Kody Brown got called out on Thursday’s episode of Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test regarding his estrangement from most of his 18 children and, surprisingly, the Sister Wives star actually admitted to being the cause of his kids going no-contact.
Kody— who has notoriously shifted the blame in the past for the poor relationships he has with his kids— finally took ownership of his downfalls, admitting after being called out by the military leaders on the show that his mindset has been childish and that the fault truly lies with him for those failed relationships.
When asked by former U.S. Marine Rudy Reyes if he feels he’s taken responsibility for the fallout with his kids, Kody at first seemed reluctant to admit fault.
“I don’t want to admit I’m wrong sometimes,” he said. “I don’t like being wrong.”
Kody went on to say that at one point in his life, he was “concerned about everybody.” (As ‘Sister Wives’ fans know, “everybody” once included his three now-ex-wives– Christine, Meri and Janelle— as well as his current wife Robyn and his 18 kids.)
Although Kody claimed he was concerned about “everybody,” he was called out by former SAS Operator Billy Billingham.
“You’re concerned about everybody as long as they sang to your tune!” he told Kody. “As long as they agree with everything you believe in. I don’t think you’re being honest with me.”
It was only then that Kody truly began to take ownership of his failures as a husband and father.
“I’m the discrepancy,” he admitted. “I should have had a stronger relationship with my children….I’m at a place in my life now where I’m very willing to say that I’ve been wrong.”
Kody then broke down, sobbing to the officers that he acted the way he did because he thought he was doing things right, and had become unwilling to admit that wasn’t the case.
“My failures were because I didn’t know about being a good dad and husband and I thought I did,” Kody said. “I really thought I did, and I misunderstood that. I did it wrong in so many ways, and I hated being blamed for it. And so it made me resistant to ownership.”
Rudy then told Kody that he has a “very adolescent” mindset, which Kody surprisingly admitted to.
“When you really f**king own that, you’ll do something about it,” Rudy tells him “Dig deep and keep going.”
As ‘Sister Wives’ fans know, Kody still has a good relationship with the five children he shares with Robyn, but essentially has little to no relationship with nearly all of the other 13 kids he shares with his OG wives. His ex-wives and many of Kody’s grown children have been outspoken about Kody’s faults and failures as a dad and husband.
Last month, Mykelti Brown— the daughter of Kody and Christine— claimed that Kody had great love for his kids when they were young, but that love changed once they became adults.
“I think it was just, like, he just loved us [as kids]. But then when we got older, it started to be like, ‘My love is conditional,'” Mykelti said. “The older we got, it was conditional up to how much we respect him and were willing to fork over what we want for him.”
Last year, Mykelti stated that the Kody Brown of today was not the dad she knew growing up.
“I don’t recognize that Kody Brown,” she said. “That is not the Kody Brown I was raised with. That Kody Brown is ‘Kody Brown from Sister Wives.’ That is not Kody Brown, my dad. It’s hard to see him have those conversations and those fights and those arguments because I don’t understand…”
She also stated that, when she was growing up, Kody was fine— as long as his kids were doing things he enjoyed, much as Billy observed during Thursday’s ‘Special Forces’ episode.
“We did things kind of how he wanted to, that’s how we did things,” Mykelti said at the time, stating that she and her siblings would often watch Kody’s favorite movies with him as a group as a way of getting more time with their dad.
Mykelti said that Kody was happy because he and his kids were spending time together, doing what Kody liked, but as they grew, Kody didn’t want to change to doing what each of his kids liked to do.
“And as we got older, and we got more identity underneath us and we got more opinionated underneath us, it became harder and harder for Dad to have this ability to bond with us as much because we all also wanted to do our own things, and we wanted to bring him into our world, and not just be brought into his,” Mykelti said at the time.
“I think that’s actually where part of the disconnect happened: Dad didn’t understand how to go into each [of his kids’] worlds, partially because there were so many [kids], but he also wasn’t used to it. He was so used to bringing us into his world [and us doing all the things he liked to do].”
In September, Kody’s ex-wife Meri stated that she feels Kody did a much-better job with his kids when they were young.
“There are things that I think he did better in his younger years than he does now…Parenting is a big one,” she said. “The way that he parents breaks my heart. It really does…He’s got children who need him and want to have a relationship with him and he’s not putting in the effort. 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.”
‘Special Forces’ airs Thursdays on FOX.
RELATED STORY: Mykelti Brown Talks About How Her Dad Kody’s Love For His Kids Changed As They Got Older: “It Was Conditional”
(Photos: FOX; TLC)
14 Responses
Kody is just a broken man living a broken life.
Its for the camera
That screen shot makes him look absolutely ancient. I’m sure that bothers the hell out of him, which makes me happy.
Right!? I thought it was a filtered photo at first.
Hell hath frozen over.
This is the second time The Ashley has used a photo of Janelle crying over Garrison’s death at a cat rescue office as if Janelle is actually smirking or laughing etc. Maybe I am reading it wrong, but idk.
Last time we complained and The Ashley took it down…now this article it is back with the same still of Janelle crying while honoring her dead son?
Delete that screen grab from your archives girl lol. It’s distasteful and gross.
Absolutely Kody is immature and selfish. His kids with Meri, Janelle and Christine outgrew him while he stayed in his own little thinking world. I think the only reason Robyn stays with him is for the big house and the money. Kody may think he has showed the “Staff” that he is open to reconciling with his kids, but those guys are smart. Kody wants his world his way. If you disagree with him in any way you are out. And his description of his father Winn says a lot. He describes him as a manly cowboy type. I am willing to bet he was a major jerk also and treated his wives and kids like dirt. The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. How can you tell when Kody is lying? His lips are moving.
“had become unwilling to admit”
He didn’t become, he was NEVER willing to admit anything.
I agree with Kitty that this is likely just another attempt to rehabilitate his public image.
Yes! He is just being performative, and we know that nothing will change. He only cares about Sobbyn and her crotchfruit.
He disgusts me.
While I hope this was sincere & a true acknowledgement of the pain Kody has caused I feel like this was a made for TV setup. It would be nice for everyone if he finally took accountability for his actions/inactions but I somehow doubt this was a light bulb moment. Pretty sure current/future Sister Wives episodes will show the truth.
And we won’t see “current” episodes for another year and a half…I do not understand how anyone (even The Ashley, bless her) can sit through this show.
I get what you’re saying but for me it was fascinating to see them try to make something work that was so destined to fail. Then it was fun to see it unravel because it’s always nice to see bullshit narratives fall to pieces. Now it’s fun to see how they move on after abandoning their flawed beliefs.
Plus, what else am I gonna do at night? Watch some trash TV is pretty much all I want to do after 8pm.