After years of watching her ex-husband Kody Brown continue to have little to no relationship with a number of his adult children, Christine Brown says she’s hopeful that with time, “things are going to be better.”
In an new interview with People, the Sister Wives star opened up about Kody’s ongoing estrangement from his children, telling the outlet that her ex repairing those relationships within the family is “kind of an ongoing story.”
“ … I do believe that Kody is a good person and I think that things are going to be better,” the mom of six said. “I hope that things are going to be better. Things take time. There’s a lot of things that we say about each other that we hear and it’s just the nature of it. So we’ve got some things to work through, I’m sure.”
As fans of ‘Sister Wives’ know, Kody is not only estranged from some of his and Christine’s children, he’s also estranged from a number of the children he shares with ex-wife Janelle, as well as the one child he shares with ex-wife Meri. (Kody has seemingly continued to be an active dad to the five kids he shares with his only remaining wife, Robyn.)
Earlier this month, Kody and Christine’s son Paedon Brown revealed on TikTok that he has not spoken to his father since the 2024 funeral of his brother Garrison Brown, son of Kody and Janelle. At the time of his death, Garrison– like many of his siblings– was estranged from Kody.
Both Janelle and Christine have publicly criticized the way their ex-husband has handled the fractured relationships with his children, with Christine claiming in an interview this month that she won’t accept an apology from Kody until he “fixes his relationships with his kids.”
“ … Like, take care of your kids, reach out to your kids, call them, spend time with them and work on that relationship and then at that point we can talk apology,” she told Access Hollywood’s Reality Nightcap. “It’s an action that should happen, not just words. Words don’t mean a thing, it’s just words.”
Earlier this month, Meri also slammed her former spouse’s subpar parenting, revealing on an episode of the I Do, Part 2 podcast that the way Kody parents his children “breaks my heart,” while insisting that Kody is the reason that many of the relationships with his children remained frayed.
“He’s got children who need him and want to have a relationship with him and he’s not putting in the effort,” Meri said. “I don’t see [it]. I can’t say he’s not, but I don’t see effort being put in where some of his kids really need it.”
Despite Kody vowing in Season 19 to reconcile with his children before his 56th birthday (which he already celebrated in January), he also claimed that season that he was “not going to reach out forever” to the children from whom he’s estranged, arguing that parent-child relationships should be reciprocal when the children in those relationships happen to be adults.
“I’m willing to make the effort, but somebody else is going to have to be on the other end of that and make some effort too,” Kody said. “I’m not going to camp out on somebody’s doorstep.”
Season 20 of ‘Sister Wives’ premieres Sunday, September 28, on TLC.
RELATED STORY: Meri Brown Reveals If She Read Her Former Sister Wife Christine’s Book & How She Feels About Negative Things Christine Wrote About Her
(Photos: TLC; Instagram)
3 Responses
I just read Christine’s book (please don’t judge me, I love an autobiography), and Kody has way too many narcissistic tendencies to heal these relationships. He would need intensive, individual therapy. He’s really just a garbage human.
I appreciate the optimism, but it’s not going to get better. It takes 2 to have a relationship, and Kody is not interested. They would first have to kiss Robyn’s ass and worship at the feet of the goddess (gag) that Kody thinks she is. They would never be allowed to show anything but enthusiastic happiness around the only children that Kody considers his…the 3 he adopted and the 2 that are Robyn’s. He makes me sick. If losing a child to suicide doesn’t make you rethink your nonparental ways, sadly nothing will.
I’m afraid you’re right, and I applaud this comment. Kootie doesn’t have it in him to be a dad to kids that are born to anyone but his sly, petty wife. He’s a narcissist that is too far up his own ass to take any blame for his shitty parenting.