TLC (1) Courtesy of Janelle Brown/Instagram (2); Courtesy of Janelle Brown/Instagram (3)
Sister Wives’ Janelle Brown Says She’s ‘Worried’ About Her Sons’ Mental Health Amid Kody Drama
Sister Wives star Janelle Brown admitted she’s concerned about her sons Gabe Brown and Garrison Brown’s mental health amid their estrangement from Kody Brown.
“Me and Garrison are at odds with my dad, because when we expressed our discontent at how things were going with COVID, I was met with just a wall,” Gabe, 21, explained during the Sunday, October 8, episode. “And there was no line of dialogue. I think that that is what really drove the wedge between us.”
Janelle, 54, later reflected on the fallout during her own confessional. “I have worried about my boys’ mental health,” she said. “Gabriel feels everything very, very deeply. But he’s also the kid who doesn’t say anything.”
She added that Garrison, 24, “just seems angry or sadder, like, he’s not as happy-go-lucky as he used to be.”
Christine Brown, who announced her split from Kody, 54, in November 2021, weighed in on her ex’s dynamic with Janelle’s kids in her own confessional.
“My kids are more used to Kody not being in their life. He just wasn’t around as much,” Christine, 51, began. “But he has been around Janelle’s kids. For them, this is just a lot more devastating than it has been for my kids.”
In addition to Gabe and Garrison, Janelle and Kody also share kids Logan, Maddie, Hunter and Savanah.
The mother of six voiced her concerns four days after Kody admitted he felt “powerless” when it comes to his relationships with his older children.
“Your relationship with your 10-year-old or your five-year-old or your babies is very different than the relationship you have with a 15-year-old, a 20-year-old, and a 25 and a 30-year-old. It’s very different,” the Brown patriarch told People in an interview published on October 4. “I didn’t have any power in my household to say, ‘These are the rules.’”
Kody then admitted that his bonds with his older children first began to “unravel” when they were unable to work through their past issues, including his strict rules amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
“There were a lot of things … very difficult issues that we had to deal with. There were no good answers at the time,” he explained about the pandemic. “I don’t know what happened. All that’s left now is moving forward. Moving forward and hopefully healing these relationships. It is really a story now, moving forward. This is a story about forgiveness. Forgiveness and finding hope and joy after relationships have been severed from the way that’s the norm.”
Kody’s conflict with their children was a major source of tension between him and Janelle leading up to their split in December 2022. Fans even watched the duo have an explosive fight about their older sons during a season 18 episode.
At the time, Kody slammed Janelle for her “lack of loyalty” and criticized her for not helping him communicate with their sons and following family rules.
“It still surprises me that Kody feels like it’s my responsibility to facilitate this relationship between he and my children,” the TLC personality said during the September 3 episode. “He’s a parent as much as I am.”
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