Meri Brown has come a long way since Sister Wives premiered in 2010.
Meri was married to Kody Brown for 20 years before their family was launched into reality TV stardom. TLC fans have followed along for more than 10 years as Kody navigates his plural family with Meri, Janelle Brown, Christine Brown and Robyn Brown.
While Christine was the first of the wives to leave Kody, confirming their separation in 2021, Meri and Janelle followed suit the following year. “We don’t see each other. We’re kind to each other, but we’re not seeking each other out to have a phone call or a text conversation,” Meri exclusively told Us Weekly in December 2024 about where she and Kody stood . “He says often, ‘We’ll be friends, we’ll be friends,’ and it’s like, ‘OK, we’ll be friendly,’ I think, but it’s not like we’re best friends status or anything like that. I’m good with it.”
During a January 2025 episode of Sister Wives, Meri accused her ex of not supporting her and their only child together, Leon, as much financially as his other 17 kids. “I put a lot into this marriage emotionally, financially [and] personally. I didn’t get anything out of it as far as, like, alimony or whatever. And I’m not looking for that,” she said.
Referring to the family’s Coyote Pass land in Arizona, she added, “I think it’s fair [I get] the property investment. I think it’s fair that I walk away with that at least.” (Christine previously sold her shares of the property in 2022, while Kody, Robyn, Meri and Janelle sold the remainder of the land for $1.5 million in 2025.)
Scroll down for a look back at Meri’s biggest moments:
Credit: TLC
April 1990
Meri was the first of Kody’s four wives. The two tied the knot less than six months after Kody proposed. “Meri was so cute and sweet when I met her that I had a hard time suppressing my hopelessly romantic nature,” Kody wrote in the 2012 memoir Becoming Sister Wives: The Story of an Unconventional Marriage, which he cowrote with Meri, Janelle, Christine and Robyn.
Credit: Courtesy of Meri Brown/Instagram
July 1995
Meri and Kody welcomed Leon, their first and only child together.
“I know that [Kody and Leon] talk on occasion, but I know that Kody has been struggling with many of his relationships with his kids, and I hope that they can figure that out,” Meri exclusively told Us in December 2024. “I think there's got to be a lot of conversations and healing to make that happen.”
Leon came out as transgender in June 2022 and quietly married Audrey Kriss later that year.
Credit: TLC / Courtesy: Everett Collection
September 2010
Meri became one of reality TV’s biggest stars when Sister Wives debuted on TLC. “Just thinking of that very first scene when I was introduced, I didn't expect the cameras to be there,” she recalled of her first day of filming in a December 2024 interview with Us. “I didn't know they were there. I would've been a little bit more prepped.”
Meri noted that she’s had “so many good memories” on the show, adding, “When I sled down the hill and landed on the other side of the snow berm. I don't even know what you call it.”
Credit: INFphoto.com
February 2015
News broke that Meri and Kody got legally divorced several months prior so Kody could marry Robyn and adopt her three kids from a previous relationship.
“We have chosen to legally restructure our family,” the pair said in a statement to Us. “We made this decision together as a family. We are grateful to our family, friends and fans for all their love and support.”
Credit: Courtesy of Meri Brown/Instagram
March 2015
Meri and Kody’s spiritual marriage hit a rough patch when Meri found herself wrapped up in a catfishing scandal. Six months after she met a man named Sam on Twitter in March 2015, Meri discovered her new romantic interest was actually a woman named Jackie Overton.
“There were times early on that I was talking to him that I knew he was just feeding me a line of [lies], and I chose to ignore it because I enjoyed just talking to somebody,” she said on the show at the time.
During a November 2015 Sister Wives tell-all, Meri claimed that the catfisher “pushed” the idea of leaving the family on her. “He started saying all the right things. He started saying very flattering comments and expressing affection and love to me and I fell for it,” she stated. “I started to love who he was portraying himself to be.”
On a June 2016 episode of the series, Kody clarified that he didn’t consider Meri’s catfishing incident an “emotional affair.” He explained, “No. I think that she was in a place where she was having a friendship. … Meri had never met this person. … All it is is talking.”
Credit: TLC/YouTube (2)
December 2022
After years of relationship strain, Meri and Kody confirmed that they had called it quits after 32 years together. “I don't really consider myself married to Meri,” he said during the Sister Wives: One-on-One special. “If she wanted to move on and marry another, she wouldn't get an argument with me.”
Meri, for her part, added, “It just doesn’t make sense to me that he would be so frustrated with Christine and be like, ‘She just made this decision. We didn’t consult. We didn’t talk.’ … And then he says, ‘No, I don’t consider myself married to Meri.’ He just made the decision. I have never heard him say that to me.”
Credit: Courtesy of Meri Brown/Instagram
January 2024
Meri moved on with a man named Amos. “Birthday #53 is looking a bit different for me this year, and might I say, I like how it looks! Meet Amos, the good looking guy I’ve been dating since October!” she captioned a since-deleted Instagram post of the pair. “He’s not 6 foot 6, nor is he a pilot, but he loves Christmas almost as much as I do, and we laugh a lot together, both of which are important elements to a relationship!”
Just one month after going public, however, Meri revealed that the two had split. “I honor and care about the past four months, who I spent it with, and what I learned about myself through it,” she wrote via Instagram. “I know what's important to me in a relationship, and I'm confident in myself while I'm single as well.”
April 2025
Meri wowed fans by showing off her post-split body in a little black dress at the Global Beauty Awards in Seattle. “It was a pleasure and honor to spend the past two days at the Global Beauty Awards,” she wrote alongside Instagram snaps of herself posing on the event’s red carpet. “Sitting in on events and classes and seeing some of the behind the scenes was such an experience!”
