Meri Brown acknowledges her former wedding anniversary more than a year after her split from ex Kody Brown.
Meri Brown made the surprising decision on Sunday to acknowledge her former wedding anniversary to ex Kody Brown. The 53-year-old Sister Wives star split from Kody in early 2023, but still posted about the memorable day online.
"So I've considered today whether or not I wanted to address this, and I've decided I will," the TLC star captioned a photo of herself and her dog, Zona. "34 years ago today, I got married. 34 years ago was the start of this family that so many of you have come to love or, well, not so much. Yes, I know full well that we are a very polarizing topic. 😆"
Noting that she "never anticipated a divorce," Meri added that she does not regret the marriage or their breakup.
"I look back and am grateful for the experiences and the lessons," she continued. "For a long time, I had the narrative in my head that if I couldn't make my marriage work, then I was a failure. But what if I flipped that narrative? What if, instead, I looked at all the lessons I lived and realized that's what made me who I am today?"
Noting that the date has been a complicated one for her, Meri added, "An April 21st will never pass without me remembering. Not with bitterness, not with anger, not with sadness or even grief. Just remembering my life and all the lessons and experiences in it."
Meri was Kody's first wife. They legally tied the knot in 1990. They share one biological child — Leon Brown. In 2014, Kody legally divorced Meri so that he could marry Robyn Brown in an effort to legally adopt her children from her previous marriage. Meri continued a spiritual marriage — albeit an estranged one — with Kody until 2023 when they announced they had "permanently terminated" their marriage.
Meri became the third wife to leave Kody after Christine Brown and Janelle Brown in the years prior to her exit. Meri's decision to officially exit the marriage was documented on the family's TLC show, Sister Wives, during the most recent season. In fact, a turning point for Meri happened on the former couple's wedding anniversary.
In an October 2023 episode, Meri noted that Kody had not acknowledged the anniversary, so she brought it up to him. The resulting meetup and conversation ended up being a wakeup call for Meri.
She said that during their interaction, Kody said, "We're not meh…," before pausing. "And then he goes, but we're not living as a married couple. I felt like in that moment that he stopped himself from saying, 'Well, we're not married.' And that was like a big realization to me that all this time, all these years, that's how he's felt about it. But I haven't known that."
The former spouses went on to call it quits on camera in the show's season finale.
Kody's only remaining wife is Robyn Brown, and the father of 18 says he no longer lives in polygamy or intends to take on another wife following his breakups.
Meri had one short-lived romance with a man named Amos in early 2024, but the pair called it quits after about four months.
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