‘Sister Wives: One on One’ Recap: Kody Says He’ll Never Sleep with Meri Again – Tell-All Season 16 Episode 11

The focus falls on Kody Brown‘s broken marriage with Meri Brown on part one of the Sister Wives: One on One Tell-All. This is a recap of Season 16 Episode 11. There are a total of three episodes to dig into what happened. The other spouses weigh in on the first

Problems with Meri Brown & Kody Brown Began Before Flagstaff Move

The show opens with a look back at the five adults meeting at Pizza al Forno in Flagstaff. That was pre-COVID. Janelle Brown facilitated a conversation about the distance now they’ve moved to Flagstaff. She says they’ve lost something and thing are going wrong.

She calls it “tribalism”. Meri Brown says being in separate homes, they’ve escaped each other. Christine Brown calls family gatherings hostile and says no one likes her. Janelle worried back then that some of the women didn’t want to be in the plural marriage anymore.

Back to now, Janelle says with their kids mostly grown, they didn’t need each other as much. They had their own things happening. She says they needed to make a conscious effort to be together and they weren’t making it happen.

She says it’s a “danger zone” if you’re not together and imagining things about other people. Kody Brown’s on the couch now and says in Las Vegas, they were united. They hashed things out and addressed issues.

He talks about “perpetual dishonesty” to make things work. Then, the Sister Wives move to Flagstaff changed everything. Meri Brown says she found it weird in AZ but thought they were focusing on getting settled in a new town. So, she let it go and issues got deeper.

Meri Says She Tried to Reach Christine Brown on Sister Wives: One on One

At that dinner years ago, Christine Brown said she felt like an outsider looking in and them not liking her. Back to now, One on One host, Sukanya Krishnan, talks to Robyn Brown. So, Robyn says after that, she wanted Christine to know she doesn’t hate her.

Janelle says Christine’s usually the life of the party. She said it surprised her to hear Christine say she felt unliked. Now, Christine Brown says Janelle was brave to get them all together and she wanted to be authentic. That’s why she said what she did.

Christine says she hesitated to go to family gatherings. And she said they didn’t reach out to each other. Then, Christine says it was hard to see Kody Brown be “incredible” in other relationships. Meanwhile, things were so bad for them.

She says she felt like she didn’t matter. She says it was hard to see Kody with “his wives”. And she seems to exclude herself from that category. Now, Meri says she’d felt like that herself. Meri says she’d send a text or try calling but it wasn’t always reciprocated.

On the Sister Wives Tell-All, the host asks if Meri realized things were bad between Christine and Kody. Meri Brown says, in that moment, at the dinner, she was focusing on what Janelle brought up. She said it was just about things being “weird” in Flagstaff.

COVID Pulled the Four Marriages Apart – Kody Brown’s Rules “Too Strict”

Christine says that dinner was a wake-up call. She says it was fun to get together with the other women, but without Kody. But then COVID happened. And Christine says they got “way more separate”. Then, the host asks Kody about the virus and his protocols.

We see flashbacks to Kody talking about his rules. He says he gets to go house to house but the women can’t. And Janelle Brown says she can’t do that all Summer and he’s taking it “next level’. In past scenes, Christine says she had to go see her kids.

Then, Kody says the women “put him in his place” when he told them what to do. Janelle worried they may not recover from this. Back to One on One, Kody says he wanted to prevent the death of a child. He says we can look back and see he might have been “too strict”.

Kody Brown says COVID could affect you long-term. So, he sought the advice of a physician. He draws the analogy of “if you don’t want to get pregnant, don’t have sex”. Then, Kody says Robyn was a rule-keeper right off the bat.

He says two other Sister Wives — one mostly compliant [Janelle] but her kids weren’t. And he says Christine was not compliant and wanted to be free. He didn’t mention Meri Brown at all in this conversation.

Did COVID Wreck the Sister Wives — Or Shine a Light on Problems?

