Divorce is tricky in any circumstance. In the case of the reality television show Sister Wives, there are a whole slew of additional complexities, such as faith, beliefs, and plural marriage.
The show’s current season is telling the story of Kody and Christine Brown’s divorce. The couple had been spiritually married for 26 years but not legally married in the eyes of the government. The most recent episode that aired on Sunday, November 6, shows there is a disagreement among the wives on when this divorce is final.
Robyn Brown believes that the marriage should be dissolved by the church. She stated on the episode: "Usually our church would [be the one to] say you're divorced. You have to go ask for a divorce. You have to get paperwork, you have to get approval. You have to prove that the marriage is broken."
Robyn publicly acknowledges this is tricky since Christine is no longer a member of the Apostolic United Brethren, the fundamentalist Mormon church Kody and the other wives belong to. "This is a little different, I guess, because you don't consider yourself to be part of that church anymore," she states in a joint interview with Christine present. Privately, she is a bit more pointed.
In her confessional-style interview Robyn states: "Christine just saying she's divorced is sort of invalidating our beliefs. We are spiritually married to Kody by our church. If we want a divorce then we have to go get their approval.”
“Usually they require counseling, lots and lots of meetings and technically, from my understanding, until Christine is physical with another man she's not divorced. But I don't know," Robyn goes on to say. Christine has a much different take on the situation.
Christine believes her marriage was over when she said it was. "Since I don't have any legal contract that binds me with Kody, there was no legal process that we've had to go through,” she stated. She doesn't feel like she has to do anything with the fundamentalist Mormon AUB.
Christine and Kody’s divorce also impacts the larger family unit. Besides Christine, Kody Brown is married to three other women, Robyn, Meri, and Janelle. He is legally married to Robyn but only spiritually married to the other women. He shares 18 children with his four wives.
Christine and Kody share six children: Truely, age 12, Paedon, age 24, Aspyn, age 27, Mykelti, age 26, Gwendlyn, age 20, and Ysabel, age 19. After announcing her divorce, Christine moved to Salt Lake City, Utah, with daughter Truely. It was not easy for Christine to make the decision to divorce and begin again, but she believes it was the right one.
Christine spoke about her decision in a confessional on the episode. "I was 21 when I got married. I'm 49. I'm starting over again. All I know is that I'm moving forward and I'm moving to something better. I do know I'm moving towards something better. And that's enough most of the time."
"I know without a doubt I have tried for years to make this work. I have a clear conscience knowing that I gave it my best. If people want to look at me and think otherwise, OK — I can't do anything about that,” Christine went on to say.
“Being a mom is my most important thing, but I couldn't with a clear conscience stay married to someone who had favorites and made it very known and someone who is breaking my kids' hearts. I need to stand with my them instead, and I wanted to do it for them," Christine concluded.
