[narrator] Previously on Sister Wives One on One...
[Sukanya] Were you in love with Meri when you married her?
She thinks I was madly, head-over-heels over her,
and we acted that... we played that out.
But there was... a lot of dysfunction that we had.
You know, "Robyn, don't put this pressure on me
of the fact that we're a family,
'cause we're not.
You know, there's this cognitive dissonance."
I'm like, "Well, maybe you should've communicated
that we weren't.
And then maybe I wouldn't be acting
like I'm trying
to still be part of the family.
Meri did ask her to be there, but--
I know. It's because Robyn says that she can speak Kody,
and I'm like bull... [bleep].
Sorry. Okay, sorry. I'm gonna be nice.
No, I'm not.
As Robyn, I never would've put myself in that position.
If Kody can't talk to Meri alone,
then they probably shouldn't be having
any kind of conversation.
I love her and want her to have a happy life,
but I don't think her and I can functionally
be in a relationship.
When he told me that he has no desire
to ever work on a relationship,
like, that was very, very painful.
Did you pick up the phone and just call him?
I don't think he would've heard me.
Isn't it not about him hearing you,
isn't it about you being heard?
Oh, my voice will be heard.
I will no longer be silent.
[Sukanya] This is Sister Wives One on One.
[man] Standby. Here we go.
[Kody] What needs to be talked about?
You and me.
Meri, we have those discussions.
And so I think those discussions have been made clear.
Yeah. They're very clear.
He said, "Don't you understand, Meri?
This is never going to happen.
I have no interest in having a relationship with you."
This agreement that I gave you,
our sacred covenant,
was if I'm ever not in love with you,
I won't just sit there and be in a pathetic place with you.
You made me promise you that.
[Robyn crying]
How is it fair to be in a marriage
when there's nothing there?
I can't do it one-sided, Robyn.
Wait, Robyn was there?
Your reaction to that?
Why was Robyn there?
What's up with that conversation
where Kody promised Robyn something?
He would leave, yet he's been considering Meri
pathetic for years, and letting her hang on?
And he said that she found out about that publicly,
he didn't say it to her face.
He didn't consider them married anymore.
-That he wasn't... -It was in a clip that was showed.
I don't really consider myself married to Meri.
I just... If she wanted to move on
and marry another,
she wouldn't get an argument with me.
That's got to be the most humiliating,
terrible thing to live through.
That's terrible.
You needed to hear it from him.
You did not want to infer it from all the other instances
-that have happened. -I was not going to guess.
I was not going to assume.
I deserve to have a conversation,
and to be told.
And if he wasn't the kind of man to do that...
Like, I don't even know.
Like, I don't know.
He should've been the kind of man to do that,
to have the conversation with me,
and be open and honest with me,
instead of telling everybody else but me.
-Mmm-hmm. -That was uncool.
On the flip side, don't you think he's been telling you all along?
Um, it was a really low,
uncool way to do it,
if that's what he was doing.
-I'm just saying, through his actions. -Yes.
-There's been a lot of inaction. -Yes. Yes.
And I agree with you, and yes, I do feel like that.
But because of the commitment that I hold dear...
-Mmm-hmm. -He didn't hold dear.
He holds it dear with Robyn.
-Okay. -Yep.
How is their covenant different
than the covenant you made with him?
Because he fell out of love with me,
or whatever.
I only base that off of that scene
where he said to her, um...
-"If we ever fall out of love..." -"If we ever..."
"If I ever fall out of love with you,
don't string me along," or whatever his words were.
Did he ever say that to you?
No.
And this is the reason I hammered Robyn,
with our agreement.
Robyn and I made an agreement that if we weren't in love,
that we wouldn't drag each other out,
that we would free each other.
Did you make that same covenant to Meri?
-That you would free each other? -Uh, no, no.
The agreement, I think, was just...
I remember after Robyn and I had that agreement...
then I went to the other wives and said,
"I have this agreement with Robyn."
They even got frustrated by...
Like, "Anybody who wants to leave, you're free to go."
