Kody Brown and his large family have been a reality TV staple for nearly 15 years, though Gwendlyn Brown– daughter of Kody and ex-wife Christine Brown– revealed in a new interview that for most of that time, she and her 17 siblings were not compensated for their participation in the TLC series.
In a Teen Vogue feature published this week, Gwen opened up about her experience growing up on reality TV, telling the outlet she used to be “super into” filming Sister Wives, largely because the opportunity provided a substantial– and much needed– financial boost for her family.
“We just got thrown into fame and thrown into money,” she said.. “And I stopped wanting and needing things. Life is a lot easier for a kid that’s not going hungry. It was quite a blessing initially.”
Prior to her family appearing on reality TV, Gwendlyn said the Browns were facing “a poverty situation,” and while her family went on to benefit from the earnings made from their show, the family’s children weren’t compensated by the network.
“The network only paid the parents,” she claimed. “I’m not sure if they did or didn’t expect the parents to pay us kids, but we weren’t paid.”
Gwendlyn explained that eventually, her mom, Christine, decided to pay her children herself, giving them “a certain amount per day or half-day of camera time” from the family’s profits from the show.
While Gwendlyn said she doesn’t know how much money she and her siblings ultimately received, she claims, “it certainly hasn’t been a fair share.”
(A spokesperson for TLC told Teen Vogue that, “compensation is handled in accordance with contractual commitments and applicable labor laws and regulations.” Meanwhile, Christine confirmed that her children were not compensated when ‘Sister Wives’ first began, but claimed that money was set aside for the kids’ college funds and vehicles.)
Gwendlyn added that, now that she’s an adult and able to see how odd life on TV is, she is not as keen on filming for ‘Sister Wives,’ despite the financial gain.
“I’m growing a bigger dislike for it. And [in the past] it was like, ‘this is my normal,’” she said. “But now it’s like, ‘this does not have to be my normal,’ and it’s weird.”
While Gwendlyn didn’t reveal if (or how much) her 11 other siblings were paid for their participation on ‘Sister Wives,’ her claims regarding the Brown’s poor financial state pre-reality TV are similar to those made last year by her sister Maddie Brown, daughter of Kody and ex-wife Janelle Brown.
As The Ashley previously told you, on a December episode of her (former) podcast, The Authentic Society, Maddie– one of Kody and Janelle’s six children– spoke about her family’s finances, recalling that her family was “very poor” before nabbing ‘Sister Wives’ in 2010. During the episode, Maddie– who is estranged from Kody– told listeners that, despite her dad earning “decent money” back in the day, the Browns still struggled financially, largely due to the number of people in the family, as well as Kody’s poor handling of family funds.
Maddie also alleged on the podcast that Kody “always chose the get-rich quick scheme,” and claimed that when she was younger, her parents would “immediately” spend their tax returns instead of making an effort to save or invest the money.
According to Gwendlyn, her dad continues to make poor financial decisions today– more than a decade later– with the 23 year-old alleging in 2023 that Kody and his only remaining wife, Robyn Brown, “have a terrible habit” of “spending very crazy and not within their means at all.”
Gwendlyn even went on to predict at the time that her dad’s three ex-wives– Christine, Janelle and Meri Brown– would “probably be a lot better off” now that they were no longer finically tied to Kody.
New episodes of ‘Sister Wives’ air Sundays on TLC.
(Photos: TLC)
8 Responses
This family didn’t seem to share their money very fairly. I remember college tuition being an issue when Leon wanted to go to college. Meri mentioned that they were paying for Logan’s college. I wonder how many kids and which ones had their college and cars paid by the family and which ones had to pay themselves or use their show fund.
I’m sure Kody would say that ANY money given to the family would be considered “FAMILY MONEY” (eyeroll). I remember when Meri was talking about Leon and college, but I remember her saying that SHE paid for Leon’s college and car, it didn’t come out of the “family money”. I agree, it would be very interesting to see which kids received money from the “family pot” for education and/or cars etc. I guarantee Robin’s kids will have it ALL covered. I actually like Robin’s kids, I think the girls are very aware of the situations are trying to separate themselves from polygamy and the “family” religious sect by trying to carefully carve their OWN paths. Hopefully, they’ll be able to do it without KODY and Robin pulling them back.
Logan went to a in-state public school. Leon wanted to go to a private school that was like 40K/year. It would have been unfair to the other kids to give such a massive chunk to Leon when they could have easily gone to a state school as well. What should have happened and it may have was Leon should have gotten the same amount as Logan and Aspyn were getting for their tuition to put towards their 40K/year tuition.
My comment wasn’t necessarily about Leon. That’s just the only time I remember college tuition being brought up as an issue on the show. I just wonder if this is another way that Christine’s kids got the short end of the stick. If she put back money specifically from them appearing on the show to pay for their college and cars but the other kids got theirs paid for without having to ‘work’ for it than that would be unfair. But unfair seems to be the way Kody rolls, so…
i love the snark on kodys hair! ‘Kodys only interested in saving whats left of his hair’ hahahahaha
On this particular show I think getting their University paid for and a car was more than enough compensation. There were lots of kids and the kids were generally not the storyline. The conflict between the adults is what the show was about unlike the Duggars where once Michelle was done having babies the kids became the sole storyline. They have also respected the privacy of the older kids when they say they are done with being on the show. And Mykelti, Maddie and Gwen have all been able to transition their minor fame into moneymaking ventures for themselves as adults. They wouldn’t have that option if not for the show.
I believe it. Look how successful all three wives are now that they’ve left him…