Sister Wives star Madison Brown is working to create a life for her four children that is wholly unlike the one she had as one of 18 children in a plural family.
As fans of the Brown Family know, Maddie is one of Kody Brown’s 18 children and one of the six he shares with ex-wife Janelle Brown. While much of Maddie and her siblings’ lives have been documented on TV, cracks in the Brown Family were exposed more as the show continued to air, with Maddie and many of her siblings going on to become estranged from Kody.
On Tuesday, Maddie took to social media to reflect on her complicated childhood, while revealing how she’s working to ensure that her own kids never have the same experience.
“There are things my children will never be exposed to in our home and I made that decision long before they were born,” Maddie wrote. “I knew at 13 years old that I didn’t want the life I was living. I couldn’t change my circumstances then, but I could decide, with full certainty, what I would and wouldn’t carry forward. No instability where there should be stability; no fear where there should be safety. No secrets where there should be honesty; no chaos designed as normal.
“It takes a lot of intention to not repeat patterns,” she continued. “It’s not natural. It’s something I had to learn, and something I have to keep choosing, especially on hard days. But it ends with me. That part was decided a long time ago, and I’ve never once looked back on it.”
As fans of ‘Sister Wives’ know, Maddie and her husband Caleb Brush relocated years ago to North Carolina, where many of her siblings and her mom have since relocated as well.
In 2024, Maddie, Caleb and Janelle announced they were launching Taeda Farms, a flower farm in North Carolina. The trio are still in the process of getting their business up and running, though they now live on the farm property and have a website where fans can purchase Taeda Farms merchandise and other goods.
The same year that Maddie announced the launch of Taeda Farms, she opened up on her (now former) podcast, The Authentic Society, about her family’s past money troubles, telling listeners that, despite her dad earning “decent money” at the time, the Browns struggled financially for years.
“Before [‘Sister Wives’], we were very poor,” Maddie claimed. “I think my dad made decent money, but we had, like, 15 kids.”
While Maddie gave her mom credit during the episode for being “relatively good with money,” she said she grew up watching her father “always chose the get-rich-quick scheme.” Though Maddie said her parents’ financial decisions ultimately made her “the parents [she is] today,” she explained that she and Caleb work to “build wealth” and “build stability” with their own money, which is something she never witnessed her own parents do.
Maddie has also opened up in the past about other struggles she faced growing up in the Brown Family, including an allegedly very tumultuous relationship with Meri Brown– Kody’s first wife, who from Kody in 2023. In 2019, Maddie tweeted about growing up with an unnamed “abusive human” who was a “monster.” Years later, Paedon Brown– son of Kody and ex-wife Christine Brown– confirmed that Maddie’s tweets were about Meri.
In 2025, Maddie addressed her past comments about Meri, telling fans on social media that Meri was “extremely harsh” in the past and “will never be allowed in [her] children’s [lives].” Despite this, Maddie insisted that she had forgiven Meri.
While Maddie remains estranged from her dad (as well as his only remaining wife Robyn Brown), she recently hinted on social media that she may be on the path to forgiveness, even if reconciliation remains off the table.
“ … forgiveness does not require reconciliation,” she shared on Instagram last week. “I have forgiven people I am not in relationship[s] with. I have forgiven people while still protecting my family from the patterns I already know too well. Both things are true at the same time. The forgiveness is real. So is the boundary.”
As fans of ‘Sister Wives’ may recall, Maddie broke down in tears on the Season 20 premiere of her family’s TLC series while admitting that she had not yet accepted that she may never have a relationship with her dad again, and that he may never be the father she wants him to be.
“You want your dad to show up,” Maddie said through tears. “And you want reconciliation. And I know I played a part [in our estrangement], but I’m angry. And I’m angry because I’m still trying to learn how not to be disappointed. I’m still learning how to, just, see him for who he is … .”
You can read Maddie’s full Instagram post below.
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(Photos: TLC; Instagram; Twitter)
3 Responses
Maddie and Caleb are smart to just go on with their lives and raise their children without “extra”mothers, so called sister wives. I felt so sorry for the children being exposed in the public by their parents all in the name of a dollar. It was not only Kody who was responsible…..the women all played their parts.And the real victims are their children. I seriously doubt Kody will ever make mends with his adult kids. I sincerely hope Robyn enjoys life in a rocker on her porch with Kody.
Most of us just mess up a couple kids. Cody has managed to fuck up an entire platoon.
I can’t believe he still hasn’t reached out to her and tried to mend their relationship. Having Kody as a Dad is a cr*p hand in life