Christine says her kids live everywhere and she can’t stay home. She says when your kids need you, then you go. Christine says they followed CDC guidelines.  She says she quarantined after travel. She says she followed CDC rules — but not Kody’s.

Then, Kody Brown said Christine made it clear she’d rather see her kids than him. Kody says Truely Brown almost died from kidney failure years ago. And that “fear of loss” changed them back then. Sukanya asks about the fractures with him and Christine.

Kody says in hindsight, he might have been looser on his rules. But instead, he got firmer. He says his “sole goal” was to keep them all alive. Robyn Brown says she feels torn by all this. She says she knows what Kody wanted and what Janelle and Christine wanted.

Robyn says it was destroying their family. She says she hoped COVID would go away but it still hasn’t. She gets teary-eyed on Sister Wives: One on One. A producer brings in tissues for her. She says it’s painful because family unity’s “thrown out” because of the virus.

She says she was surprised, shocked, and calls it “disturbing”.  Sukanya asks if COVID shined a light on issues or caused issues. Robyn says both. Sukanya asks if the family can come back from it. And she says she’s trying.

Sukanya Krishnan Says Kody “Annexed” Himself from Meri

Next, Sukanya talks to Meri Brown about loneliness. She shows a clip of the spouses talking about what happened during the lockdown. Christine says she’d “go insane” without her girls. Janelle says she sits around and watches TV.

Kody says he doesn’t talk with Meri every day. And Meri says no one comes over. And she says if she got sick, she’d be alone. Back then, Janelle said it’s lonely but easier. Meri says people are happy to have COVID as an excuse not to see each other.

Back to now, Meri says happy wasn’t a good word. She says it was easier not to work on relationships that are hard. On the Sister Wives Reunion show, Janelle says Meri saying that made her mad. She says Kody’s attitude that no one wanted to be together anyway was “extreme”.

Janelle says she mourned. She calls that period a “sadness”. She says all of a sudden, the women can’t be together because they chose different things. Meri Brown says she mostly heard from Robyn rather than Kody. Sukanya asks Janelle about Meri.

She repeats what Meri said about being sick and alone. Janelle says if Meri got COVID, she should call her since they’re family. She says even though things are strained with Meri and their husband, she can still call her. Sukanya says Kody annexed himself from Meri.

Sister Wives Weigh in on Kody’s Broken Marriage to Meri

Janelle says they “feel the waves” when one marriage isn’t working, But she says Kody “doesn’t bring that” to her house. Still, she feels the tension. She says she’s hurt for both of them but doesn’t take sides. Christine says her heart breaks when she thinks about them.

She says she doesn’t want a future of a “loveless marriage” as Kody has with Meri Brown. Sukanya shows clips of Meri’s 30 years of marriage to Kody Brown. They show their wedding video as both talked about it. Kody says Meri bit his finger when he fed her cake.

Then, there’s a Sister Wives clip of the family lunch where Meri confessed her catfish incident. Back then, she says she cared about the “guy” and wanted to meet him. But he wouldn’t. She says she researched him and says it was a woman pretending to be a man.

There’s a family counseling scene and Kody tells Meri she was pushing him away. He says the “old stuff” with them “died”. She says back then that she wanted his trust. And he told her he didn’t want a romantic relationship with her.

Then we see that scene f Kody yelling at Robyn about taking Meri’s side and leaving her scraps. Kody says he’s supposed to “carry the burden of Meri’s emotions”. But he doesn’t want it.

Meri Admits to Jealousy as More Brides Came into the Marriage

Back to the Tell-All, Meri Brown says she was “very much in love” with Kody when they married. She says when Janelle came in, it was a struggle. His first wife admits she was jealous. She didn’t know how to handle it and Kody didn’t know how to handle her.

She says they all had different ideas about being Sister Wives and it didn’t work. Then, Christine came into the marriage. Meri says she had a harder time when Christine came into it but doesn’t know why. She says she and Kody Brown argued but still had a relationship.

