Madison Brown is opening up about her devastation over not having her father, Kody, in her life anymore.
During the Season 20 premiere episode of Sister Wives, Maddie— who has been estranged from Kody for several years— got emotional while discussing how she has not yet accepted that she may never have a relationship with Kody, and that he will never be the father she wants.
Maddie brought up a conversation she had with her sibling Leon after their brother Garrison‘s funeral regarding Kody’s non-existent relationships with most of his adult kids.
“Garrison’s death showed a lot,” Maddie told the cameras, before flashback clips of her conversation with Leon replayed. During that conversation, Maddie spoke about how sad she was that her relationships with the kids that Kody shares with his wife Robyn no longer exist. At the time, Leon also expressed that they would like to have a conversation with Robyn’s kids at some point.
After the clips, Maddie spoke about her current situation with her father.
“You want your dad to show up,” Maddie said through tears. “And you want reconciliation. And I know I played a part [in our estrangement], but I’m angry. And I’m angry because I’m still trying how to learn how not to be disappointed.”
“I’m still learning how to, just, see him for who he is,” Maddie said, before mentioning that “Leon’s already come to peace with this.”
(As The Ashley has previously reported, Leon–- who shared on social media in June 2022 that they are transgender and use they/them pronouns–- revealed they had top surgery in January 2023. Kody and Leon have reportedly not had a relationship since around the time Leon transitioned.)
“It’s really hard because I don’t feel like I have [come to peace with it],” Maddie said. “I’m trying to understand that maybe he didn’t know how to show up. He might be hurting.”
During the Season 20 premiere episode, Kody also spoke about his desire to reconcile with his estranged kids.
“I would really like to have a better relationship with my children that I had with those ex-wives,” he said. “I’ve literally just compartmentalized the heartbreak. I don’t know what to do. I would love healing with every single person I know. I would love with Meri. I would love healing with Janelle. I would love healing with Christine. And of course, all of my children. But I think we’re at an impasse here because this healing can only happen on their terms only.”
This is not the first time Maddie has spoken about her estrangement from Kody. Back in November 2024, she spoke on her podcast (which she no longer records) about why she went stopped speaking to her dad.
“I have no contact with some of my family and it’s because of stuff that has happened,” Maddie said. “[My dad] doesn’t have any respect for boundaries, and you have to play by his rules and I just don’t care to do that.”
Maddie went on to accuse her dad of becoming “very angry” whenever she would try to talk to him about issues going on between them in the past, claiming Kody’s reaction “was one of the reasons” she went no-contact with him.
“There was a lot of anger and he’d be like, ‘That’s not true!’ and I’m like, ‘It is true, I know firsthand,’” Maddie claimed. “I always get messages from people who are like, ‘You should just forgive your dad and respect him,’ and I’m like, ‘I don’t think you know what you’re talking about because your experience with your dad could be very different than my experience with my dad.’
“Some people just don’t deserve to be in your life,” Maddie added.
Maddie explained that, to her, setting a boundary lets other people know how you expect to be treated, adding that she will not tolerate those who don’t respect said boundaries.
“ … If you manipulate me, gaslight me, or you lie to me, I will not tolerate that,” she said.
During the premiere episode, Kody’s wife Robyn stated that she “nags” Kody “about interacting with his other children [but] he pushes back.”
“He tells me to give him space,” she said.
‘Sister Wives’ airs Sundays on TLC.
8 Responses
Kody was so full of himself, full of BS, and full of overly self-inflated pseudo-masculinity in this episode, I found it hard to watch. The fact that Robyn found it comical was sickening. She deserves him fair and square.
My heart broke for the OG kids, especially Maddie. I wish I could give her a hug as a fatherless daughter and tell her-you do NOT need him in your life, your life is better without him in it. Don’t look back at that what-could-have-beens. Forge ahead with your own beautiful family and your own beautiful life. Kudos to Leon for already doing that.
You can’t help but feel sorry for these, now, adult children. To make a buck and promote polygamy, they were paraded on TV and did “couch time confessions” for TLC and the viewing public. They’re adults now, reflecting on their own lives and relationships and coming to the realization they had a disinterested, barely there part-time father who made/makes zero effort. How can they be anything but disappointed and confused. And, it’s so equal parts class act and messed up they think they need to apologize to the 4th wife’s children because they’ve been portrayed by wife no. 4 and her husband as being hostile and unwelcoming. It’s a vicious cycle. They are portrayed as villains because some children were raised by a serial victim and a narcissist.
Kody REALLY just doesn’t care about any of the “OG 13” kids. Like many men, he’s only vaguely interested in the children of the woman he’s currently banging. When Kody moves on from Robyn, and she’s aging out, he’ll ditch her kids too. It’s sad, because it’s NOT the fault of any of the kids, it’s just Kody’s pathology.
It is sad, all the way around.
Under normal circumstances, I would be firmly in the “there are two sides to every story” camp, but we have way too much evidence of Kody’s character on film (imagine what happened when the cameras weren’t rolling!) to be able to give him the benefit of the doubt.
I feel for those kids. They’ve done remarkably well, especially considering the challenges of their…unique upbringing.
That was hard to watch. The sad part is that Kody will see that and still take no responsibility and shift the blame back towards Jenelle for poisoning their kids against him. He will twist it to where Maddie is the one that didn’t want a relationship and then he will do his famous “If they only treated ROBYN right it wouldn’t have happened!” I hate Kody more and more with each episode. What a pathetic little boy.