Always remember that when you're pointing your finger at someone, you've got three pointing back at yourself—Janelle Brown and Christine Brown to former husband Kody Brown, basically.
Because while the Sister Wives patriarch accused his ex spouses of "trash talking" him on the Nov. 26 episode of Sister Wives: One on One because he's guilty of "not loving them", Janelle and Christine aren't having it.
"I think he's trying to find fault because he's not liking things that are happening in his life," Christine explained in an exclusive interview with E! News' Francesca Amiker. "So he's trying to find fault with other people."
Agreed Janelle, "I feel bad that he feels like that. But it does feel like he's trying to find a reason."
Namely, Christine spelled out, he's searching for an answer as to why he's currently estranged from some of his 18 children. But as she sees it, "His relationship with his kids is his responsibility. He needs to fix it."
And he may want to start with the man in the mirror. Because Janelle and Christine insist they're on Team Everyone Gets Along.
"We actually would love Kody to have a great relationship with all of his children, and I do whatever I can to facilitate that," said Christine. Now that she lives in Utah, she added, she's been known to cancel all her plans when she learns Kody is making the trip from Arizona so that youngest daughter Truely, 13, "can spend time with her dad."
And both would agree that Kody's friction with his older children—the reality star has admitted he's not currently speaking to Janelle's son Garrison, 25, and Gabriel, 22—played a role in their decades-long marriages unraveling.
For years, said Christine, who announced the end of their 25-year union in November 2021, she believed their connection was okay. Until one day, she continued, "I realized that it just wasn't the relationship that I was looking for, for my kids. And it wasn't a relationship I was looking for myself. And then I was like, Okay, well, now that I found that, I'm going to move on, and I'm going to go, and I'm not going to stay anymore. So for me, it was instantaneous."
Janelle, meanwhile, felt that she and Kody had slowly begun to drift apart during their nearly 30 years together.
"Every relationship ebbs and flows," she noted of working through previous rough patches, "but we really had hit a very different point now where we were just so very opposite."
Add in that he'd become estranged with some of their six kids, and Janelle knew it was time to move on. "Because, look," she said, "I would have stayed and stayed and stayed if the kids were okay. I'm glad that I'm in the place I am now. But I think for me, it was more just a progression of a relationship, which I never imagined would happen for me. I thought we'd be married forever."
But while no longer spiritually bonded, she and Kody remain connected by their kids (along with Garrison and Gabriel, they share Logan, 29, Maddie, 28, Hunter, 26, and Savanah, 18) plus a growing collection of grandchildren.
Which is why both she and Christine have mastered the art of being cordial, particularly when gathered for family events.
And they each hope to upgrade the relationship from amicable to downright friendly in the future.
"I do hope that eventually time heals," said Janelle. "So I'm hoping that over time, he can find a relationship with the children that he's estranged from now. And I just hope that there is peace. There's a place that we get where we're all peaceful."
And history would suggest there are more than a few Brown weddings in the future. Check out all the family member who have already multiplied their love.
Meri Brown
In January 2024, a year after she and Kody Brown announced their breakup, Meri revealed on Instagram that she had begun dating Amos Andrews the previous October. But in February 2024, Meri confirmed on Instagram that they had called it quits.
"She looked like a soccer mom," Kody Brown once joked on Sister Wives of meeting then-single mom Robyn in 2009. "She had a van, three kids and was divorced. I thought, 'I didn't need a van, a divorced woman, and three kids in my life—that's just trouble.'"
Nearly a decade and a half on, though, they're still kicking it, the pair adding son Solomon, 12, and daughter Ariella, 7, to the squad. As for bringing on other teammates, it's not in the game plan. "I really, really struggle with it because it feels, like, 'Oh, well. Those didn't work. So, on to [someone] new,'" Robyn said on the December Sister Wives: One on One special of Meri, Janelle and Christine leaving the fold. "That's hard for me. That's really, really hard for me. It feels disrespectful."
She got the man and the family. Going official with her and David Woolley's romance on Valentine's Day 2023, Christine Brown shared, "I finally found the love of my life, David. The first time he held me close, it felt like my soul took its first breath. He's wonderful and kind, incredible with my children and an adorable grandpa. I never dreamed I could find a love like this."
Two months later he added to the fantasy with a spring proposal. "David treats me like a queen and tells me I'm beautiful everyday," Christine told People. "I've never been in love like this before and the world seems like a brighter place with him in it."
Tying the knot in Utah Oct. 7, she wrote, "I'm so blessed! I've married my best friend."
The first of the 18 Brown children to walk down the aisle, Janelle's eldest daughter, Madison Brown, now 28, wed Caleb Brush at a 2016 outdoor wedding in Montana captured by TLC's cameras. Nearly seven years later, the two have multiplied their love with Josephine joining big brother Axel, 6, and big sister Evie, 4, in February.
"One month as a family of 5 and my heart is bursting," North Carolina-based Maddie wrote on Instagram in March. "I didn't know this kind of peace amongst chaos could be had."
Four years after their engagement aired on the TLC reality show, Meri Brown's only child, Leon Brown, has settled in Denver with partner Audrey Kriss. "my sweetest symphony," Leon, 28, raved of their fiancé. "Life with you truly is so sweet." Echoed Audrey, "Being your partner and watching your growth and coming into yourself over the years has been an honor and joy."
Eldest kid Logan Brown, 29, got the gang back together when he married longtime girlfriend Michelle Petty in Arizona this past October. "It was a beautiful day and this mama's heart was mush the whole time," Janelle shared on Instagram of her son's wedding. "You always have such a sense of peace when your children find amazing life partners."
More than six years after her 2016 wedding to Antonio "Tony" Padron, Mykelti Brown joked that they'd already tested the limits of their marriage vows by welcoming twins Archer and Ace into the fold in November 2022.
"We have 3 kids and 4 moves under our belt," noted the 27-year-old, also mom to Avalon, 2. "A whole lot of good times and some hard times #surprisetwins But here we are still doing this whole marriage thing."
In the five years since they wed, Christine's daughter Aspyn Brown, 28, and husband Mitch Thompson have traveled everywhere from Paris to Alaska. But last December, they put down roots, Mitch sharing on Instagram, "We bought our first home! Just in time for Christmas."
Before hitting their one-year anniversary, Christine's daughter Gwendlyn Brown and love Beatriz Queiroz went to the happiest place on earth and marked six months together with chocolate fondue. Then came the really sweet part. The 22-year-old shared a glimpse at the candlelit, rose-filled proposal on Instagram in November 2022, writing simply, "i'm engaged!!"
The couple wed in July, sharing the news on Instagram the caption: "Say hello to mrs (x2) queiroz."