What you need to know
Before Janelle Brown married now ex Kody Brown and became Meri Brown’s sister wife, she and Meri shared another relationship: step-sisterhood.
On the Jan. 4 episode of Sister Wives, Janelle, 56, revealed that she knew Meri, 54, before her marriage to Kody, as Janelle was married to Meri’s older brother.
“Janelle and I were actually sisters-in-law before we were sister wives,” Meri said as the two sat in a coffee shop and chatted.
“She’s married to my brother, and she actually attended my wedding with him,” Meri continued. “And then after Kody and I got married, they got divorced.”
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“I met Meri’s brother when I was a senior in high school, and we got married about a year to a year and a half after graduation,” Janelle said, adding that their marriage was “very short.”
“We had been married for less than a year,” she revealed.
While Janelle felt their brief marriage before meeting Kodi was “no big deal,” Meri felt differently considering she first married Kodi in 1990.
“When word started coming out that Janelle was going to be joining the family, it was really hard for me,” Meri said of the episode.
“It was hard to wrap my head around it on so many levels just because she was married to my brother,” she continued. “And that was definitely, definitely important to me.”
Janelle, on the other hand, said she felt her first marriage “didn’t really matter.”
“It was a very short period of time,” Janelle said.
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Elsewhere in the episode, Janelle opened up about her ex Kody, 56, granting her a “release” or divorce from their church, United Brotherhood of Apostles.
“I have it,” Janelle said, holding up the release paper. “It was easy. I knew I had to come back for the second meeting. I’m free, I’m free, I’m free, I’m free.”
After meeting with church leaders, Janelle said she didn’t know “what I was worried about.”
“They were all very kind,” she said. “They allowed me to let go. So there was a real shift in my energy. I think it must have really meant something deep down in my mind that I don’t always pay attention to. So I’m glad I did this.”
Janelle and Kody broke up in 2022. He separated from his wife Christine Brown in 2021 and Meri in 2023. The former polygamist’s only remaining relationship is with his wife Robyn Brown.
“Look, I don’t regret anything in the last 30 years,” said Janelle, who has children Logan, Madison, Hunter, Gabrielle, Savannah, and her late son Garrison with Kody. “I love the family I have. I would do it all over again to get my family and my kids back. (It’s) like that chapter is closed.”
Sister Wives airs Sundays at 10pm ET on TLC.