And that even made Meri mad.
What did you think about Robyn being here
in this whole situation,
and then this is, like, Meri's moment that has--
I don't... I don't get that at all.
I do not get why they... She always feels the need...
I think that should be a red flag to her,
that she feels the need to have somebody there
when she's communicating with her husband.
Did you ever circle back to her and say,
"Hey, listen, I've been thinking about this,
and I sat with this,
but I don't know if I can really make it work."
-Yeah. Yeah, like... -Okay.
Well, wait...
We don't go deep into it,
because I don't want her reacting
in a crazy way.
I'm not ripping off a Band-Aid,
but I know where we're at.
And I've made that clear to her.
Why hasn't she received that message?
Or has she received that message?
I think Robyn and I are giving her different messages.
Like, we're not on the same page on this.
And Robyn's like, "Meri, just hang in there, Meri..."
And then to me, she's like,
"You've got to reconcile this."
And I'm looking at her like, you...
You are not going to get me to do this.
When I'm looking at the optics,
Robyn is crying--
Robyn is Meri's advocate in our marriage.
Robyn has been advocating this relationship...
well, from the time that Robyn and I met.
-Mm. -And so, kudos to Robyn.
Kudos to Meri.
I mean, she did good by her.
So you felt like you were out in the dark.
You didn't really understand where his mind was throughout this whole time.
-And that-- -I didn't know that he was completely done.
And now, since then...
and some of our conversations that we've had since then,
and since we decided to, you know,
completely terminate the marriage, um,
we've had conversations.
He's like, "No. I felt like this a long time ago."
I'm like, "You should've told me."
Like, that was not fair for you to not tell me,
because I'm still sitting here
holding on to the idea that maybe you might
get your head out of your butt.
And you know, I've been patient
because my values,
and my heart, and my commitment
are as such that I hold to those.
-Those are important to me. -Mmm-hmm.
And that's why I was still holding on,
not knowing that he had...
Guessing, but hoping that he hadn't really... but not knowing
that he had actually fully let go of me emotionally.
And looking back on it, like,
I mean, there was...
He let go of me a long time ago emotionally.
I was gonna say ten years is a long time to be holding on.
Yeah, and he's sitting here telling Robyn,
"That's the agreement that you and I made,
that if I ever felt like that,
then I wouldn't hold you in this place."
You know, like, their agreement of...
You know, their sacred covenant. [chuckles]
You know what I mean?
And I'm like, then why did you not respect me enough
as a human being...
Great, I understand that you don't feel like
I'm your wife anymore,
even though we made covenants,
and nothing has happened to break them, at that point.
Like, I understand that's how you feel about me,
but have the respect for me as a human being
to tell me to my face, and he didn't.
She's taken that covenant that you had...
You even heard her,
like, this isn't what the promise that we made to each other
oh so many years ago.
-Thirty-plus years. -Yeah, that covenant doesn't
include the dissolution of my soul,
or personality.
That relationship does not work in a marriage for me.
It's that simple.
So you're saying you can't function in dysfunction.
I don't care about the covenant.
If you can't get through that,
then it's broken.
It's about... this relationship cannot work.
And those people who are in relationships
that cannot work,
that are stuck in them because of their faith,
their religion,
end up in a life
of unhappy solitude,
while the person is right next to them.
Mm.
I'm not gonna discuss it further
because I love her.
I want her to have the best life she can,
and, um, I...
I'm not gonna do what's been done to me
by trash-talking her,
making her seem small
so that I feel better about how badly I've treated her.
[narrator reading]
So you see him imploding?
-He tries to. -Yeah.
[cries] He tries to.
But is he sabotaging your relationship?
[cries] He tries to.
I have to stop him all the time.
I thought of myself leaving Robyn
and having another lover,
and looking at this lover and going, I don't love you,
I'm in love with another woman.
I'm in love with a woman that I left
because I was too much a piece of [bleep]
to manage the relationship.
[man] Okay. Everybody settle.
