Janelle Brown has been hinting for the last month or so that Season 20 of Sister Wives may be her last; however, during a new interview, Mykelti Brown revealed whether or not Janelle will continue to appear on the show into Season 21.
Mykelti– as well as her husband Tony Padron— did an interview this week with the Growing Up in Polygamy podcast, and provided insight on Janelle’s future on the show. In addition, Mykelti addressed her dad Kody‘s recent declarations that he is working on repairing his estranged relationships with his kids (something that several of his kids have stated is a lie).
She also revealed just how many of her siblings actually hate Kody’s wife Robyn!
Mykelti confirmed that ‘Sister Wives’ Season 21 is a go.
“There will be guaranteed one more season for sure. Beyond more than one, I have no idea,” she said.
Next, Mykelti— who is the daughter of Kody and his ex Christine— was asked about Janelle’s recent posts to social media that seem to be hinting that she has left the show. Mykelti stated that, despite what Janelle has posted, she has filmed for the upcoming season.
“Janelle will be a part [of Season 21],” Mykelti said, adding that the making of this season has been very different than how the previous seasons were made.
“I will say that none of the parents have the same filming schedule that they used to have,” she said. “For the last 15-16 years, it’s been two weeks of filming, two weeks off,” she said. “But this last six months or so, the filming has been very, very miniscule. It’s sporadic. So, the filming has been less.”
“But Janelle will be part of the new season coming out,” Mykelti confirmed.
She stated that she’s not entirely sure how Janelle feels about continuing with the show, as her feelings often change.
“I think Janelle, some days she’s like, ‘Yes, let’s do five more seasons!’ And sometimes she’s like, ‘I’m done. I just want to focus on my grandbabies. I want to focus on Taeda Farms. I want to focus on my life in North Carolina. I want to move on.’ So I think she goes back and forth.”
View this post on Instagram
As The Ashley previously reported, Janelle made several posts in December talking about “leaving the show.”
“Leaving the show… leaving a marriage… starting over at an age where everyone expects you to have it all figured out,” she wrote in the caption of one Instagram Reel. “I kept looking at the pieces and thinking something must be wrong with me.”
“After the cameras went away, I realized how much of my identity had been shaped by what people thought they knew and rebuilding after that… honestly it takes time,” she wrote on another post.
View this post on Instagram
Mykelti added that she knows Janelle would just like to live her life off-camera and be a grandma; however, the money she makes from appearing on ‘Sister Wives’ is needed.
“‘Sister Wives’ is her primary income source as well,” she said.
Mykelti confirmed that the idea of a Janelle and Christine spin-off has been proposed to them, although she doesn’t believe it would actually happen.
“I don’t think any of [the rumors about spin-offs] will actually happen,” she said. “I think a lot of that is because the primary story of ‘Sister Wives’ is obviously the polygamy. But a lot of the aspects you get from the polygamy are how these women function together and then how they function as parents to the kids and how the kids function together.
“And the majority of the children [from our family] don’t want anything to do with the show.”
(Only a few of the kids— including Mykelti, Madison and Ysabel— appeared during Season 20, and many have not been on the show in years.)
“They don’t want to film,” Mykelti said of her siblings. “They don’t want to make cameo appearances. They’re done. So it comes down to, without all of the stuff that made people fall in love with us, what is there? All that’s left is the little bits and pieces of drama.”
Like many fans, Mykelti believes that ‘Sister Wives’ doesn’t have many more stories to tell.
“I think [the show] is fizzling,” she said. “Because it’s not ‘Sister Wives’ anymore. You know, they’re all ex-wives now.”
As ‘Sister Wives’ fans saw during Season 20, the drama had to be facilitated by making a big deal out of the sale of Coyote Pass, as well as Kody “suddenly” wanting to apologize to his ex-wives.
Tony suggested that one way to stretch the show out even longer would be for Kody to do an apology tour for his kids, something Mykelti said she would definitely sign on for.
“I would let him film [with us] if he wanted to do an apology tour,” she said.
As The Ashley previously reported, Kody caught a lot of flak from fans (and some of his kids) when he claimed last year that he was working on repairing his relationships with all of his estranged children. In November, his third-born child Leon blasted him on social media, writing that Kody “is a liar. He is a joke of a father.”
Leon also claimed that they had not heard from Kody since 2024, when Kody allegedly refused to speak to them at the funeral of Garrison Brown.
Mykelti gave an update on Kody’s behind-the-scenes apology tour with his kids, and clarified why Kody may have stated that he’s in contact with his kids, when he’s obviously not talking to some of them.
“I think that he’s working actively on some relationships [with his kids],” Mykelti said. “He is not actively working on all relationships.
“…He doesn’t like to single any of us out by name, because he doesn’t want to hurt anybody’s feelings, or mistake one kid for another on accident because there’s 18 of us,” she said.
Mykelti explained that when Kody mentions that he’s working on his relationships with his kids, he tends to group them all together as his “kids” collectively, even if he’s not actually in contact with some of them.
“He groups us all into one because it’s easier than pointing a finger at anyone specifically or leaving anyone specifically out,” she said. “So whenever he says things like, ‘I am reaching out to all of my children,’ it’s easier to say that than ‘I’m reaching out to the relationships that are easier.'”
Mykelti stated that some of her siblings do not want any sort of a relationship with Kody and do not want to reconcile.
“I do know, though, that there are several of my siblings that have blocked him as well,” she said. “I know which ones have but I’m not going to say it, but I do know that there are several of my sibling that have told him point blank, ‘Do not ever contact me again.’ So obviously with those ones, he’s still going to generalize us and he’s not going to name us by name. But he isn’t actively reaching out [to them] and seeking that relationship.
“I think he could try harder. Like, he’s not trying as hard as he could try,” Mykelti admitted. “There’s room for improvement.”
Finally, Mykelti was asked to estimate just how many of her siblings (from the OG wives) actually dislike Robyn.
“I would say there’s probably 80-85 percent of my siblings don’t like Robyn,” she said. “Of my siblings from the first three wives. Obviously, I’m pretty sure that her kids like her.”
Click here to Mykelti and Tony’s full interview with the Growing Up In Polygamy podcast.
RELATED STORY: Janelle Brown Reflects on How She’s Been Portrayed on TV; Continues to Hint That She’s Not Returning to ‘Sister Wives’
