Trigger Warning: This story contains mentions of child molestation.
Mykelti Brown is opening up about an incident from her childhood that she says “traumatized” her, due to how her parents, Christine and Kody Brown and her other moms handled the situation.
During an interview with the Cults to Conciousness podcast published on Monday, the “Sister Wives” star revealed publicly for the first time that she was molested by a neighbor kid. She also stated that she was punished when she told her parents what had happened, due to the Brown Family’s strict “no tattle-telling” policy, something she credits her dad’s fourth wife Robyn for dismantling when she came into the family.
While Mykelti stated that she wasn’t quite ready emotionally to tell the full story about what her neighbor allegedly did to her, she did talk about how her parents’ reaction— or lack thereof—made her feel uncomfortable telling them things after.
“Tattle-telling, that was one of the biggest traumatizing things. I know it sounds weird but that was one of the biggest things I remember growing up is we were not allowed to tattle-tell– anything,” Mykelti said, clarifying that the rule even applied if a sibling was “in a life and death situation.”
“Every single parent had this exact same stance,” Mykelti said, adding that the kid who told got in more trouble than the kid who had committed the bad deed. “…That was like the big thing I remember being disciplined about and traumatizing me.”
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Mykelti said that the no-tattling policy made her and her siblings refrain from speaking up, even about important things.
“…I think it created a lot of issues with us kids not telling our parents the truth, and not wanting to come to them when things actually needed to be told,” Mykelti said. “Like, ‘hey, this neighbor kid touched me on my private parts.’ What kid is going to go tell their parents if they’re worried that they’re going to get in more trouble? That was a big thing growing up and that, like, traumatized me, was tattle-telling.”
When the podcast’s host, Shelise Ann Sola, asked Mykelti if the story about the neighbor kid inappropriately touching her was something that actually happened, Mykelti confirmed that it did.
“There is an experience that happened to me. I’m not quite emotionally healed enough and ready to talk about it, but there is an experience where I went and I told my parents and I got in trouble,” she said. “So, that is speaking from— this actually happened.”
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“…I stopped telling my mom things, to such a degree that I could have been saved a lot of hurt, a lot of emotional damage and pain, if I had that trust with my mom, with my dad, with my other moms,” Mykelti added.
(As ‘Sister Wives’ fans are aware, Mykelti’s dad Kody was married to Christine, as well as Meri and Janelle. He later married Robyn when Mykelti was a teenager. Robyn is the only one of Kody’s wives who is still married to him.)
Later in the interview, Mykelti stated that the sexual assault she suffered made her feel like she was “dirty.” However, she went on to credit Robyn for making her feel like she could open up.
“She had a way of breaking down my walls, and helping me when I was emotionally vulnerable to speak my truth,” Mykelti said. “And a lot of people don’t like Robyn and that’s totally fine. But one of the reasons I did like her so much and why I was so attached to her and why I got along with her so much is I talked to her about things that happened to me and I didn’t get in trouble.”
Robyn even stuck up for Mykelti to Kody about how poorly the situation with the neighbor kid touching Mykelti was dealt with.
“She went to my dad and she was like, ‘This is not OK. You guys handled this wrong. She needs help. She needs to be saved and rescued!'” Mykelti said of Robyn. “So, it was like a big thing for me like, ‘OK so there’s this person who came into my family that’s here to protect me. They like it when I tattle-tell. I’m allowed to talk to them about things. So that’s when my life started to change and got a lot more better and I did get help that I needed.
“That’s when a lot of things began to change in our family, too,” Mykelti added. “Tattle-telling became OK and disciplined changed a lot.”
You can listen to the full episode of Cults to Consciousness by clicking here.
(Photos: YouTube; TLC; Instagram)
20 Responses
“They (Robyn) like it when I tattle-tell.” Interesting comment..
Others have always not liked Robyn but i always did, she can’t help that kody and she fell in love. He may have thought for years he was in love 3 times over with the OG3 but when Robyn came. Along he saw the difference and felt it too. She was the scapegoat for alot i think and im glad Mykelti had her!
And that’s why she was close to Robyn. And why Robyn felt slighted by her because in her mind she saved her!
I agree
Im glad that Robyn was there for her, and I hope she can find peace. That she was punished for “tattling” when she was hurt is absurd and sounds like the parents not wanting to have to parents so they didnt want to hear problems.
A lot of abuse of children is done by other children that are abused and have it normalized.
This is what happens when you have too many children. You don’t know how to deal with any problems so you decide to deal with zero problems.
How very sad for all of these children. You can see it with many of them and their behaviors as they have turned into adults.
I don’t have many positive thoughts about Robin, but I give her credit for letting Mekelti speak her truth.
Next to emotionally abusive, this is a great way to create half monsters or actual monsters.
Paedon for instance thinks he can say and do whatever he wants. The way he speaks off and treats girls is horrible. His sisters could never tattle on him and now his behaviour is problematic.
I wouldn’t be surprised to see arrests and court cases about abuse around a Brown kid in the future. Just like the Duggars, the kids are more likely to develop behaviour that hurts others.
What even halfway decent parent doesn’t want their kids telling them when they have an actual problem?? This may be the most effed up thing I’ve ever heard about this family… and that’s quite the list. That’s straight up abuse/neglect.
Why is she airing all her family secrets right now? I get it’s reality entertainment and unfortunately I’m here for it but feels kinda icky that there’s always a story like this from her
Right? I am very curious to see if anyone else corroborates “HER TRUTH.” None of the other siblings have mentioned this in all these years. . . . I do remember the other siblings not getting along with Mykelti because she was a biznatch. Maybe it was because of this situation that Mykelti was so hard to get along with? Then Robin comes along and bonds with the black sheep and believes all the tall tales. Idk. Did the neighbor kid reach for a ball that she hid between her legs?. . . It was a 1 time grab and go and this traumatized her for decades that details r too traumatic to verbally express? It seems like an attention grabbing experiment but we shall see. . . The zero tolerance policy for expressing feelings in the family sounds traumatic enough without the possibly innocent incident of sexual abuse included.
I am tired of innocent men/boys getting crucified by misleading accusations. I really hope this is not the situation. We woman cannot take any more of this behavior. I am very curious to hear more about this tho. Christine, and Kody will have a lot of explaining to do, in court, if proven true.
Because she has every right to “air” them when or if she chooses! Trauma doesn’t follow a timeline
Honestly the more I hear about everything the more I think Christine and Janelle were just as shitty in terms of parenting as Kody was. Not being allowed to tell your parents you were molested is insane.
Birds of a feather…
This is just evil. Kids couldn’t ever ask for help at all. They were left to their own devices. Negligence at its finest
I don’t like any of them but this does explain the closeness she had to Robyn. And the no tattle telling is ridiculous.
It’s one thing to constantly hear for the 100th time “Moooommmmm….Timmy won’t stop looking at me funny” to “Mom, someone touched my private parts”. Like WTF!? One thing is not like the other and it shouldn’t have been handled the same.
Maybe the no tattling applied to just Mykelti and 1 or 2 other kids?
That’s an absolutely psychotic stance to not allow “tattling” for serious issues like that or when somebody is in danger in general. Wow.
I wonder of the no tattling applied to just Mykelti. 🤔