Kody Brown Brands Ex, Kids ‘A-Holes’ On Sister Wives, Accuses Them Of ‘Bullying’ Tactics

After each season, Kody Brown and the four women in his life — Meri, Janelle, Christine and Robyn — all sit down with host Sukanya “Suki” Krishnan separately to go over the show’s drama. During the conversations, they revisit some of the biggest moments from the season, while also reacting to some of the confessional commentary they weren’t privy to until after the episodes aired.

In the first hour, which aired Sunday night, Kody was asked where he stood with Janelle currently, after the pair had a massive, on-camera blowout. He said he wasn’t really sure, adding that neither of them really want to reconcile and explaining why he doesn’t ever really ask about their children when they do meet up.

“Here’s what’s happened. I’ve spent two years watching and seeing Christine and Janelle talk about me, without me, and they’re just trash talking me. So I’m going, I don’t want to ask about anyone else, because I don’t want anybody talking about me,” he said to Krishnan. “What are they trash talking me about? They’re trash talking me because I’m guilty — actually, yes I am — of not loving them.”

“I was guilty of not being in love with them. It was guilt from the beginning. I married on a premise that was very different than romantic love,” he continued. “I’m in a place now where I would like romantic love with Janelle, we’ve got stuff to work out.”

After they all rewatched footage of Janelle and Kody’s fight, Robyn claimed her husband was so angry because he was “triggered” by the sight of her Christmas tree Janelle planned to bring to Christine’s to celebrate the holiday. That, she said, made him feel like Janelle was siding with Christine following their own split.

“So you couldn’t get over the betrayal of her picking sides with Christine?” Krishnan asked Kody, who admitted “that was the trigger” for his outburst, along with “the betrayal of not backing me up with the kids.”

The family dynamic had already been tense thanks to Covid restrictions Kody placed on them all during lockdown. He felt some of the kids, especially his sons with Janelle, weren’t respecting his orders and were prioritizing their social lives over safety; they, however, felt he was prioritizing his family with wife Robyn over everyone else. It all got very messy, leading to a giant fracture in the family and between Kody and his children. At one point, he demanded the boys apologize to him, before changing his tune to simply wanting to have a conversation with them about everything that went down. That never happened and tensions only got worse.

Krishnan pointed out how “easy” it would have been for him to say he simply wanted to see his kids during the holiday and could have asked to show up to Janelle’s, instead of continuing to ice them all out. He explained his stance, saying it came down to respecting Robyn.

“Personally, I feel like, as we have seen, they’re trying to blame Robyn. The kids are estranged, and Janelle has even been going, ‘Oh Robyn, this broken dove that Kody has to protect from all the assholes.’ Yes, I feel like they have all been absolute assholes to her and what’s weird is they’re assholes to me and I just put up with it,” he said.

“I did not want them separating me and her from each other. So where I go, she’s going to go and where she goes with that part of the family, she isn’t going to feel welcome and her kids aren’t going to want to be around those other kids,” Kody claimed. “There’s a lot of bullying in the family, and I’m just not willing to sit here and put up with it anymore.”

When Krishnan told Robyn her husband felt it wasn’t a “safe space” for them to go to Janelle’s for the holidays, she disagreed. Robyn said she would have gone had they been invited and she “would have been safe.”

“I think the reason why he’s saying that is just because of this idea that the boys are blaming me for stuff. I kept thinking that he would work something out with the boys so that it can be OK,” she continued. “I never wanted an apology, I didn’t ask for one, I never expected one, I was not saying this to him. And I feel very frustrated my name came into this.”

Kody went on to say he believes both himself and Janelle see “so little value in the relationship that we have not made those steps to bring it back together.” He said he felt “Janelle sees more value in the relationship with Christine than she does in the relationship with”; Janelle, meanwhile, said she was very “relieved” after their fight, feeling she no longer felt the “burden” of “putting effort into this relationship anymore with Kody.”

The episode ended with Krishnan bringing up Kody saying in a confessional how he felt Janelle was only “interested” in his “nice pecs and great six-pack abs.”

“The great pecs and six pack abs was all about the fact Janelle has always seen me as a physical specimen and as a resource and not ever really dove into my humanity,” he said, explaining his comment. “You felt you were just there to, what, a physical boy toy?” asked the host — with Kody saying that, yes, he felt like “some pool boy” and a piece of meat.”

The last question: “Did you guys just have great sex?”

Fans will have to tune in next Sunday for an answer to that one. Sister Wives airs Sundays on TLC.