She calls it a roller coaster. Then Kody Brown’s back on and says there’s nothing to talk about with Meri. He calls their marriage antagonistic. Kody says after a lot of counseling, he told her he didn’t want to get back together.

He calls it a double standard and says he can’t leave them. But Sukanya Krishnan says it’s not since he can emotionally leave them. She says Kody “emotionally abandoned” them. He mocks that word use and says he takes offense and tells her to take it back, as seen on a TLC Instagram clip.

Kody Brown says Meri had an affair and was done with him. He says she told everyone she was getting out of there. Kody says she won’t admit it now. He says she was duped and was leaving him for a better guy with more money. She says she thinks she’s the victim.

Kody Brown Says He Quit Dating Meri

On the Sister Wives: One on One couch, Kody Brown says Meri did something wrong “to make herself the victim”. Sukanya tells Meri that Kody felt betrayed. But Meri Brown insists she wasn’t leaving him. But she says she considered “all” of her possible options.

Then, Meri calls it a “friend” she was talking to online. She says she didn’t intend to “meet a dude online” and “fall in love and leave”. She says the catfishing was not the fracture or defining moment with her and Kody.

Sukanya shows their 30th-anniversary date. The clip shows Kody Brown saying there’s nothing going on between him and Meri. He says she interacts with family. So, Kody Brown says they quit dating and he quit calling her.

They’re out for their anniversary and Meri tells him it’s been a year since they’ve been out. Meri says she’s been waiting for him and Kody says he’s not coming. Then Meri says when he touches her hand, she wishes he knew how she felt.

Kody says he would never push Meri to a divorce because his faith and conscience don’t let him. He says because of that, they might get back together in “full fellowship”. Back then Meri says she’s not willing to walk away. Kody says any of the Sister Wives can leave.

Meri Still Loves Kody and Won’t Leave Him or the Sister Wives

In a flashback, we see Meri crying, She says Kody keeps saying she didn’t have to stay. Back to now, Meri says she and Kody had more talks since then. She says they know where each other is. Meri says it’s been 31 years and she’s still committed. She’s made her choice.

Now, Meri hopes for a full marriage with Kody again. Sukanya asks what keeps her emotionally invested. Meri says “I love him”. She says she feels peace about staying with the family. Kody admits she is still part of the larger family.

Kody says he will never have a “conjugal relationship” with Meri ever again. As in, no sex. He says it’s a “bad match” and he won’t go through that “emotional torture”. Then, he says if they didn’t feel bound by faith to stay together, things would be different.

He implies they’d have divorced long ago. He says she can still be part of the Sister Wives family and he won’t tell her “to kick rocks”. Sukanya talks intimacy with Meri. She says she misses physical and emotional intimacy with Kody but says it’s “not where they are”.

Kody Hasn’t Slept With Meri in 10 Years – Says Intimacy’s “Damaged” for Them

Meri admits she and Kody haven’t had marital relations in a decade. Sukanya asks if she’d wait forever to be with Kody. Meri says she hopes he will come back to her. But she will create her own peace and happiness.

Then, Meri says she doesn’t understand why people ask if she’ll leave him. She says she doesn’t want to leave. Sukanya brings up Christine having similar issues with lack of intimacy. The host says Christine refused to accept this situation.

But Meri says she doesn’t know what’s in Christine’s head. She says they’re different people with “different values”. Then the host asks Christine about it. She says she doesn’t know how Meri does it. Then the host asks Kody Brown about Meri wanting more from him.

He says their “intimacy is damaged”. And, Kody Brown says when they’re no safety in a relationship, you can’t have intimacy. He says he’ll be her friend. Kody says he’ll build a house for her on Coyote Pass. But he says he’ll never “feel safe” with her.

He says the catfish woke him up “out of a daze” but things were bad before then. He says friendship isn’t enough for anybody but says that’s her choice. That’s the end of part 1 of Sister Wives: One on One.

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