It’s been six years since Madison Brown shocked the Sister Wives fandom by tweeting about growing up with an “abusive human” who was a “monster” in regard to her father’s then-wife Meri Brown. Over the weekend, Madison (who is the daughter of Kody and Janelle Brown) revealed her surprising new take on Meri’s alleged abusive behavior, and how she currently feels about her.
During an Instagram Q&A, Madison was asked if she ever speaks to Meri, and if the rumors were true that the wetbar enthusiast was “quite mean to all you kids” growing up.
Madison stated that, despite all that’s happened in the past, she now feels forgiveness for Meri, but still doesn’t want her around her— or her children.
“She was extremely harsh,” Maddie wrote. “She will never be allowed in my children[‘s lives.] Though I forgive her.”
Maddie— who has also openly spoken out against her estranged father Kody and his current wife Robyn— offered some insight on why Meri was allegedly so hard on the Brown family kids growing up.
“Meri was hard. As an adult, I look back and see that I think a lot of who she is, is due to her own hurt, which I do believe Kody did contribute [to],” Maddie wrote, acknowledging that Meri seems to be on “her own healing journey,” now that she’s left her marriage to Kody.
Maddie also addressed ‘Sister Wives’ fans who have defended Meri’s alleged behavior toward the kids.
“A lot of people want to say, ‘Oh she was just strict in chaos’ and to that I want to respond, ‘You were not there. You have absolutely no idea what you are talking about,'” she wrote. “Though, I believe Meri has her own hurt, I forgive her and move on. She will never be allowed a relationship with my children.”
As ‘Sister Wives’ fans know, Maddie and her family currently live in North Carolina, near her mom Janelle. Maddie’s kids have a great relationship with Janelle, as well as with Christine Brown, but have no contact with Meri, Robyn or Kody.
Maddie having forgiveness for Meri is relatively new. During a November 2024 episode of her former podcast, Maddie brought up toxic relationships within the Brown family, and told a story about how Meri allegedly tried to “punish” her, despite Maddie being an adult at the time.
“I remember I had a conversation with Meri, one of my parents, and she was like, ‘Don’t worry, you’re not in trouble.’ And I was like, ‘I am an adult, A. B, I’m married. C, I have children. I don’t get in trouble,’” Maddie recalled. “What are you gonna do, spank me and put me in my room?”
Maddie went on to compare the situation to circus animals being beaten as a way to prevent them from retaliating against their handlers once they are full grown.
“ … They used to beat the baby elephant so that when it was big and large and big enough to hurt somebody, it was scared,” she said. “Isn’t that so sad? But you see that a lot in toxic families and toxic relationships.”
While Meri has never addressed Madison’s claims of abuse, other grown Brown children have discussed the topic, with Christine’s kids Paedon and Gwendlyn each claiming that Meri got physical with their sister Mykelti.
“Meri had moments where she was rude and scary but I don’t remember her getting physical with anyone except for Mykelti and that was only once,” Gwendlyn (who remains close to Meri) wrote on her Patreon in 2023.
In a video posted around the same time, Mykelti confirmed that Meri was allegedly abusive to some of the kids in the Brown family. However, she denied that Meri ever got physically violent with her, as Gwen and Paedon have claimed.
“I’m speaking on my own personal experiences and opinion of Meri Brown. I don’t want to discount my siblings’ experience with her, though,” she said. “I don’t remember Meri ever being physically abusive to me, but she was very emotionally and verbally abusive to all of us when we were younger, until I think we got old enough and she stopped because, I don’t know, we were able to fight back or something I guess. “We were just too old for her to continue.”
In her recently released book Sister Wife, Christine confirmed that Meri’s treatment of the kids, particularly Mykelti, was a main reason she ended their friendship years ago.
“We followed her rules when she was around to keep the peace, but her rules felt punitive and unfair,” Christine wrote in her book about Meri. “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 an incident from years ago when then-eight-year-old Mykelti accompanied some of her siblings to the store and was “maybe 10 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!’”
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“…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.”
Meri has yet to respond to Maddie’s latest posts.
(Photos: TLC; X; Instagram)
3 Responses
A couple of the Brown kids have said this. My curiosity has the better of me because I would like specifics. It sounds to me like there was way more abuse than I thought. It didn’t help that the only thing Christine said in her book was that Meri yelled at one of her kids at the grocery store. That sounded a bit dramatic for all of the bad blood that’s there. I think Maddie is one of the more level headed Brown. I trust her word more. It’s obvious that there are things that happened in their childhood that have hurt Maddie so bad that she will never allow Meri around her kids. Maddie also seems to be shattered by Kody. I’m glad that she is close with Jenelle and Christine and seems to have a solid family with Caleb.
Blah blah blah it’s on Christine and Janelle who stayed and probably didn’t disapline there own kids. THE ADULT KUDS ARE NOTHING BUT CRY BABIES. THEY MAKE ME SICK HYPOCRITES ALL OF THEM.