Red Flags Sister Wives Star Kody Brown's Marriage To Robyn Won't Last

When "Sister Wives" hit TLC in 2010, Kody Brown was the undisputed king of his castle, juggling his relationships with three wives: Meri, Janelle, and Christine Brown. As Season 1 progressed, Robyn Brown joined the polygamous family. Brown became Kody's legal wife as part of his effort to adopt her kids from a previous marriage. To do that, he had to divorce Meri — Brown's first wife on "Sister Wives" — something that she admits wasn't easy. That was just one of many times Kody blatantly favored Robyn, and over the years, his relationships with Meri, Janelle, and Christine fell apart.

Ultimately, Meri, Janelle, and Christine left Kody and Robyn was the only remaining wife. While it may seem as if navigating a monogamous relationship might be easier, especially without tensions between the other wives, Robyn and Kody's marriage faced a host of issues. Although the two are currently still together, their relationship is full of red flags, and "Sister Wives" fans shouldn't be surprised if the two fail to go the distance.

After Kody Brown's wives — Meri, Janelle, and Christine Brown — left the marriage, his relationship with Robyn Brown was left incomplete. "We are not recovering from this. I mean, it's not clinical depression, but we've been a bit depressed about what the experience did. That's an understatement. But we've been through a very hard experience and our reaction to it has changed us. We are not the same," Kody told People in 2023. He went on to say, "It's challenged my purpose. For three years here, I had an idea during this time about what my purpose moves on to, but I'm still stuck in this place of sadness and regret."

Despite the other wives leaving, "Sister Wives" is still going strong, with the cameras following Kody and Robyn's strained marriage, as well as the aftermath of his divorces. "We're probably doing the worst we've ever done in our marriage. It's been tough. It's been tough between us. He doesn't know who to blame, himself or one of the other wives," Robyn shared during the Season 19 premiere. She added that Kody's issues stem from feeling rejected by his previous three wives and admitted, "I'm on my toes. I'm having to consistently make sure that he's not sabotaging our relationship." 

One of Kody Brown's biggest red flags is his habit of blaming everyone but himself for his relationship troubles — a bad sign for his marriage to Robyn Brown. After Christine Brown left him in 2021, followed by Janelle Brown in 2022 and Meri Brown in 2023, Kody had only one person left to blame, and it wasn't himself. "Kody and Robyn are actually not doing very well right now. He's trying to find every reason to blame Robyn for everything falling apart in his life," a source revealed to The U.S. Sun, adding, "He's treating her terribly. He's basically, like, 'You should have done better. You should have worked harder to keep the family together."

According to Kody, if a woman falls out of favor with him, it's entirely her fault. "Don't blame me for not loving you. I was doing my duty. Blame yourself if I don't love you, okay?" he explained to the cameras during a Season 19 confessional. While disturbing, it's nothing compared to the bizarre rules he made the sister wives follow. He added, "When I'm in love with a woman, that's her fault. So what happens when I'm not in love with a woman? Is that just my fault?" It seems nothing is ever Kody's fault — at least in his eyes.

When Kody and Robyn Brown moved from Las Vegas to Arizona in 2019, they bought a five-bedroom house in Flagstaff where they lived with their five children. The plan was for the two to live there until Kody built a compound on the Coyote Pass land that he bought for all four wives. Unfortunately, that never worked out after Christine, Meri, and Janelle Brown walked away from the polygamous marriage.

That left Kody and Robyn alone in their Flagstaff home, but apparently, the couple listed the property for sale in September 2024 at $1.65 million. "Robyn may be Kody's last wife standing, but that looks like it's about to change. They've put their Flagstaff home on the market and the whispers are that it's because Robyn wants out," a source shared with In Touch. They further dished: "They've basically drifted apart. This is not the life Robyn envisioned. All the signs are there, a split is inevitable."

The U.S. Sun reported that Kody and Robyn accepted a cash offer on the property to the tune of $1.7 million.

One of Kody Brown's biggest failures in his polygamous marriage was neglecting to be there for his and Christine Brown's daughter, Ysabel, when she needed surgery. During the COVID-19 pandemic, their 19-year-old daughter had to fly to New Jersey for corrective surgery to address her scoliosis — and Kody opted to stay home. That was the final straw for Christine, as she later told People, "I really find it hard to stay with a guy who I don't respect." Not only was she hurt, but it was also deeply hurtful to Ysabel. "It was a good wake-up call. In the end, I would've preferred to have him there, of course, because it's what Ysabel needed. But I didn't need him anymore," Christine continued.

Kody also neglected Meri Brown after she got catfished in 2015 by a woman pretending to be a man. The scandal ultimately put a strain on their marriage, but instead of working through it, Kody pushed Meri away. In a Season 15 episode of "Sister Wives," Meri shared that she wanted comfort from her husband, but he remained emotionally and physically distant. Before the two split up, Meri stated in Season 17, "It got really, really ugly and scary because I knew what I needed from Kody and I wasn't getting it. He was like very, very, very distant with me and our relationship."

Kody Brown's belief in polygamy comes with some predictably chauvinistic views. In a Season 16 episode of "Sister Wives," Meri and Robyn Brown were working together to prepare a Thanksgiving meal. While the two got along just fine, Kody was visibly annoyed, claiming that women often have power struggles—especially over household duties—when they're in the same space. "Personally, out of just knowing women's nature, I don't give a damn about what polygamists believe about what you should do with wives to make them grow and become celestial. I never want to see my wives sharing a kitchen ever," he stated.

In another alarming instance, Kody became upset when Christine Brown was menstruating. "From now on when you're acting like this, I'm just going to walk away. I'm not going to have you rattle me to my core," he told her. After Christine admitted she was experiencing PMS, Kody continued to complain, topping it off with: "I don't mean to be chauvinistic." His other wife, Janelle Brown, fumed, "It frustrates me beyond belief when we're reduced to our biology. There's so much more going on with women than their biology and men are so quick to go, 'Three days a month I don't have to do anything because she's on her cycle' — what the hell." Kody must be relieved that he only has to deal with one wife now.