Janelle Brown’s eldest daughter, Maddie Brown, is worried her mom’s plan to get a spiritual divorce from dad Kody Brown could stir up old feelings in the upcoming episode of Sister Wives.
“I have approached the church leadership and asked for a release given my justification, given my reasons, and then I need to go meet with them,” Janelle, 56, explains in Us Weekly’s exclusive sneak peek at the Sunday, December 28, episode of the TLC series. “And then I think it’s kind of just a decision process after that.”
While Janelle appears to be optimistic about the church “releasing” her from her bond to ex-husband Kody, 56, their daughter Maddie, 30, isn’t so sure it’s a good idea to rehash the past.
“My initial reaction is what the f***, why?” Maddie tells the cameras after Janelle reveals her plans to go to Salt Lake City, Utah, for the church elders meeting.
Maddie confesses, “I don’t want her to go back to it. I think plural marriage in general is pretty toxic.”
Janelle assures her daughter that although she’s “not part of the faith anymore,” she “honored” her plural relationship “as a marriage covenant.” (Janelle and Kody welcomed six children — including Maddie — after spiritually tying the knot in 1993. Their son Garrison died in March 2024 at the age of 25.)
“It was a marriage to me as binding as a legal marriage. So I just want to have all ties broken,” Janelle explains after she confirmed in December 2022 that she and Kody had separated after nearly 30 years together.
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Maddie still wasn’t convinced of the plan, asking her mom, “What if they tell you no? Where do you stand if they tell you no?”
Janelle, however, remains steadfast in her decision to leave it to the elders — instead of simply considering herself divorced like sister wife Christine Brown did when she left Kody in November 2021.
“I will feel like I’ve done everything I needed to do and I’ll hold myself [divorced],” Janelle says. “If they say ‘no,’ and I mean I have to admit it is a possibility, but I don’t think so. But if they do, I don’t think God intends for me to stay connected to this person who doesn’t want to be married to me and has moved on with his life and, and the same with me.”
She notes that if the church refuses to grant her spiritual divorce — which her other former sister wife Meri Brown received following her split from Kody in January 2023 — Janelle says that might create a “crisis of faith” for her.
Maddie continues to be skeptical of the situation, asking Janelle whether her dad, Kody, knows she’s been in touch with the church. (Maddie, for her part, is one of Kody’s 18 children who has been at odds with him since their family fell apart.)
“Yeah, I told him. He didn’t really care. He was like, ‘Well, they’re going to tell you you can’t marry outside of the faith or whatever,’” Janelle recalls. “I’m like, that’s fine.”
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Kody, meanwhile, tells the cameras that Janelle’s plan hasn’t really registered with him.
“Janelle may have told me that she was going to ask for release. I don’t remember. It’s just not something I’m tracking,” he admits.
Janelle, meanwhile, says she doesn’t “really care” what Kody or the church says about her relationship future.
“I’m going to marry who I want if I ever get married again,” she declares. “But you know, it’s OK. I can follow my conscience on how this is supposed to play out.”
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Janelle is the last of Kody’s three ex-wives to close the chapter fully on polygamy by getting a spiritual release. Christine, 53, married David Woolley in October 2023 after revealing the moment she asked Kody to move out, was when she considered them divorced.
Meri, meanwhile, fought for her spiritual divorce from Kody for some time before the elders granted it. Janelle, who now lives in North Carolina, previously said that getting the spiritual release will be the last thing tying her to Kody.
Kody, for his part, is focused on living monogamy with his fourth wife Robyn Brown, whom he legally wed in 2014 following a spiritual union four years prior.
Sister Wives airs on TLC Sundays at 10 p.m. ET.
