Sister Wives fans are up in arms after a long-awaited on-camera breakthrough appeared to be completely undone by a series of surprising Instagram posts from one of the show’s stars.
Over 21 seasons, Sister Wives viewers have watched Meri Brown and Christine Brown Woolley navigate a complicated dynamic as Kody Brown’s first and third wives. Clashing personalities kept the two distant for years, preventing them from forming a genuine connection.
In the most recent episode of the TLC series, Meri reached out to Christine to try to work through their past differences and create a new relationship. Although hesitant, she agreed to meet.
As they discussed the past in an Instagram video, Meri opened up to Christine about why she stayed in her marriage, even though it clearly wasn’t working out. Christine was the first to leave their polygamist family in 2021.
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She admitted, “To be honest, I got to the point that I was pretty confident that it was never going to work out and that he was waiting for me to say something about it so he could be the innocent party. I got a little bit stubborn and just stuck around.”
She continued, “I wanted him to say it, and he’d been saying it everywhere else. So I got to the point where I said, ‘I will be the thorn in your side or the knife in your kidney or whatever.”
The callback to Kody’s infamous Season 17 “knife in the kidneys” moment had Christine laughing, and the two women shared a genuine interaction. However, real-time drama quickly overshadowed the heartwarming scene: just days before the episode aired, Christine and her husband, David Woolley, publicly called out Meri for discussing her past with Christine on-screen in an Instagram video.
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In the clip, the couple reacted to the idea of recreating an iconic portrait Christine, Meri, and Janelle Brown took during their plural marriage. Christine shut down the concept, explaining that it brought back memories of a toxic “hierarchy of wives” within the family and a time when they were constantly “having to work everything out, and everything was so damn complicated.”
Fans responded to Christine’s statement in the post’s comments section. Some asked “are we watching the same episode,” while others claimed David was “throwing gas on a fire.”
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Hours later, the reality star recorded a solo video, reacting to social media backlash. In its caption, she wrote, “Finding my voice hasn’t always been easy, and sometimes it doesn’t come out perfectly. This season, I may look like the villain to some, but I’m really just a woman learning to speak her truth after years of feeling unheard.”
Fans weren’t on board with Christine speaking out against Meri the same day the newest Sister Wives episode aired, showing what appeared to be a small step toward reconciliation.
“After watching Christine and David’s over-the-top angry video about Meri last night, I can’t help but think that unless Christine is willing to be honest with viewers about the real reasons she has such an issue with Meri, she needs to forgive her and move on or simply let it go,” wrote one fan.
A second agreed, “After yesterday’s clip from Christine and David, which was in poor form, it looks like all this growth and togetherness doesn’t eventuate. Honestly, the best revenge to Kody would have been these 3 ladies becoming a united front without him.”
“Make peace girls, and let’s move to the next chapter,” declared a third viewer.
Sister Wives airs Sundays at 10 p.m. ET on TLC.
Related: ‘Sister Wives’ Star Reveals She Gets Proposed to on a Weekly Basis