Before I made the decision to walk away,
I feel like I spent
a lot of years...
giving him grace.
Let me just put a pause on putting any pressure on me and him,
while he gets through it
and comes back around to himself.
Why do you think he hasn't been happy?
I don't know.
It's sad for me.
It's really sad for me.
I don't know...
I hope he can find some peace.
I hope he can find some joy.
He doesn't seem like he has any joy.
Do you think he can ever go back to the old Kody?
I don't know.
I think it's fair to say that he is very different
from the person that you met when you married him.
-[Meri] Yeah. -Um...
I want you to watch this clip, and then we'll get a reaction...
-Okay. -...as to your thoughts.
Okay.
You know, Kody used to be so dynamic and so bold.
[Christine] And everyone always wanted to be around him,
'cause he was just always down for having a great time.
But he didn't let other people control him.
He was his own person.
[Meri] This is not the happy-go-lucky,
"everything is positive and well in the world"
Kody Brown that I used to know.
I'm in this bad place with Janelle, and Christine's gone.
Don't even know what to do with Meri.
And even with Robyn, kinda feeling like I've been
pretty much a grouch for two years.
I mean, it's just obvious.
He just... just is always mad.
He's been very, very, very angry.
I don't know how you do it.
'Cause he's not who you married,
he's not who I married.
No, he hasn't been.
It's really sad seeing him go downhill.
[crying] I don't know who this guy is.
Maybe this is who he always was, I don't know.
But I don't recognize this very mean person.
That was right after the fight. [chuckles]
[Robyn] We've never had as many problems
as we're having right now in our marriage.
He's suspicious of anybody being disloyal to him.
He's directing that at me,
and I don't really recognize him right now.
And I've never seen him like this before.
I mean, the deepest temptations I've had in my whole life,
was to sit down and stop trying to be good.
That's happening to me now.
And it's just devastating.
I don't know, I worked so hard to do what was right.
And when you lose that,
when you feel like you failed
even to God...
This is stuff that I should just be keeping to myself.
I don't want Robyn to see this.
I don't want her to know how dark I've gotten.
[Robyn] It would absolutely devastate me
if he decided to leave, but...
I mean, I know he has these thoughts.
I know you can't make anybody stick around or stay.
I just know it's from pain.
It's not because he's a selfish
or a bad person, he's just in pain.
Like I'd like to run away
from my life.
You know, just escape. Just...
Yeah, that's what he's been acting like.
...change my name, disappear, be somebody else.
I just... I hate my life right now.
Can you help me understand that?
Can you help me unpack some of that?
Why does he feel that way?
I don't know why he hates his life so much, but that's really sad.
I've never heard him say that.
But it shows.
It shows.
Does it concern you when you hear him talk this way?
Not anymore.
I don't understand,
because, ultimately, you want him to be happy, don't you?
I do want him to be happy, and I hope that he can,
but it doesn't...
It can't affect me anymore.
You know, he has made it very clear to me
that he's not interested in having any part of my life.
He's actually used the words,
"Your life is not one that I wanna insert myself into."
And so, I've had to really step back
and figure out me and where I am,
and how I move forward,
and not let his emotions, his thoughts,
his issues at all affect me.
So what he's doing is he's self-sabotaging.
He's angry.
[exhales]
So you see him imploding?
-He tries to. -Yeah.
[cries] He tries to.
But is he sabotaging your relationship?
[cries] He tries to.
I have to stop him all the time.
Yeah, he tries to.
How does he sabotage your relationship?
He picks fights with me.
Um...
[sighs]
-Over what? -Dumb things.
Okay.
[cries] Like, we're...
We're in different places...
[sighs] I'm sorry.
[crying]
We're in different places about...
the bomb that went off on our family, and like...
I'm in a major place of mourning,
and he's angry.
And he doesn't wanna...
He just wants to just go find whatever, you know,
and I'm like, um,
no, I can't feel like that.
[sighs] I might've been sabotaging myself
a little bit before that, just out of the frustration and anger.
