Janelle Brown and Kody Brown have had different views about how strict to be with COVID protocols throughout this entire season of Sister Wives. Janelle even spent Thanksgiving away from Kody when she and her kids decided they would not be able to comply with his rules. Her feelings about the difficulty of this situation came to a head during the Jan. 16 episode, as she began questioning whether or not she was still happy in her marriage.
“I’ve caught myself in the last few weeks reflecting and being like, ‘Do I still choose plural marriage?'” Janelle told Robyn Brown. “Yeah, i still choose it, but I’ve had to have this conscious decision with myself.” In a confessional, she added, “I’ve had to really think — my children are almost grown and there’s not a huge necessity anymore to stay. It was a wonderful way to raise children. But with Kody and I right now, our relationship is pretty strained. It’d be really easy to walk away.”
COVID has taken a toll on the entire family. While Robyn and Meri Brown have agreed to stick to Kody’s strict COVID rules, Janelle and Christine Brown have been living their lives a bit differently. Like Janelle, Christine has been open about how she disagrees with Kody’s stance on the situation, and she also began wondering if she should leave. “What I hope polygamy to be when I was younger ended up being something very different from what I actually lived,” she admitted. “But we’re heading into Christmas and I need to be present and be grateful for the family that I have. I am who I am today because of polygamy. Because I lived it.”
Leading up to Christmas 2020, Janelle, Christine and their families agreed to quarantine and follow Kody’s rules so that the family could all be together. The whole group finally was able to reunite in one place for the first time since COVID first hit the previous March. Unfortunately, despite the exciting occasion, Kody was still upset with how some of his relationships were panning out. “We’ve had a lot of struggles this year with COVID and relationships, and as a result, I’m a little blue,” he shared. ‘I’m not really feeling that joyful this Christmas.”
However, Janelle seemed to leave the holiday celebration with a more positive outlook. “I think we’ve damaged some relationships [this year],” she said. “But I think it’s time to get back to the normalcy and see if we can smooth things out.” As fans know, though, Christine was unable to smooth things out enough to stay — she and Kody split in the fall of 2021.