‘Sister Wives’: Kody Tells Wives They Must ‘Conform to Patriarchy’ After Christine Split

The stars of Sister Wives have been working through Christine Brown leaving Kody Brown, who now says the rest of his wives must “conform to patriarchy.” In the wake of the split, the family has been trying to adjust to what their new normal will look like. In the most recent episode of the hit TLC series, Kody offered his take as to what he plans on that looking like.

“I’m going to be the head of my household again and so I’m not going to be circumvented in that,” Kody declared to the family. “And so if everybody’s willing to conform to patriarchy again, I guess, because I’ve been fighting to make everybody happy. My bitterness is that out of trying to do that and not having the family that I had thought about and designed.” Expressing her uncertainty about Kody’s stance, Janelle said in a side interview, “Yeah, I didn’t know I had signed up for patriarchy. That’s not what we all agreed on in the very beginning, but [shrugs].”

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Meri Brown was Kody’s first wife. They were married in 1990, and then legally separated in 2014 but remained together. Janelle Brown was Kody’s second wife, marrying him in 1993. They seem to have possibly separated in late 2020. Christine became wife number three the next year in 1994. She and Kody split in later 2021. Finally, Robyn married Kody in 2010, making her his fourth wife.

Sister Wives Season 11 premiered on Sunday, Sept. 11 and the season debut set some high marks in ratings. According to Variety, the season premiere was the show’s highest opener in six years. Citing Nielsen data, the outlet noted that Episode 1 of Sister Wives Season 11 averaged 2.2 million total viewers and a 1.42 rating among women ages 18-49, which is a crucial demographic for the show’s network, TLC. Additionally, the Season 11 debut brought in a 1.91 rating among women ages 25-54, another key TLC market. 

According to the network, on the Sunday night that the new season debuted, “tweet volume saw triple-digit growth compared to the previous premiere,” reportedly growing nearly 200 percent. Notably, Sister Wives was also the top primetime cable reality program discussed and engaged with on Facebook. It was also the No. 3 most interacted-with show on Instagram and the No. 4 on Twitter. Sister Wives airs Sundays at 10 p.m. ET on TLC, and is also available to stream on Discovery+.