Not Meant to Be! Everything ‘Sister Wives’ Stars Meri Brown and Kody Brown Have Said About Their Split

Meri’s Gift

During Sister Wives: One on One, Kody explained he considered giving his marriage to Meri another try when she gifted him Rice Krispies Treats.

“She put a bag full of them, one for every year of our marriage,” Kody explained of the “really cool” present. “She even included the bad years, the ones where I was like we’re basically not really married and the expression was sweet and the mood that I was in was the right mood to try and think about reconciliation.”

He added that he was “no longer angry with her for what I had gone through” amid their marital problems. “I was willing to see the error of my ways and then work to determine whether we were good with each other anymore,” Kody said.

Christine’s Involvement

While discussing their split during the Sister Wives: One on One special, Kody suggested that Christine stopped him from reconciling with Meri.

“Some of the games that were happening, were things like when we moved to Flagstaff, Arizona, I was trying to reconcile with Meri,” he told Sukanya. “Meri gave me this really cool birthday present, and I’m in this place, telling Janelle, Christine and Robyn that I might reconcile with Meri. And Christine lost her s—t that day.”

He then claimed that Christine came to “a family party and leaves yelling to one of the kids that she was in a loveless marriage,” noting that the incident allegedly happened “two years before she kick[ed] [him] out.”

After the host asked Kody why he thinks Christine behaved that way, he responded, “I was trying to reconcile with Meri. There’s something wrong in the relationship between Meri and Christine.”

However, Christine argued she wasn’t “offended” by Kody and Meri’s relationship, which she called “broken.”

‘Simple’ Decision

Despite considering getting back together with Meri, Kody said a reconciliation ultimately never would have worked out. “The relationships aren’t good. It’s that simple,” he said during the Sister Wives: One on One special.

Finding Strength

The mother of one made her return to social media on December 19 to share a selfie, as well as an inspirational caption.

“If you don’t want to make waves, keep on being mediocre. Do the thing that everyone else is doing. Seek everyone else’s opinion and validation. Do what everyone else thinks you should do,” Meri wrote. “Or … Do your thing. Do your thing in your own time and on your own terms. Let them judge you. Let them talk about you. Let them create their own ‘stories’ about you.”

She concluded the message by telling her followers, “Find your courage. Find your strength. Know who YOU are and don’t let them tell you any different. Worthy Up, Sister!”
The mother of one made her return to social media on December 19 to share a selfie, as well as an inspirational caption.

“If you don’t want to make waves, keep on being mediocre. Do the thing that everyone else is doing. Seek everyone else’s opinion and validation. Do what everyone else thinks you should do,” Meri wrote. “Or … Do your thing. Do your thing in your own time and on your own terms. Let them judge you. Let them talk about you. Let them create their own ‘stories’ about you.”

She concluded the message by telling her followers, “Find your courage. Find your strength. Know who YOU are and don’t let them tell you any different. Worthy Up, Sister!”

Meri’s Truth

Meri seemingly addressed her split from Kody while sharing a cryptic quote via her Instagram Stories on December 20. “Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact,” the quote read. “Everything we see if a perspective, not the truth.”

Meri Seemingly Breaks Her Silence

Meri seemingly broke her silence regarding her split from Kody while reflecting on 2022 in an Instagram post on December 31.

“Just taking a moment today to say thank you to 2022,” she wrote alongside a selfie. “A year of challenges and personal growth, a year of confusion and then clarity. A year of clearing out the old to make room for the new. A year of finding myself again and knowing who has my back. A year of travel, new friends, new businesses, epic adventures, fabulous memories, and divine interventions. A year so full of realizations and forward movement and setting the stage for the most amazing 2023. I’m here for it all. Thank you 2022, here I come 2023!”

Kody Calls Marriage a ‘Storm’

Kody admitted his marriage to Meri had been “hard” from “the very beginning” during part 2 of Sister Wives: One on One on January 1.

“Janelle was a blessing of dilution,” he explained of how marrying his second wife changed his dynamic with Meri. “It diluted this relationship I had with Meri — and also, we are bringing more people into a problem.”

