Sister Wives star Kody Brown recently compared his daughter Mariah’s life as a gay woman to the polygamist life that he and his wives have lived, saying, “The parallels are very similar.” During Sunday night’s episode of the show, the family sat down to decide who to invite to Mariah’s wedding. Fans will remember that Mariah became engaged to her girlfriend Audrey Kriss back in 2019, and the pair wanted to make sure they did not invite anyone to their wedding who would disapprove of their union.
Most everyone in the family seemed to understand their position. Still, Kody had a different perspective, politely making the argument that many of the people who “had a problem at first” with his “polygamous wedding” to fourth and legal wife Robyn “sort of lightened up through that process.” During a confessional interview with his first wife, Meri, the Brown family patriarch elaborated. “We were monogamously married, OK? Just the two of us,” he said. “We had people come to our wedding reception who said, ‘We’re here because we love you, but this does not mean that we are condoning your chosen lifestyle.’”
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This led Kody to his point that he sees Mariah’s situation as being similar to his own. “So, Audrey and Mariah — the parallels are very similar. In fact, that kind of treatment where people are like, ‘Well, I love you, but I sure think your lifestyle [and] your religion are dumb,’ we dealt with that,” he said. “That may have well-been something that helped me, personally, develop a high level of just acceptance of people who are gay. I know what it’s like to be picked on.”
He then added, “If you invite all these people, [you] force them to think openly about, ‘What would God have me do? Would God have me ostracize these people because of their apology?’ Make them think about it.”
In 2017, Mariah shared with her family that she was gay, and while everyone appears to be comfortable now, at first, the news landed as quite a shock. In particular, Meri — who is Mariah’s biological mother — was very surprised and said that she feels bad about how she took the news to this day. “I will never forget and always regret my reaction because I was completely clueless and I felt like such a bad mom,” she said in a confessional.”
“I felt horrible,” Meri continued. “I guess it was about maybe three or four months later; she introduced us to Audrey. I have absolutely loved seeing their relationship bloom. They are so good for each other.” Sister Wives airs Sundays at 10 p.m. ET, on TLC.
