Sister Wives’ Kody Brown Was ‘Willing to Fake Being in Love’ With Meri Brown Before Split

Sister Wives stars Kody Brown and Meri Brown were not on the same page when it came to the end of their marriage.

In a teaser clip for the Sunday, November 19, episode shared by Us Weekly, Kody, 54, said he was “willing to fake being in love with Meri” and continue doing his “duties as a husband.” He elaborated, “Sort of putting up with things that frustrate me so deeply that I struggle to be around her. If I need to for the sake of, whatever, I don’t know. I can fake through this.”

“I don’t want to. But if you’re going to insist, then I will,” Kody said in a confessional, alluding to the idea that Meri, 52, wanted to keep working on their relationship. However, he revealed that Meri said she didn’t want him to fake having feelings for her.

Meri weighed in on the situation in her own confessional, stating that she believed Kody checked out of their relationship years earlier. “Why is he saying he’s willing to keep acting when he clearly hasn’t been for eight or 10 years?” the TLC personality said during the episode, which was filmed in fall 2022. “Also, I wouldn’t want him to do that. I’ve wanted to heal our relationship and even create a new relationship, but I’ve never insisted on it.”

As the clip continued, fans watched Kody and Meri sit down with Robyn Brown to discuss the end of their plural marriage. Robyn, 45, argued that Kody had to “consider” himself married to Meri, though the Brown patriarch insisted he didn’t feel that way.

“This is the agreement you required of me in order to get married,” Kody told Robyn while discussing the end of his romantic relationship with Meri. “This agreement that I gave you, our sacred covenant, was if I’m ever not in love with you, I won’t just sit there and be in a pathetic place with you.”

Robyn – who has been open about her desires to have a plural family – broke down in tears as she realized that she was Kody’s last remaining wife.

“It’s not fair to either of us. It’s not fair for me to be alone like I have been for years. It’s not fair for him to feel like he has to do a duty,” Meri told Robyn, adding that “it’s not what I want.”

Kody and Meri legally tied the knot in 1990. They divorced in 2014 so that the businessman could marry Robyn and adopt her kids from a previous relationship, though Kody and Meri remained spiritually married.

The Lizzie’s Heritage Inn owner implied that she and Kody split during a December 2022 episode of Sister Wives: One on One, while the former couple officially confirmed their separation when they released a joint statement in January.

Before Kody and Meri called it quits, Christine Brown announced her split from the father of 18 in November 2021 and In Touch exclusively revealed Janelle Brown left him in December 2022.