In her new book, Sister Wife: A Memoir of Faith, Family and Finding Freedom, Christine Brown opens up about her relationship with many members of the Brown family, including her former sister wife Meri Brown, with whom Christine has not been on good terms for many years.
As fans of Sister Wives know, while Christine and Janelle Brown have maintained a close relationship since leaving husband Kody Brown in 2021 and 2022, respectively, Meri– who confirmed her split from Kody in 2023– has seemingly remained on the outs with Christine; so much in fact, that Meri was not invited to Christine and husband David Woolley’s 2023 wedding, despite Meri and Kody’s only child, Leon Brown, attending the event with their partner.
In her new book, Christine tells readers that while she “debated” whether to include the reason behind her and Meri’s longstanding feud in her memoir as they’ve “all changed so much since those early years,” she ultimately decided to address the situation. She revealed that her relationship with Meri took its first big hit after an incident went down when Leon, and Christine’s daughter Mykelti, were kids, and Meri took her disciplining of Mykelti too far.
Christine described the “dynamics of polygamist parenting” as that of a seesaw, claiming that Kody’s first wife Meri “was the top wife in our polygamy pyramid.”
“We followed her rules when she was around to keep the peace, but her rules felt punitive and unfair,” Christine wrote, as reported by People. “I had to make a decision about what was best for me and my family within a family, and it changed our relationship forever.”
Christine then recalled the incident from years ago when then-eight-year-old Mykelti accompanied some of her siblings to the store and was “maybe ten cents short” when making a candy purchase.
“The cashier, who knew us, spotted her the dime,” Christine wrote. “No big deal. But Meri’s Leon, who was also just a little kid–maybe nine–told Meri about it. Meri lost her mind. Meri was mad that Mykelti had embarrassed her in front of the cashier, and that she had embarrassed Leon. She yelled at Mykelti, who couldn’t understand what she had done wrong. I couldn’t either.”
As a result of the incident, Christine said her “mama bear came roaring,” causing her to confront Meri and draw some boundaries regarding her six children. (At the time, the whole Brown family lived together in one three-story house in Utah, with Christine’s family living in the basement, Janelle’s family on the second floor, and Meri and Leon on the third floor.)
“‘Don’t talk to my kids,’ I yelled,” Christine recalled. “‘I don’t want you near them. I don’t want you to come downstairs anymore. Our relationship is done!’”
“…I know [Meri’s] relationship with Kody was hard, but it wasn’t fair for her to take her mess out on my kids— or on me,” Christine wrote. “It wasn’t safe for us.”
Christine also stated that Meri often put her down.
“I didn’t trust that she would be kind to me, particularly in front of other people,” she wrote. “She said demeaning things about me when she was with her family— in front of me. My weight. My intelligence. My parenting skills. We could be laughing and telling stories, but then she’d throw a painful dart and I would feel myself deflate.”
Following the release of her book, Christine told People that she wanted to address the situation with Meri “as briefly as possible” in her memoir, while reminding fans that just because her life is public, she doesn’t “have to be public about everything.”
“There’s enough that happened and we don’t need to dwell on it,” Christine told the outlet. “Let’s just move on.”
While Christine may be ready to move on from the squabble with her former sister wife, it’s unclear if Mykelti feels the same.
As The Ashley previously told you, Mykelti spoke out in January 2023 about the abuse she allegedly suffered at the hands of Meri, telling fans on Patreon that she believed she “got the brunt” of Meri’s alleged abuse. Paedon and Gwendlyn Brown, two of Kody and Christine’s other children, later confirmed the claims that Meri put her hands on their sister.
Meanwhile, Kody and Janelle’s daughter Maddie Brown also hinted at Meri’s alleged abuse back in November during an episode of her (now-former) podcast, The Authentic Society. On the episode, Maddie and her co-host were discussing toxic relationships, which led Maddie to provide an example of when an adult in her life– in this case, Meri– tried to “punish” her, despite Maddie being an adult at the time.
Several years ago, Maddie also tweeted about growing up with an “abusive human” whom she referred to as “a monster.” Paedon later confirmed that Maddie’s tweets were about Meri.
Sister Wife: A Memoir of Faith, Family, and Finding Freedom is now available for purchase.
Season 20 of ‘Sister Wives’ premieres Sunday, September 28 on TLC.
(Photos: TLC; Instagram)
11 Responses
I’m honestly surprised at how many people are defending Meri here. Even if you believe she was “just disciplining” the kids, does anyone really think this behavior was acceptable?
Mykelti was eight years old. She came up ten cents short at the corner store, an honest mistake and one any child could make. Instead of calmly addressing it, Meri blew up at her. As someone who grew up with a parent who exploded over random, minor things, I can tell you: that’s not discipline. That’s unacceptable.
If Meri truly felt Mykelti needed a lesson about making sure she had enough money, she could have talked to her about it without yelling. Adults are supposed to model self-control for children. If we expect kids not to have outbursts, then we as adults should hold ourselves to an even higher standard.
This wasn’t an isolated moment either. From what we’ve seen on the show and from the accounts of Christine, Maddie, Mykelti, and Paedon, Meri had a pattern of blowing her lid over things. I also think her struggles with infertility played a role. She seemed to resent that her sister wives could have children, and she often directed that resentment toward those children.
It speaks volumes that neither Mykelti nor Maddie want a relationship with her as adults. And honestly? I don’t blame them.
I am not defending Meri but honestly, Ann, have you ever lost your temper over something trivial with children? I am not saying it is right but it happens. And for heavens sake, can you picture living in one house with your husband, his 2 ” spiritual” wives and their kids and not going off the walls? Yeah she chose the life, just like Janelle and Christine did and look where it got them and their kids? I always felt sorry for the kids. They sure did not ask to be put out in front of the public due to their parents insane lifestyle.
I agree. But from what we know, Meri’s outburst at Mykelti over 10 cents wasn’t an isolated incident. It was part of a larger pattern. Back then, she often refused to rein in her emotions. That’s why Janelle and Christine were so adamant about not sharing a kitchen with her.
It would be different if Meri came out today and said, “I lost my temper, and I was wrong.” But that’s not what happened.
That line is funny in its own right (or lack thereof).
Oops – that was intended to be a reply to Jessica.
Meri was the disciplinarian of their family, she didn’t let them away with things there is a huge difference between discipline and abuse and nowadays people are rewriting a narrative, It bugs the sh*t out of me! She called you out on your misbehavior and didnt let you away with things, she didnt beat the kids black and blue!
Eight-year-old Mykelti went to the corner store and was 10 cents short. Is that “misbehavior” that deserves Meri yelling at Myketli for?
Yesterday it was Kody,today its Meri…. Who,s next? Thuis woman is so full of herself.
This is all from one book. Christine isn’t releasing this information each day, she did it all at one time in her memoir and The Ashley is releasing interesting snippets.
“went down when Leon and Christine’s daughter Mykelti were kids” Think you meant Cody here, not Leon.
No. Leon, Méri,s child, and Mykelti, Christine,s child.