Sister Wives celeb Christine Brown has proven that feminism and Mormon polygamy don't have to be mutually exclusive, while appearing on the hit reality series, which first aired in 2010. The show initially chronicled the polygamist household of husband Kody Brown and wives Meri, Janelle, Christine, and Robyn Brown, until Christine left Kody. While all four women have had their altercations with Kody, former third wife Christine really shocked fans when she asked her spiritual husband for a separation. She has stated that she was unhappy for a long time. Now, she thinks it's the perfect time to find her own way, considering that most of her children are already residing outside the family home, except for 12-year-old, Truely Brown.
When Sister Wives first aired, third wife Christine was pregnant and beaming, while expecting her last child, Truely, but things soon changed for the worse. The Brown family was chased away from their home in Utah, due to fear of prosecution. The family moved from one large home in Utah, to Las Vegas, and finally, to four residences in Flagstaff, Arizona. Kody struggled to balance splitting his time between the residences, and the 2019 COVID pandemic only exacerbated the family's difficulties. The patriarch isolated himself in Robyn’s residence for most of the pandemic, earning the resentment of his remaining three wives. Kody and Robyn said that their housing situation was practical, as Robyn was the sole spouse willing to wholeheartedly abide by Kody’s extreme COVID regulations. Remaining wives and their children, however, felt that Kody’s choices were a transparent excuse for favoring Robyn. Now, Christine is free, and she's a living symbol of feminism, as shown in a recent Instagram post, which featured pics from a road trip with her daughter, Ysabel Brown.
Christine Brown definitely won the hearts of feminists when she first began exposing Kody’s questionable actions, and calling out his reasoning for what many viewers thought it was: a bunch of excuses. All wives, including Christine, questioned the practicality of Kody’s COVID rules, and realized how difficult it would be to implement them in households with multiple individuals. He wanted everyone to wipe down their mail, and remain socially distant with relatives from the other family homes. He also ordered Sister Wives moms not to visit children living outside the homes. All wives concurred that his regulations were absurd, but only Christine was willing to make changes due to her husband’s actions. She let Kody know that she was reaching her breaking point, and that wasn’t just a figure of speech.
Christine & Janelle Are Good Friends After The Divorce
Things really reached critical mass when Kody and Christine’s daughter Ysabel Brown needed to undergo an emergency surgical procedure for her scoliosis. In Sept 2020, Ysabel was wheeled into the operating room, without her father there to support her. Kody claimed that he was opting to be absent due to his COVID rules and restrictions. "I'm not traveling with Christine and Ysabel on the way to surgery, I'm not going to surgery, I think it's very risky," Kody confessed to producers. He added, "I also feel like a total hypocrite if I'm not keeping the rules that I'm asking — begging, literally begging — everybody to keep." Kody probably viewed himself as having integrity, but his decision surely seemed like abandonment to Ysabel, as well as Christine.
Kody’s decision to not attend Ysabel’s surgery might not have been the deciding factor that made Christine leave Kody, but it was a moment of enlightenment for her. "In the end, I would've preferred to have him there, of course, because it's what Ysabel needed,” she said on the show, adding, “But I didn't need him anymore." The distinction between what her children needed, and what she needed, was a defining moment in Christine’s emancipation from Kody. She was able to separate the notions of having Kody in her life, and having him in her childrens' lives. The maturity needed to accept having a former husband of 25 years in your life for the sake of your children, while at the same time being cordially detached from said husband, is what endears Christine to feminists.
Christine & Ysabel Attend a Salt Lake City Bees Baseball Game
Sister Wives is controversial, due to the misconception that polygamist wives are subservient to their husbands. Christine shatters this premise with her independent spirit in the show's recent seasons. Watching her explain her separation terms to Kody speaks volumes: Christine is calm, composed, and above all, content. Far from the broken divorcee that fans might expect, Christine Brown is strong, radiant, and confident. By bravely uprooting her life at age 50, and doing so without harboring any animosity towards Kody, Christine has become the show's feminist icon.