People have been waiting for first wife Meri to leave Kody Brown since season one of Sister Wives. Kody doesn’t strike most viewers as a decent husband for one wife, let alone four. For quite some time, Meri has seemed like the most likely candidate to reach her breaking point first. There are many hints that she might be reaching the end of her rope and may finally break free from her unhappy relationship.
Quarantine left the Brown family even more separated than they were before. They already lived in different houses in different parts of Flagstaff, Arizona while they waited for Kody to begin work developing their property into the family homestead he promised them. As audiences watched the family continue to fall apart while Kody remains clueless as to what to do, fans can’t help but judge Kody and his wives. The Browns may have agreed to do the show to sell people on polygamy, but they have instead become exhibit A of why it doesn’t work.
Meri has been living apart from Kody with almost no contact for some time now. On Meri and Kody’s 30th wedding anniversary, Meri attempted to bridge the gap, but Kody seemed determined to burn all his bridges. He plainly told Meri, “I’m not motivated by what we had to sit here and talk about saving [our relationship].” With Kody repeatedly stating he no longer wants to work on their relationship, including while they were in couple’s counseling, Meri is not likely to continue hitting her head against the wall knowing Kody isn’t going to try. Twice during their anniversary, Meri talked about wanting to kiss Kody, but she never made a move, and he certainly wasn’t going to. If Meri can’t even manage to kiss her husband on their anniversary, it seems all the spark of their relationship is truly gone. Neither of them said anything about the other in their social media posts on their anniversary, either.
During lockdown, Meri posted about how much she missed “her peeps” and included pictures with all the people she missed. Kody was noticeably absent from any of them. She also said on an episode of the show that, during quarantine, no one visited her and if she got sick, she’d be completely on her own. With such distance from her family, leaving Kody won’t be a big change for her. She already supports herself financially without any visible help from Kody. Moving forward with her bed and breakfast without financial help from the family may have been, in part, a way for her to set up a future for herself independent of the family. Now that her mother has passed away and her daughter is grown, Meri only needs to be able to support herself.
Meri’s catfishing scandal proved she was looking for someone to have a genuine connection with, as she no longer has that with her husband. Fans have thought many times that Meri was finally ready to leave Kody, but she never has. Her social media account bios no longer say anything about being a wife or a plural wife, but focus on other parts of her life. Meri has come to the point where she has nothing left to keep her in her marriage: not love, not support, and not even a legally binding marriage. All she has left is a contract with Sister Wives.
Source: Instagram/Meri Brown