What is a Basement Wife? ‘Sister Wives’ Christine Brown Explains Why She Is One

Christine Brown on Sister Wives referred to herself as a “basement wife” but what does that mean — and did you know that it’s quite literally a fact about her history with Kody Brown. But it seems like she won’t be that again now that she’s found David Woolley.

This is the transcript of our reality TV video looking back at why Christine considers herself a basement wife — and why it was literally true!

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Former Sister Wives Christine Brown Went from Basement Wife to Queen

Hey there Reality TV fans. This is SoapDirt.com and we have an update that we wanna talk about with Christine Brown. And we’re gonna do a little throwback to where she was a couple of years ago versus where Christine is now.

Do you remember when Christine referred to herself as a basement wife on an episode of Sister Wives? Remember that? Do you know what it is?

We wanna talk about that and compare it to where she is now and her “queen” status. Now, this came out when the show was airing a season in 2021 and she referred to herself as a basement wife.

And not only did Kody Brown mock her on Twitter, but Meri Brown and Janelle Brown were not very understanding either. Now, with Meri, Janelle, and Christine leaving Kody, he’s got plenty of room in his basement for as many wives as he wants to put there.

Basically, the whole underlying premise is that it is not an architectural term at all. It is hierarchical, and it’s not like there’s an official polygamy handbook with an index and a definition of it.

Kody Brown’s Third Wife Grew up in Polygamy

We have to give Christine Brown credit. She has been involved in polygamous Sister Wives lifestyles and families her entire life. If you didn’t know, her dad, Rex Allred, was the big cheese, the big 500-pound gorilla, at the UAB.

That is the United Apostolic Brotherhood. I hope I’m saying that right. It is the branch of fundamental Mormonism where they still embrace polygamy.

The main Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the state of Utah both have very strict rules and laws against polygamy. But the UAB fully embraces it.

So Christine grew up with a dad who had several wives. She grew up with several moms helping to raise her. So she has been in polygamy her entire life up until November of 2022 when she walked out on Kody Brown.

She was in her fifties. So that’s five decades of polygamy. Janelle came to it later in life. Meri did not grow up in a home where there was plural marriage. Kody was raised differently and came to it as an adult.

Christine Brown Knows All About Being a Basement Wife to the Sister Wives

So I would have to say of the five adults involved in this Sister Wives relationship, that Christine Brown knows what she’s talking about. When she says she’s a basement wife, that means in the hierarchy.

So, imagine how many wives there are. She referred to the queen bee wife, the head wife as the top of that pyramid. And of course, when they were all still married, everybody knows that that was Robyn Brown.

She remains Kody’s only legal wife, his only wife, period, now that his other spiritual wives walked out. But she was definitely in the catbird seat, in the preferential spot as the head wife. So Kody mocked this.

Meri and Janelle kind of mocked it at the time. Because they were still sort of drinking the Kool-Aid. But basically, it is the bottom rung. Christine talked about it on that season’s Sister Wives reunion.

On the Tell-All, she said, “If you have a situation where there’s a wife, that’s the queen bee, then the other wife goes in the basement. She doesn’t matter as much. I’ve seen it enough. I’ve seen it a lot.”

She’s not talking about having seen it a lot or enough in her relationship with Kody Brown. She’s talking about the entire range. She had extended family that were all in this situation, and they were not all the top-ranked wife.

So, Christine Brown knows the aches and pains and heartbreak that come with being a basement wife. When she uses that word, it has a very specific connotation, a very personal connotation to her.

Kody’s Ex-Wife Didn’t Realize She Was in the Basement at First

When the Tell-All host asked her about it and why she didn’t try to get herself outta the situation, Christine said that she didn’t even know at the time.

She said she let it happen. And so yes, she had this experience growing up, but then she went into this marriage with Kody Brown and she was very naive and she was really into them.

I mean, you could tell looking back at the early seasons of Sister Wives, how much she just adored Kody Brown. And just wanted his attention. And had been interested in marrying him for a while.

But he married Janelle first and then circled back around. He said some really nasty things about their courtship, and her weight, in their book about how their Brown family formed.

And she had said she felt like a basement wife instead of a queen wife. Now, let’s fast forward to her life now. Christine Brown has left Kody Brown behind. And she has called David her king.

Recently, she called herself his queen, and that’s what he calls her as well. And she showed off a little picture where he had left her a message. She seems to be in a very sweet romance now after basically starving for attention for a decade.

Janelle Brown Mocked Basement Wife Scene on Sister Wives

But back at the time when this episode aired, Janelle Brown kind of mocked the notion of a basement wife. And mentioned that she had lived in a windowless basement early on in their marriage. (see pic above)

That was when she became wife number two to Kody Brown, not long after he married Meri Brown. Then, they lived in a trailer for a while where there’s no basement, because that would just put you, I don’t know, I guess up under it.

Near the wheels… But nevertheless, it’s not an architectural term. It’s a hierarchy. That’s the terminology. So Kody tweeted a couple of things when this Sister Wives episode aired where Christine was already struggling and considering how to get out of this situation.

This was Kody’s reply: “Strange. My big house design had a basement garage. No basement wife. Each wife would get a two-story condo-like suite.”

So, he’s trying to defend how she felt by talking about that big house that he wanted. If you remember, Christine did not want to live in a house with all the wives.

Now that Christine Brown left him and so much of this has spilled out, no doubt fans can see why. Because she saw herself as lowest on the totem pole. And she definitely felt that way, and that’s why she was the first to walk out.

Kody Denies Having Basement Bride on Sister Wives

Around the same time, he tagged Christine in a second tweet and said, “The whole basement wife thing is really a family nuance thing. I don’t understand what Christine was meaning or referring to.”

So, Kody tweeted that he had basically no idea that Christine saw herself and their relationship as the lowest on their totem pole? I’m asking that as a question. Did he really not see that?

She had been begging for attention, begging for dates, begging for a lot of things on Sister Wives. And definitely felt like that she was the lowest rung on the marriage ladder.

Rather than tweeting something compassionate, he about the big house, bragging about how each wife would’ve gotten a condo. And said he didn’t understand what she was talking about. Hard to believe that.

Now we come to present day. Christine is living in a million-dollar home of her own in Utah. Sharing it just with her daughter, Truely Brown. She’s engaged to David Woolley, who she calls her king, and he calls her, queen.

So it doesn’t sound like Christine has any basement wife days in her future. And we wish her the best of luck. Come back to Soap Dirt all the time for more news on Sister Wives.