Kody Brown is holding out hope for a romantic reunion with ex Janelle Brown.
Though the two have separated, they addressed whether a reconciliation is possible during the final part of the Sister Wives: One on One special. As for their future together, Kody noted that "Janelle's made it pretty clear to me that she's enjoying her life without me." However, he said he still wants to work on their relationship.
"Oh yeah, absolutely. Yeah," he replied when asked by host Sukanya Krishnan during the Jan. 8 episode. "But I won't go to a place where I'm not respected. Because love doesn't matter to me, respect matters to me."
Though Kody admitted that repairing his relationship with Janelle would not be easy. "I wanna fix it, yes," he said. "Yeah, but that's a whole new negotiation."
According to Kody, he and Janelle have been in a "new place" following his split from wife Christine Brown, which was announced in November 2021.
"Christine's left. Janelle likes her. That was just like, 'Why couldn't you have been good sister wives when you were sister wives?'" he continued. "That's such a mess."
Regarding his separation from Janelle, Kody called it "pretty stupid for people who love each other huh?" However, Janelle suggested there's no longer love between them.
"At this point, no. It's not," she replied. "It's duty, it's commitment, it's a faith that tells you you work it out and you stick it out. I think if we both really sat down, we'd look at each other and say, 'Really?'"
And after being separated from Kody "for several months," Janelle noted that she's "really happy."
"I don't know. Things just really became sort of indifferent," she added. "Like, I just didn't care anymore."
When asked if she still respected Kody after she became "indifferent," Janelle said she did. And while she said she still does, she indicated that she's starting to lose her respect for him.
"I do, but I'm so mad about what's happened with our kids that it's very hard," she shared. "I'm losing respect for him in that regard."
Kody and Janelle share six of his 18 children together. This past season, tension between Kody and Janelle rose over the COVID-19 protocols he put in place that resulted in them spending less time together.
When Sukanya said that Kody also felt disrespected, Janelle replied, "Well, it's mutual. I think it's a two-way street there."
"I think if he had truly been watching out for me and my children he would have figured out a way to make it work for the whole family instead of having his rules and hanging out with the wife, staying where he was respected and obeyed," she added, seemingly referencing his relationship with wife Robyn Brown.
Kody is legally married to only Robyn; however, he still considered himself spiritually married to Janelle, Christine and wife Meri Brown. But in addition to being separated from Janelle and divorced from Christine, Kody revealed during the One on One special that he doesn't feel married to Meri anymore.
"Here's the thing, this is what I say," she said. "People change. Maybe he's just at this place that's like, 'She's just not for me anymore,' and he's now finally just saying it."