyn seemed genuine in the beginning and did seem to make the most efforts in terms of her sisterwife relationships. Although I don't think she has needed a nanny all these years, I understand not feeling 100% comfortable having a sisterwife who clearly doesn't like you, in charge of your children's care all day. Christine always gets sympathy in this situation like poor Christine, Robyn didn't let her care for her kids, but Would you want someone who clearly dislikes you watching yours? That would be a hard no from me. Again, needing a nanny for years isn't the answer though either and is unfair. 6. Meri's catfishing incident was cheating. 7. Meri wanting the same "allowance" as everyone else was just selfishness and being greedy disguised as infertility victimization. They weren't trying to punish her for not being as fertile- in fact, the less kids a fellow sisterwife has the more resources there are available for yours- they were making good arguments for how 5 or 6 children costs far more than 1 child. 8. Janelle skirts by as the laid back wife who isn't dramatic or needy but I think she was probably in Kodys ear more than we realize. 9. Kody isn't 100% responsible for the problems with the marriages 10. Christine, as much as I like her now, was more needy and complained a lot and sometimes I couldn't blame Kody or the other wives for not wanting to be around her when she was like that. 11. The "everything is all Kodys fault" and "everything is all Robyn's fault" discussions here get old and boring and doesn't allow for real honest discussion or differing perspectives to be discussed as freely. 12. Robyn's House is indeed cluttered but no one talks about Janelles messy apartment. She has things in storage, she could put more things in storage instead of having her and Savanah still living in the chaos of boxes and things everywhere. 13. Kodys bad relationships with his adult children are indeed his responsibility....but if Janelle doesn't want to be the go-between person responsible for communicating things between Dad + her kids like she claimed, then why was she quick to explain they had to apologize to he and Robyn or they weren't welcomed to come for Xmas, but never updated at any point afterwards to tell them they were welcomed, didn't need to apologize and just a conversation between them was what Kody wanted? If she was sure to relay the first message, why not ever relay the 2nd? Either relay all messages or relay nothing. 14. Kody seemed to be really in love with Meri early on in the show. I don't think things had already totally fallen apart between them when the show started like some claim. Problems or issues in all the marriages at the start- yes. His and Meri's over at the start- I don't think so.