The entire concept of the Sister Wives family is beyond comprehension for many. The reality television series that debuted for many years follows the lives of Kody Brown and his four wives. His polygamist lifestyle is simply not one that many people understand, and it is not one that many people are interested in living. In fact, it seems that many of the people who watch this show are very curious about the lifestyle, but not interested in it. The premise is simple; Kody Brown marries whomever he wants and gets to have some serious fun with his relationships since he does not believe in monogamy. Only one of his marriages at a time is legal, however, and the rest are not. They are spiritual marriages in which the couple performs a wedding ceremony in which to welcome a second wife, but does not actually make her legally married.
Kody Brown’s life is, to say the least, crazy. He is married to one of his four wives, but it’s not always been easy. He was married for 24 years to Meri, his first and only legal wife for that timeframe. The couple is still spiritually married despite the fact that they legally divorced in September 2014 so that Kody Brown could legally marry his fourth wife and actually adopt her three children from a previous marriage. He is now legally married to his fourth wife, Robyn, since December 2014. He never legally married his second wife, Janelle, to whom he has been spiritually married since 1993 or his third wife, Christine, to whom he has been spiritually married since 1994.
Between his four wives, he has 19 children. The family has moved from Utah to Las Vegas, and they have invested in a piece of property on a street so that they can have four homes together. He is an advertising salesman, and no one is quite certain how it is he affords to support four families with this many kids. What’s even crazier about this entire arrangement is that despite the fact that this man was married to Meri for three years before he took on a second wife, he has kids older than the child he has with her. In fact, he has kids with his second and third wife that are older than the one daughter he has with his second wife. He’s also expecting a new baby with his fourth wife in the beginning of the new year.
The way that this family dynamic works is very interesting. Apparently, the couples live very close to one another and they split their time. He will spend one night with one family and the next night with another family. Each of his wives has a home of her own in which she will host the other parts of the family, including her stepchildren. He will choose which family he sleeps with at night based on the schedule that they have, but we don’t know if he has nights where he wants to spend the night with a certain wife or not. We can only assume special arrangements are made when an anniversary night falls on the night of another wife’s time with him, and there is no confirmation whether or not they sometimes spend their nights all together. Frankly, I’d say it’s safe to assume no one really wants to know that information.
How does this work?
There are probably many men out there that think that there are certain aspects of this life that seem pretty good – having several wives and the blessing of each of his wives to be with another woman, for instance. However, the idea of having more than one wife is a bit much for some men. However, the idea of having a few other women around the house does seem like it might work for some women, but I’d say that most of us would love those women to come in the form of helpful grandparents, cooks and a cleaning crew rather than additional wives with whom we have to share our husbands.
The family dynamic works for them because their religion believes in this kind of marriage. They call it a plural family, and they are very committed to making it work. When there are disagreements between the families, it seems that they like to take their time to talk it out rather than to let it simmer without speaking up. This is how they keep their relationships open.
However, it doesn’t always work. In the reality series, it came to head that the first three wives were not all that happy about the fact that their husband had taken a fourth wife. Some of the wives were jealous and not very welcoming of Robyn at first, but it seems that they have worked through their issues. As far as jealousy goes, the wives are not always a huge fan of sharing their husband. The first three were very close and worked together quite well to form a bond that made them feel like real sisters. They knew what to expect, they were okay with their relationship and they were okay with sharing their husband. They worked like this for two decades before their fourth sister wife came along, and that caused quite a stir in the family.
The kids are all raised as brothers and sisters, and they sometimes are teased at school and made fun of for their parents’ choice of lifestyle. It cannot be easy being the parent of this many kids of various ages, but having four wives to help out probably does make things seem a bit easier. The entire concept might work for them, but there are many people that find this type of relationship strange, inappropriate and not to their liking. To each his own, I suppose. Kody Brown has a life that not many people envy, and that’s his choosing. He’s likely experiencing a lot of stress with this many women this close, and that’s his choice.
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