Sister Wives star Kody Brown was surprised that his ex-wife Meri Brown changed her habits after their legal divorce, including how she stopped changing her clothes in front of him.

“Meri’s attitude changed, where I didn’t feel like mine did,” Kody, 55, said during a Sister Wives clip shared by TLC on January 4. “What she started doing was when I would go into the house, and normally you might see your wife dressing, she would cover herself up and hide.”

Meri, 53, was visibly baffled at Kody’s reasoning. While the two were still “spiritually” married, the mom of one didn’t feel like they were in a romantic relationship.

“If you and I are not having a husband/wife relationship and you walk in the room, why would I expose myself to you?” Meri told the cameras during a confessional. “Of course I’m going to guard myself.”

Fans flooded the comments siding with Meri.

“She felt unmarried! He wasn’t romantic with her for at least 10 years! What does he expect? He led her on and made stipulations that she met and still he led her on. She said he did want them on the show even! Blah on him!” wrote one Instagram user.

Another added, “Why did he even care? He didn’t love her and they were not in a sexual relationship. He has no right to see anything. He didn’t even want to go on dates with her.”

Kody and Meri tied the knot in 1990, but in 2014, he wanted to legally marry his fourth wife, Robyn Brown. In order to do that, Kody needed to legally divorce Meri, but the two stayed “spiritually” married. However, in January 2023, the former couple confirmed what many fans already suspected and released a statement about their split.

“In light of a recent unapproved press release, we feel compelled to share our own truth, in our own way and in our own timing,” Kody and Meri wrote in a joint statement via Instagram on January 10, 2023. “After more than a decade of working on our relationship in our own unique ways, we have made the decision to permanently terminate our marriage relationship.”

The statement continued, “During this process, we are committed to kindness and respect toward each other and to all the members of our family, and we are also committed to the continued healing of any and all relationships within the family so that we can move forward with forgiveness, grace and love.”

In a previous episode of Sister Wives season 19, fans saw Kody discover that Meri had gone to a church leader to ask to be released from their “spiritual” marriage.

“About 8 weeks ago, Meri told me she was going to go to Utah to meet with our church leaders, and basically request a divorce. It’s called a release in our church,” Kody said in a one-on-one interview during the September 22, 2024, episode. “The damage was done so badly that we’re not going to reconcile no matter what. So, however we’re made accountable to God, I don’t want to be held accountable to the church and all their BS.”

He concluded, “So,I’m going to let Meri go and do her thing because if I’m angry at her, it becomes a fight and I need her just to go away because it took forever for her to finally realize it’s been done and over for years.”