After Christine told her fellow wives she was leaving Kody, two of her kids shared their candid reactions to their parents' split.
It's time for the kids to weigh in on the turmoil in the Brown family. On Sunday's Sister Wives, Christine Brown throws a big graduation and birthday party for her and Kody Brown's daughter, Ysabel, just weeks after telling the other wives that she is leaving Kody.
It's the family's first time all getting together since the COVID pandemic and Christine points out that it could also be their last time before she and Truely move to Utah.
"All of my kids except for Truely know. And I know that Janelle's kids know, but I don't know about Robyn's kids or Mariah. I really have no idea," Christine admits in an aside interview.
For the first time, two of Christine's daughters, Ysabel and Mykelti, speak about their parents' split on camera in aside interviews.
"I think with my mom and dad getting a divorce, if I'm honest, I did see it coming, but of course I'm sad about it," Ysabel admits. "Sometimes it just doesn't work out and I'm happy my mom will be able to find somebody who she's really, really, really happy with."
Mykelti, who welcomed her first child on a recent episode of the show, shares, "I was honestly relieved when I heard my mom was leaving my dad. They're not happy. They're not in love."
Her husband, Tony, who does not practice polygamy, adds, "I thought it was a little inevitable. I can't imagine any man being perfect enough to be able to handle four wives."
Janelle, Kody's second wife, who is closest with Christine, shares of her own biological children, "My kids know Christine's leaving. I don't think Gabriel and Garrison are really that concerned because they're already talking about visiting Christine in Utah. They just see it as a disruption, not a discontinuation."
But Robyn, Kody's fourth wife, says that her biological kids aren't quite as calm about the situation.
"I told all my kids, even Sol and Ari, about what's going on with Christine," she says, mentioning her youngest children, who are 10 and 6, respectively. "Dayton and Breanna are sad and confused and frustrated. Sol and Ari are so confused and so sad."
Meanwhile, Kody is struggling throughout the episode, not just to deal with the fact that Christine is leaving him, but also with his feelings surrounding some of his older kids, whom he's been at odds with.
"I've got what feels like very strained relationships with a bunch of the kids. I'm not in a good place with everybody," Kody shares. "It's not that I'm trying to be angry or trying to hold them accountable in this moment or anything like that. I don't feel like I've got the respect I should have. No, I'm not OK. I'm here. I'm in a funk. It's this loneliness combined with a bitterness at the entire family."
He says he's in "the anger phase of divorce" and that he's "under this cloud of sadness."
The Brown family patriarch says that the entire experience has left him filled with doubts and questions.
"It's a weird thing to be getting left. It's made me question plural marriage," he admits. "It's made me question my faith and especially question my religion. The message that we had to the world about polygamy seems so dysfunctional now."
The episode was filmed in the spring of 2021. In November 2021, Christine and Kody publicly announced they were divorcing after 25 years of marriage. Christine has since said that she plans to only enter into monogamous relationships in the future.
Sister Wives airs Sundays at 10 p.m. ET on TLC.
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