The best cure for a (bad) spiritual marriage is a spiritual divorce, but in a preview of Sunday’s episode of Sister Wives shared by TLC, Janelle Brown worries her former church won’t agree.
In the preview clip, Janelle reveals to daughter Maddie that she’s seeking a church-sanctioned end to her marriage to Kody.
“I’ve got to go to Salt Lake. I’m going to meet with the church leadership about a spiritual divorce from your dad,” Janelle tells her daughter.
In a confessional, Janelle reveals, “I have approached the church leadership and asked for a release, given my justification, given my reasons, and then I need to go meet with them and then I think it’s kind of just a decision process after that.”
Maddie shares in her confessional that she’s concerned about her mother’s decision to meet with leaders from their former church.
“My initial reaction is, what the f**k, why? I don’t want her to go back to it. I think plural marriage in general is pretty toxic,” she said.
Janelle addresses her daughter’s wariness, telling her, “Look, I’m not part of the faith anymore, but, Maddie, it was what I honored as a marriage covenant. It was a marriage to me, as binding as a legal marriage, so I just want to have all ties broken.”
Us Weekly shared more from the mother and daughter’s conversation.
“I will feel like I’ve done everything I needed to do and I’ll hold myself [divorced],” Janelle says in the episode. “If they say ‘no,’ and I mean I have to admit it is a possibility, but I don’t think so.”
Janelle worried that she may have a “crisis of faith” if the church refuses to grant her the release.
“But if they do [refuse], I don’t think God intends for me to stay connected to this person who doesn’t want to be married to me and has moved on with his life and, and the same with me.”
Janelle isn’t the first of Kody’s wives to seek a spiritual divorce. His first wife Meri also requested– and received– a release from Kody.
In a clip shared by TLC last week, Meri shared her experience of getting a spiritual divorce from Kody and offered Janelle her support.
“I don’t know how long this process normally takes,” Meri said in a confessional. “I don’t believe that they had any intention of granting the release on that day. I felt like they still wanted to talk to Kody, and I could see that it was not going that way and I started asking questions and he finally did say, ‘You know what, you’re here, we’re here, let’s just do it.’ So he granted it that day and I walked out of there single, and it was weird.”
The preview from Sunday’s episode doesn’t detail what inspired Janelle to seek a spiritual divorce from Kody. However, in a ‘Sister Wives’ episode that aired earlier this month, the former spouses seemed to be on good terms as Kody met with Janelle to make amends, as he’s been doing with his other former wives.
“It was a great relationship,” Janelle said in the episode of her and Kody’s former union. “I still care about him and I think he still cares about me, but he’s not in my life and I’m not going to be in his life.
“I wish he had a better relationship with the children, because then there would be a little more cohesion for the family. But that’s a long ways away I suspect.”
Janelle confirmed in 2022 that she and Kody had split after 30 years and six children together. (They share Logan, Hunter, Gabriel, Maddie, Savanah and Garrison, who died in 2024).
Prior to Janelle leaving, Kody’s third wife Christine split from Kody in 2021. Currently only Kody’s fourth wife Robyn remains married to the frizzy haired failed polygamist.
As she works through the process of getting a spiritual divorce on TV, Janelle may also be contemplating another end. Last week one of her Instagram posts led to speculation that Janelle is planning to leave the show, as The Ashley reported.
“Leaving the show… leaving a marriage… starting over at an age where everyone expects you to have it all figured out,” she wrote on Instagram. “I kept looking at the pieces and thinking something must be wrong with me. But now, standing where I am, I can see it differently. None of those moments were breaking points. They were shedding points. Old expectations. Old versions of myself. Old identities that were never really mine … .”
‘Sister Wives’ airs Sundays on TLC.
(Photos: Instagram; TLC)
4 Responses
Imagine losing your marbles for not getting PERMISSION to leave a man you’re not even married to in the name of religion. Girl, you are single. Nothing is tying you to this man lol. I’m so confused! I wouldn’t wait on anyone’s word. You’re 👏 not 👏 married 👏
Call me kooky but I’d have a real problem with some guy in any religion who gets to decide for me whether I can leave my emotionally and mentally abusive husband. Then again I guess in this religion it’s deemed spiritual to have multiple wives and a superiority complex as the man. And of course the woman can’t have an opinion about anything because she is just a woman.🙄
Divorce is ok. As long as it’s to marry the, “shy and pretty wife.” And adopt her creepy children.