Kody added that his relationship with Meri became worse when Janelle moved into her house. “I’m in an established relationship with somebody that I don’t even get along with and then I bring somebody else in and then now it’s triangulating,” he said. “And then we bring Christine in and that seemed to calm it because we started having children and we seemed to have this more unified focus even though the strain was perpetual.”

“This was happening from the day or the week or the month or whenever, after me and Meri had our honeymoon period,” the patriarch continued. “We were in the storm.”

‘Not For Everyone’

Meri seemingly spoke about her split from Kody while sharing a cryptic post via her Instagram Stories on January 3.

“I am not for everyone,” the quote began. “I know my truth, I know who I am, I know what I do and do not bring to the table. I’m not easy to deal with but I do bring tons of value.”

After noting that she brings “love and strength” to situations, the post concluded, “But I am not perfect, and if I don’t fit in with a person or group that is okay with me.”

Breaking Their Silence

Meri and Kody broke their silence regarding the split by posting a joint statement via their Instagram accounts on January 10.

“In light of a recent unapproved press release, we feel compelled to share our own truth, in our own way and in our own timing,” the statement began. “After more than a decade of working on our relationship in our own unique ways, we have made the decision to permanently terminate our marriage relationship.”

The pair ​said that they’re “committed to kindness and respect toward each other and to all the members of our family.”

“We are also committed to the continued healing of any and all relationships within the family so that we can move forward with forgiveness, grace and love,” Meri and Kody concluded.

Keeping High Standards

Meri seemingly threw shade at her ex by sharing a cryptic quote via her Instagram Stories on May 16. “Never apologize for having high standards,” the quote read. “People who really want to be in your life will rise up to meet them.”

Ignoring Outside Noise

Meri gave an update about one struggle she’s faced amid her newly single life in a TikTok video shared on June 4.

The clip began with the reality star sharing a quote from motivational speaker Mel Robbins, which states, “There will always be someone who can’t see your worth. Don’t let it be you.”

“I think so many times we let the voices of everybody else but ourselves get in our head and influence what we think and how we feel,” Meri told her followers. “I think it’s really easy to let social media comments or just other people’s opinions affect your mood [and] affect your productivity.”

After she admitted she has “not mastered” ignoring the judgemental opinions of others, Meri said she doesn’t have “a magic formula and outside voices still get in my head.”

She then shared that she deals with the judgements of others by allowing herself to fully feel her emotions and by spending time outdoors.

“There is way too much judgment from others,” Meri concluded in the clip. “We don’t need it from ourselves. Worthy up friends. We got this.”

Opening Up

The Sister Wives star took to her Instagram in June 2023 to discuss a lesson in her life that “keeps presenting” itself.

“Why couldn’t this have happened sooner? Why couldn’t this have just happened on my own timeline if at all?” she told her followers. “While I’m not necessarily a believer of everything happens for a reason, but I am a firm believer of when it happens, you can create purpose to it and really life is what you make of it.” 

She went on to talk about her divorce, which she says has garnered “a lot of commentary and a lot of judgment.”  

“I have plenty of questions on my own surrounding the whole topic about when and how and why,” she told her followers. However, she detailed a recent epiphany about the topic.

“Right now, I am my very best self and I know that my timing was perfect,” the mom of one continued. “That’s all that matters. So what I’m saying is, if you’re kind of stuck right now and you’re trying to figure out why things are happening, the way that they’re are happening — just hold on because even if you can’t see it right now, when you look back on it. It’s all gonna make sense.”

Trusting Herself

Taking to TikTok in June 2023, Meri revealed that it’s taken a bit of time for her to trust her own instincts, telling fans that she’s still learning to rely on her intuition since splitting with Kody.

“I am thinking a little bit about trust. You’ve heard that quote, right? Trust is transparency and consistency over time. And that’s well and good when you are thinking about the trust that you are trying to build with others or that you want others to build with you,” she said. “But what about the trust that you have for yourself? I think all too often, we don’t trust ourselves as much as we should.”

She carried on discussing the importance of following one’s own instincts before placing trust in another, before concluding, “Be consistent with yourself and transparent with yourself. Because that trusting and honest relationship that you have with yourself is really the most important.”