One of Robyn’s kids breaks down in tears discussing her strained relationship with her siblings, who accuse their mom of “gaslighting” and playing the victim amid their bitter family feud.
Kody Brown’s kids and his estranged relationship with a good number of them took center stage on Sunday’s new episode of Sister Wives.
While the reality TV star is father to 18 children with four women — Robyn, Meri, Janelle and Christine Brown — he’s been on the outs with some of them since disagreements over Covid caused major division. On top of that strain, a text message chain about how to celebrate the holidays also ripped them apart, something some of the children shed some more light on this week.
The hour started with Janelle’s son Garrison having his mom, siblings Gabriel and Savanah, Kody’s ex Christine and her daughter Gwendlyn over for dinner at his place, which both Gabe and Gwendlyn planned to move into.
While preparing food, Christine asked Savanah if she ever saw Robyn’s kids daughters, especially since she was close in age and attended the same school as Breanna. Though she said she and Beanna sometimes saw each other, they “just kind of ignore each other” and don’t speak at all, shocking Christine. Unlike her brothers, Savanah did see her father for the holidays, but she still told Christine it didn’t really bother her that Kody wasn’t around, because she’s gotten so used to him being “absent.”
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“Me and Savanah were decent to each other. It wasn’t like super great and close because during Covid people had different opinions about the rules. We didn’t know what to do with each other, so we kept our distance,” Breanna said in a confessional alongside sister Aurora, also Robyn’s daughter.
“I kinda just feel shocked and confused and she doesn’t care. It just broke my heart a little because I grew up with her. I grew up with all of them,” she continued, before sobbing and asking for producers to cut the cameras.
As Garrison, Gabe, Savanah, Gwendlyn, Janelle and Christine all sat down together for dinner, the boys revealed they hadn’t spoken with their father since their Covid fallout. “I remember him saying something along the lines of he only cares about his minor children or something like that,” said Gabriel, as Garrison pointed out that he’s gotten a new home, car and got into college since they last spoke.
Christine then asked them all to fill her in on the Christmas text message chain fiasco, with her her daughter Gwendlyn explaining the children all wanted to do a Secret Santa, but Robyn derailed the plans. “Robyn made it all about herself, bringing up how there’s all this past trauma. Which, by the way, where’s the trauma coming from? Because dad prefers them,” she said, as the boys agreed in unison.
“They were complaining about trauma and how we don’t respect her as a mother and all of this weird stuff. I’ve always considered them my siblings and I still do, I consider her a mom,” Gwendlyn continued, before Robyn and her daughters shared their POV in separate confessionals.
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“My kids and I wanted to be a part of this family and wanted to be accepted and loved by everyone. When we were blending family years ago, there was a lot of trouble,” said Robyn. “I didn’t feel like I had support from the other parents … that started to go away after 10 years or so … when Covid hit, my kids and I were excluded again and all of a sudden we weren’t part of their group.”
“Before we got on the text chain … we had learned there were some very strong negative feelings towards us coming from some of the siblings,” claimed Aurora. “We also learned they were planning on having Christmas without us, without saying anything to us.”
Added Breanna: “It was very frustrating for me and I felt very hurt and confused.”
Overall, Robyn felt she was getting “attitude” from the other kids, which left her feeling “defeated” and as if “we got voted off the Brown family island.”
After the text chain blew up, Robyn allegedly stopped talking to the other children and instead told Christine’s daughter Mykelti — with whom she remains close — to tell them all her kids wouldn’t participate in the gift exchange. “Robyn turned it into us trying to ostracize her and played the victim and we said no, this is about us trying to figure out how we can do this and adjust to your new Christmas rules,” explained Garrison.
“She was gaslighting everyone into treating her with special treatment,” added Garrison, as Gwendlyn said, “The past 8 years she’s made herself the victim because she was the last wife.”
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According to Garrison, they started to give up trying with Robyn and their father once Christine and Janelle’s marriages “went down the drain,” saying of Robyn, “We don’t care about her anymore.” He also felt she was “the catalyst” of their issues, believing Robyn used Covid to lock down Kody at their home, before “turning dad into the victim and saying it’s out fault.”
Reacting in his own confessional, Kody exclaimed, “All of you are just kinda jerks. I don’t wanna be around you and I am tired of it and I don’t want to call them and I don’t want to talk to them.”
“And that’s why I’m done with Robyn, I don’t care to talk to Robyn anymore, I’m not going to do this. I’m doing my own thing. And Robyn’s mad that she can’t have this affect on our lives anymore because we just don’t care anymore,” he continued. “This is what I think all the siblings think. This is us going, Robyn, have him, we don’t care anymore. We’re all grown adults that don’t need a father figure anymore.”
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While Garrison said he did want to smooth things over with his siblings, he also didn’t think it would be a good idea for him to have a face-to-face meeting involving Robyn, saying he didn’t “have the emotional maturity” to control himself in that setting. Gwendlyn, too, said she missed Aurora — but also felt Robyn would “probably manipulate us or start crying” if she were involved.
Gabe then surprised everyone by saying he’s talked to Aurora at school, saying she’s “the only one from that side of the family who I’ve heard say ‘I love you,’ since Covid.” Aurora, in her own confessional, said he had been nothing but kind to her in person as well.
After Savanah said she felt Kody still loved them but was “just angry” at them “for no reason,” Garrison said they were open to forgiving him but weren’t “going to chase” him for an apology.
For his part, Kody claimed he reached out to both boys before and after Christmas, but they never responded. “They’re blocking me, they’re not interested in talking to me,” he said; the boys were not seen reacting to his claim.
Robyn, meanwhile, said she didn’t think they’ll ever see her as anything “other than a bad guy.”
New episodes of Sister Wives air Sundays on TLC, MAX and Discovery+.
