While Kody Brown might still be reeling from his split from his third wife, Christine Brown, the patriarchy-loving patriarch doesn't seem to have a problem letting his first wife, Meri Brown, go. On Sunday's Sister Wives, Kody makes a suggestion in the aftermath of the sudden death of Meri's mother, Bonnie, that leaves Meri even more upset than before.
It all centers around Meri and Bonnie's B&B, Lizzie's Heritage Inn, which is located in Parowan, Utah. While the Brown family is residing in Flagstaff, Arizona, Meri is trying to figure out what to do with the B&B in the wake of Bonnie's death.
"It's been really hard just trying to figure out life without her and trying to figure out what to do and how to do it," Meri says, revealing she temporarily shut down the business to grieve and figure out her next moves.
But she doesn't take kindly to Kody's suggestion that she relocate to the property, which is more than five hours away from their family's home.
"Kody actually said to me the other day, he said, 'Why don't you just move up there?' So I'm like, 'Uhh, that was not my intention,'" Meri says. "I told him I didn't want to. I told him I had no intention of doing that, and he was kind of surprised. He's lik,e 'Oh, really?' I guess I'm just still in this place with him or he's in this place where he thinks the point of me buying this was to get away and that saddens me a lot."
The other wives back up Meri, noting that she's made it clear that she never purchased the B&B as a way of distancing herself from the family.
"She's made that so abundantly clear that she's not going to live there," Christine confirms. "I can't tell you how many times she's said that she's not going to live there."
Robyn also acknowledges that her husband didn't handle the situation tactfully.
"Kody probably didn't mean this in a bad way, but at the same time, it can be completely misunderstood to the point where it's insensitive," she says. "Kody does think out loud. He has a tendency to process and be creative out loud and it's frightening sometimes... It wasn't something that needed to be said."
Kody doesn't seem to understand what was wrong with his suggestion. After describing his marriage to Meri as "estranged" in the past, he notes in Sunday's episode, "The reason I'm suggesting this to Meri is because honestly, as a family anymore it doesn't feel like we interact that much. I'm not even trying to push her away. She's laying this burden that she has at my feet about this struggle she has about what to do with Lizzie's Heritage Inn now that her mom's passed. And I'm like, here's a solution for you."
Meri's still upset by the suggestion, saying she doesn't want the family to think she's planning to leave, especially after Christine announced her intentions to divorce Kody.
"I am lost. I feel empty. I feel like I have to figure out a lot of stuff and I don't know how to figure it out," Meri says.
Meri was Kody's first wife. They tied the knot in April 1990 and share a son, 27-year-old Leon Brown. The pair had a strong relationship until Meri's 2015 catfishing scandal in which she entered into an online relationship with someone she thought to be a man but who turned out to be a woman. The couple went to therapy in the aftermath and have since revealed that they are no longer intimate and that Kody no longer lives in Meri's home.
In February 2021, Kody told ET, "Meri and I are in an amiable relationship, but we've been literally separated for four or five years. We're amiable, we've had a real struggle... I'm not mad anymore. I'm not angry anymore. I'm not hurt anymore. So, that's progress."
Sister Wives airs Sundays at 10 p.m. ET on TLC.
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