Janelle Brown and Christine Brown both left polygamy — but they don’t see eye to eye on how the religion is perceived, especially by Christine’s new husband, David Woolley.
“When I saw David [on the show], it just made my stomach just turn,” Janelle, 56, confesses in Us Weekly’s sneak peek at the Sunday, January 25, episode of Sister Wives: 1-on-1. “Because I think it’s wrong to paint everybody with the brush of your one experience.”
Janelle’s reaction comes after David, 61, claimed on a season 20 episode of the TLC series that men in polygamy “love the fighting” and “love the competition between the women.”
He further alleged in the November 2025 episode that polygamy is used to “control women,” noting that his older sister was “mentally damaged” by the “kind of crap that her husband pulled on her.”
Janelle, however, has a different experience with the religion after living it herself for nearly 30 years before her split from Kody Brown in 2022.
“I’m not denying that his sister had this experience,” Janelle says of David in the preview, noting, “I think lots of things happen in monogamy. I think lots of things happen in all kinds of relationships that can be really screwed up.”
Christine, meanwhile, tells Sister Wives: 1-on-1 host Sukanya Krishnan in the sneak peek that it’s “hard” to fully agree with David’s perception of polygamy because she has “family that still lives it.”
Would Sister Wives’ Christine Brown Consider Polygamy Again? She Says …
“But then it comes down to it, he’s right. He’s right,” Christine, 53, says. She claims, “I see more sadness in polygamy than anything else. I look at so many polygamous families and they don’t look happy. It’s just sad.”
Christine, who was spiritually married to Kody, 56, from 1994 to 2021, then ponders what’s the “secret sauce” that “convinces” women to be “OK” with the structure of polygamy.
She wonders “what is the secret that they tell” women to sign up for having their husbands in “this other relationship with this other woman” where it “makes you better,” but you have to split time.
Christine muses that it was “part [of] my culture” growing up so she didn’t question it right out the gate. (Her parents were polygamists when she was a child.)
David also weighs in on the topic in the upcoming episode, claiming the women are “indoctrinated” to think a certain way. However, he always questioned the premise of one man with multiple wives.
“I’m looking on the other side from my experience,” David says in the video, noting he was a child when he was exposed to polygamy with his sisters.
He recalls wondering, “If this is supposed to be some righteous thing, why is it so miserable? So how is it so right?”
Sister Wives’ David Calls ‘Bulls***’ on Kody’s Apology at Reunion: Watch
As Sister Wives fans know, Kody had three wives, Meri Brown, Janelle and Christine, when the show began in 2010. He was courting fourth wife Robyn Brown when the cameras began rolling, whom he spiritually wed that same year.
In 2014, Kody divorced Meri, 54, so he could legally marry Robyn, 47, and adopt her three children from a prior marriage.
Less than a decade later, their family fell apart when Christine announced her split from Kody in 2021. Janelle followed suit in 2022 and Meri announced in 2023 that she and Kody had parted ways. Robyn is still married to Kody. Christine, meanwhile, married David in October 2023.
Part 3 of Sister Wives: 1-on-1 airs on TLC Sunday, January 25, at 10 p.m. ET.
