‘Sister Wives’ Family Open up About Arizona Move: ‘We’re in Living Hell Right Now’

The Sister Wives family is opening up about the move of their clan of more than 20 from the “exile” of Las Vegas to the city of Flagstaff, Arizona.

Kody Brown, the patriarch of the popular TLC series about a polygamous family, opened up to the Associated Press about his family’s big move from the “exile” of life in Las Vegas to the “live and let live” city of Flagstaff, Arizona.

“Let’s just say there’s a lot of hippies in Flagstaff, and they’re awesome,” Brown said, though moving a family of 25 is not easy. “We moved to heaven, but we’re in living hell right now,” he added, referencing the abundance of unpacking the family still has to do to fully integrate themselves into their four new homes situated on roughly 15 acres of land that cost them $820,000.

The family’s move was prompted due to the realization that they did not want to “grow old” in Las Vegas, and came on the heels of them being driven out of Utah in 2011 due to the threat of prosecution following the series premiere of their TLC series.

While the majority of their new neighbors have no issue with the family’s lifestyle — Kody Brown has one legal wife and three “spiritual wives” — others are concerned that the town will turn into a “circus” due to filming, and some fear the “patriarchal” culture their presence will bring.

“This is not a culture I want here,” Flagstaff resident Jessie Luckey said, adding, “normalizing a behavior that I don’t think should be normalized.”

The family’s move comes after it had been reported that Meri Brown, who had married Kody in 1990 but later legally ended their marriage to allow Kody to marry Robyn, had left her husband and three sister wives for a new man in Utah.

“Meri has relocated to Utah. [She] is staying at her great-grandparents’ home that’s now a bed and breakfast. She’s loving it there,” a source had told Life & Style. “Her new man is a close friend of one of her sisters’ husbands. He’s very blue collar. He’s not a fame seeker. He’s a nice person, which is what Meri needs.”

However, it seems that Meri may have moved to Arizona with Kody and her three other sister wives, Janelle, Christine, and Robyn, along with their combined 18 children who now range in age from 2 to 24.

Season 8 of Sister Wives premieres in January 2019 on TLC.