Sister Wives Season 19 has been an honest look into the toxic dynamic that Kody Brown shared with his former wives, Meri, Janelle, and Christine Brown. While Kody’s only remaining wife, Robyn Brown, has been blamed by the viewers for the breakdown of the plural family, the Brown family patriarch himself is a huge part of the problem. The truth is, if Kody hadn’t been so blatantly biased toward his youngest wife, the fallout might not have been so ugly.
Among all the wives, though, Christine seems to have gotten the worst of Kody’s emotional neglect. While Christine was often seen as the emotional pillar of the family, Kody’s dismissive attitude toward her was always heartbreaking to watch. Throughout Sister Wives, Christine has opened up about feeling invisible to her former husband. However, now that she is in a loving relationship with David Woolley, she is finally talking about the intensity of her struggles.
There Was No Emotional or Physical Intimacy Between Christine and Kody Brown
During the June 8, 2025 episode of the Sister Wives Tell-All Special Part 3, Christine revealed that the minute Kody told the family that he was going to marry Robyn, she knew that their relationship was pretty much over. According to Christine, she and her former husband shared a great dynamic for a long time. In her exact words: “It was just a blast.” However, when he married Robyn, Christine started feeling like something was missing between them. While Kody never formally divorced her, like he did with Meri, his decision to legally marry Robyn and adopt her children wasn’t easy for Christine to accept. Their marriage became more of a formality rather than the meaningful connection it once had been.
“It wasn’t a real true intimacy,” added Christine as she talked about Kody completely neglecting her emotionally, romantically, financially, and even physically. According to Christine, her intimate life with Kody was pretty great when they first got married. However, toward the end of their marriage, it was pretty much non-existent. The TLC star confessed that over time, sex turned into “just an act” between the two of them and that it lacked any kind of real emotion. She recalled feeling used by Kody as he fulfilled his needs. However, Christine admitted that maybe she was using Kody for the same reason.
Kody Brown Never Seemed Interested in Fixing Things
The worst part, though, is that she and Kody never talked about it and let things be the way they were. To Christine, it felt like her former husband was okay with sex simply being a marital obligation for both of them. Despite the fact that they were only being intimate around five times a year, the Brown family patriarch never really saw a problem with it. The only time Christine attempted to have a conversation with Kody, he immediately shut her down and blatantly told her that they were never going to have any kind of intimacy in their marriage. Christine revealed that after hearing how Kody felt about the situation, she didn’t want him in her bed anymore. That is the point where the former sister wife started gaining independence and eventually found the courage to leave Kody.
Kody Brown’s Manipulative Ways Have Come To Light More Than Once
Christine first brought the issue up during the Sister Wives Season 16 Tell All, which aired in 2022. What made this situation so heartbreaking for her was that Kody was still intimate with Janelle and Robyn. While it was no surprise that Kody and Robyn had a healthy dynamic, given the Brown family patriarch’s obvious favoritism, his sex life with Janelle came as a surprise. Now, the viewers noticed that he and Janelle were extremely awkward around one another at this point and barely had any romantic feelings left for each other. However, Janelle seemed to be okay with her and Kody’s physical relationship lacking an emotional connection. Janelle’s lowered expectations of Kody clearly allowed her to approach their relationship in a way that Christine wasn’t able to.
Kody, however, blamed it all on Christine and explained that he didn’t want to be intimate with her after finding out that she was considering leaving him. Kody expressed that he felt like Christine was stabbing him in the back, and he couldn’t manage being close to her in any way in this situation. This goes to show just how Kody used emotional neglect as a form of manipulation and control. His go-to strategy of withholding love and affection was Kody’s way of keeping all his wives in a constant state of insecurity, where they were always competing against each other. For years, all his wives were essentially forced to stay in line and cater to his ego, because the minute they would challenge him, he would make them feel undeserving of his attention.