Sister Wives premiered in 2010 and followed the life of the already-established polygamist family, led by Kody Brown, as they navigated the ups and downs of adding a wife to the mix. More than a decade later, Kody Brown has separated from three of his four wives and is mostly estranged from many of his 18 children. Since its premiere, viewers have questioned Kody Brown’s decision-making ability and the family’s capacity to operate as a plural household. Could the family’s struggle with polygamy all boil down to a lack of experience? Kody Brown wasn’t actually raised in a polygamist household, despite his father being a polygamist later in life.

Kody Brown was raised attending the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

While the Brown family patriarch has spent the last three decades as a polygamist. Before Sister Wives Kody Brown and his wives lived in Lehi, Utah, where a large concentration of polygamists reside. Things seemingly unraveled when the family opted to add a fourth wife and move to Las Vegas, Nevada. Now, Kody has reverted to monogamy, which is how he was raised. 

Kody was raised in a traditional household. His parents, Winn and Genielle Brown, were devout members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints during Kody’s childhood. He, too, was a member of the faith, largely ignoring the concept of plural marriage until adulthood. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints condemns the practice and excommunicates members who live as a plural family. 

Winn Brown became a polygamist when Kody Brown was already an adult

While Kody Brown’s parents were, in fact, polygamists, they didn’t move in that direction until the 1980s. Kody was already an adult who had moved out of the family home by that point. In the family’s memoir Becoming Sister Wives, Kody Brown recalled leaving for a mission trip when he was 19. The trip lasted two years. Winn Brown took a second wife while Kody was away with the church. 

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In the memoir, Kody claims that plural marriage was something he had thought about before his parents’ conversion to a fundamentalist sect of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. In fact, his mother was the one who got him thinking about the principle in the first place. He explained that she sat him down to discuss the celestial kingdom and plural marriage when he was still a young teen. Still, he said, he wasn’t 100% sold on the idea. Upon his return from his mission, he opted to join a church that practiced plural marriage. It is where he met Meri Brown. Meri, unlike Kody, had been raised in polygamy. 

Janelle Brown didn’t become a polygamist until later, too

Janelle Brown and Kody Brown might be estranged now, but it is easy to see why the duo might have been drawn to each other. Both Janelle and Kody were introduced to polygamy later in their lives. Just like Kody, Janelle was raised in a religious family, but her beliefs were more mainstream. While her father died when she was young, Janelle’s mother was married and monogamous twice before she decided to try polygamy. 

Janelle’s mother, Sheryl Brown, married Kody Brown’s father, Winn Brown, and became his third wife shortly before Janelle and Kody hooked up. Winn Brown died in 2013. Sheryl Brown died in 2020. Kody and Janelle have since separated, although Janelle has not yet called herself divorced. She has toyed with the idea of moving back to Utah and plugging back into the local polygamist community.