Trigger Warning: This story contains mentions of suicide.
On Sunday’s episode of Sister Wives, Maddie Brown and her husband Caleb Brush revealed to viewers that they had been trying to get Maddie’s brother Garrison Brown to relocate to North Carolina before he died by suicide in March 2024.
Years earlier, Maddie and Caleb relocated across the country with their children to North Carolina and less than a year before Garrison’s death, Janelle relocated from Flagstaff, Arizona, to North Carolina herself.
As members of the Brown family discussed on Sunday’s episode the events leading up to and immediately following Garrison’s death, Maddie and Caleb shared with viewers that they had been trying to get Garrison to join them in North Carolina, with Maddie claiming it was something she and her younger brother “talked a lot about.”
“We almost had him here, too,” Caleb said of his late brother-in-law. “He was almost coming.”
“I think he was just so deep in … ,” Maddie added.
As the episode continued, some of the family recalled the way in which they learned that Garrison had passed away. While Kody and Janelle’s son Gabriel was the person who discovered that Garrison had taken his life, it was revealed on Sunday that Janelle was the one who broke the news to Maddie, who in turn, informed the rest of her siblings of what happened.
“There’s a few moments in your life that I feel, like, alter your brain chemistry and I definitely feel like calling siblings [and telling them] that a sibling has died definitely alters your brain chemistry,” Maddie said.
It was also revealed on the episode that, in addition to Maddie and Caleb, other members of the Brown family reached out to Garrison amid his struggles, including Janelle, who became emotional while recounting the last years of her son’s life.
“I don’t know what happened,” Janelle said. “He was never a drinking kid, he didn’t like the taste of it. And he started to drink during COVID and something happened in this last year and it really just got him.”
Janelle went on to reveal that while she and other members of the family had offered Garrison “all the love, all the support, all the help, all the resources,” she still didn’t know what happened the night Garrison took his life. She did, however, note that Garrison “really struggled with alcohol” and that she knew he had been drinking the day he died.
“ … he’s had other nights like this where he would drink and then pass out and he would go kind of radio silent, but he’d be back in the morning,” she said. “I don’t know. I don’t know what happened this time.”
Janelle claimed that she knew Garrison had been “struggling” and because of that, she always made a point to pick up the phone “to just talk to him.”
“It wasn’t really about anything … I think he needed the connection,” she said. “And I know he was calling his brothers and stuff, too.”
Janelle then revealed that she and Garrison had been texting each other the day that Garrison died, but at some point that day, Garrison stopped responding to her texts, prompting her to reach out to sons Logan and Hunter to see if Garrison would respond to them.
“They said, ‘Mom, we’re on it. We’ll just kind of check on him and make sure he’s OK,’ so I went to sleep,” she recalled. “And [then] Gabriel called me and he’s like, ‘Mom, he’s gone.’ And I’m like, ‘What?’”
While Garrison never ended up relocating to North Carolina, Janelle said on Sunday’s episode that she was glad she had already moved to a new state prior to her son’s death because it’s made the grieving process easier for her. (As The Ashley previously told you, Janelle and Maddie announced their new business venture in September, Taeda Farms. She’s also in the process of building a new home.)
“I’m glad I have a big dream,” she said. “I’m glad I’m here with the grand babies, and it just makes it easier.”
Other members of the Brown Family have also made their way to North Carolina in the last year or so. Janelle and Kody’s daughter Savanah currently lives there, as does Christine and Kody‘s son Paedon, and their daughter Mykelti and her family.
On Monday, Janelle took to social media to thank fans for the “amazing messages of love and support” she received in response to Sunday’s episode, claiming that, although it has taken a while for her to accept, she knows that “in the end, we did everything we could” to help Garrison.
“Sometimes the mind convinces someone there’s no hope, even when all the evidence says otherwise,” she added.
Janelle went on to add that being in Flagstaff recently made her deeply aware of just how much she needed this new chapter in North Carolina.
“Everywhere I looked, I could see traces of Garrison,” she wrote. “I’m so thankful for all of my children, and especially for my grandbabies– they are truly life-giving. And because of my faith, I know I’ll be reunited with Garrison one day. That promise brings me immense comfort.”
New episodes of ‘Sister Wives’ air Sundays on TLC.
If you are struggling or in crisis, help is available. Call or text 988 or visit 988lifeline.org.
RELATED STORY: ‘Sister Wives’ Star Kody Brown Reflects On Not Having a Chance to Say Goodbye to Late Son Garrison: “It Wasn’t Supposed to Be This Way”
(Photos: TLC; Instagram)
8 Responses
Not sure that living in the middle of nowhere in NC would have helped Garrison. I doubt it. If there was a lack of love and support at home maybe it would have, but that didn’t seem to be the case. It’s still nice that they tried.
I think he might have been gay and struggled with the conflict of how he was raised and taught about what was right or wrong. Just speculation, of course. Whatever it was, it’s sad that he couldn’t see a way past it. But I guess that’s how it is for everyone that chooses that option. Regardless, I hope he’s at peace now.
“Couldn’t see a way past it.” That’s not how it works. Mental illness can be crippling. It tells you that you’re a “burden.” You’re so low that you feel you just can’t live this way. The pain is so consuming that you aren’t thinking straight. You obviously have no clue what it’s like apparently. “Chooses that option.” Nobody chooses to be that sick it’s really hard to understand that their is help. I feel that you should probably just keep your comments about the subject. You’re not very understanding of the illnesses people suffer from.
I just realized my spelling of “there” and other things I wrote are wrong. lol. I was in a typing fury😳
“The pain is so consuming that you aren’t thinking straight.”
Which is why they can’t see their way past it. You literally said the same thing in different words. But your choice of words is somehow understanding and mine isn’t? Okay!
The mental gymnastics to jump to him being gay is crazy. He had mental health issues and a drinking problem, which was seemingly exasperated by their family situation during COVID and his strained relationship with Kody (who he was once very close to).
A change of scenery and a fresh start away from it all, with just supportive family nearby, may have helped him or it may not have.
If you look quickly this looks like MacKenzie and Jawsh
Not even close.
wow.