‘Sister Wives’: Cody Brown Lies to Christine About Custody Laws

Things are getting contentious between Kody and Christine Brown as they navigate the legal side of their split. In Sunday’s Sister Wives episode, Kody admitted to lying about child custody laws as they navigate what’s next as they plan to co-parent 12-year-old daughter Truely. While Kody told his ex that a formal custody agreement had to be in place for Truely, despite the fact that he and Christine were never legally married, she’s shocked.

“You and I have to actually have a child custody agreement in place or the state takes her, essentially becomes the owner of her,” Kody insisted in Sunday’s episode. But outside of his conversation with Christine, Kody admitted he was lying about those laws while trying to get her to agree to a formal custody document. “So I got to this child custody thing, I just started getting creative about it,” he said.

“I just don’t know what to do. Christine’s like, ‘Why do we need to do this?’ And I’m like, ‘Because the rulebook says?’ I don’t know why we need to do this,” he continued. “There is this thing in the man-o-sphere where it says, ‘If you’re getting divorced, you’re going to get screwed, bro.’” Despite never being married, without a child custody agreement, Kody told Christine “You’re going to get a lawyer and the government involved, state government” and “the lawyer’s going to take all the money you have.”

Christine wasn’t upset by Kody lying, however, finding it funny instead. “Does he not understand I want him to be around his kids? I’m not going to fight him on that,” she said in a confessional. “I’ve always wanted him to be around his kids, so why would I say, ‘I don’t want you to be around Truely’? That doesn’t make any sense whatsoever. He just doesn’t trust me. That’s what this comes down to.”

Kody agreed with Christine about struggling to trust her, pushing for the custody agreement to be filed for in Arizona because he didn’t trust the state of Utah. Christine realized in the end that she might have to have a legal battle with Kody. “I would love it not getting a lawyer involved. But if he’s already going there and lawyering up, then I’m going to as well,” she said. “I don’t want to, though. I’d rather just figure it out amicably. We’ve got kids. We’re not legally married so we don’t have to go down that road.” Sister Wives airs Sundays at 10 p.m. ET on TLC.