But were you sabotaging your relationship with Robyn?
Yeah, I was. I was. Definitely.
-I-- -[Sukanya] Why?
You love her.
-Yeah, but I wanted to punish myself. -Mm.
I thought of myself leaving Robyn
and having another lover
and looking at this lover and going, I don't love you,
I'm in love with another woman.
I'm in love with a woman that I left because I was
too much a piece of [bleep] to manage the relationship.
And what it was is just anger, and I'm embarrassed.
So you get embarrassed,
and then you get self-deprecating.
You know, it's, like just bad behavior.
And a lot of people might go through this.
These are my demons.
And that's like doing something that destroys myself.
-Mm. -Christine's leaving,
and... and I'm just angry,
so a lot of dark winds were going through me.
-Okay. -A lot of devil, lot of temptation.
Which would be destructive of my relationship with Robyn.
So I dealt with a lot of anger,
and she would get frustrated.
My anger was a turn-off. It was scary.
And the dumb thing is, because I'm so honest,
I just... I share everything with her.
So I shared stuff with her that was heartbreaking.
I was like, "I've been thinking like this."
You can only imagine how terrible that was.
There's some things in a man's mind
that should never be expressed.
[narrator reading]
Her personality type loves drama.
They love drama. They love talking about their drama.
See, that's where the lie is.
I had one of my children complaining
that I was always at one wife's house.
And whose house was that?
Oh, it's Robyn's. Robyn's to blame for everything.
[cries] And this isn't me just being dramatic.
Thank you, Christine.
[man 1] Roll cameras. Roll sound, please.
[indistinct chatter]
[man 2] Rolling.
[Robyn] We've never had as many problems
as we're having right now in our marriage.
He's suspicious of anybody being disloyal to him.
What is this suspiciousness about?
His suspiciousness is about women, in general.
-[laughing] -Oh.
Help me understand that.
Well, when you go through a divorce,
you're afraid that every other...
Like, as a woman, you're afraid another guy
is going to be like the guy you just divorced.
-Right. -So you're careful, you're cautious.
-You're suspicious. -Yeah.
And so that's what he's going through is...
He's going through this "I'm suspicious of women" thing.
And, um, I just work really hard
to constantly get him to remember
and realize that not all women
[chuckling] are bad.
And I told him, I said,
"I feel like you're lining up all the women.
I'm there with them, and you're... [imitates gunfire]
-...you know, shooting them all down." -Yeah.
And that's not fair.
Just because, you know, you're dealing...
you're having some issues with the other women in your life,
or a woman or whatever,
doesn't mean that we're all bad.
In that clip, we also saw him say, like,
"I don't want Robyn to see how dark I've gotten."
-How did that land with... -Yeah. [chuckles]
-How did you receive that? -I noticed there's a nuance, yeah.
How did you receive that?
So anymore in his communication,
and maybe it's because Robyn is the only one
that he really is with anymore...
His communication has become very...
a lot of reference to, "You can't talk about Robyn.
She's the one that's loyal to me.
I don't want Robyn to see this or be exposed to this."
So I mean, there's definitely a more protective stance.
But it feels like, over the last couple of years,
especially during Covid, you know, his optics were like,
well, you know, Robyn's always taking the hits for this,
and sometimes, it feels like they're bullying Robyn.
[chuckles] I...
Do you feel like you were bullying Robyn?
No, no, I don't.
And that's where it started to get really weird,
because, all of a sudden, it was always about framing, like...
It's almost like, I have this paragon of a wife.
She does everything right.
And so if you had any kind of a disagreement,
or you had any kind of a different opinion,
even if you expressed it respectfully,
you weren't "safe."
You were a "bully."
You know, as a wife, I should be able to say to Kody,
"Well, I'm having a problem here," but that conversation was never open.
I couldn't say anything against Robyn.
And so, it became this really strange thing,
and that was with Covid,
as he started to spend more time there.
All of a sudden, it became very off-limits
to say anything about Robyn.
Do you have regrets that you weren't stricter
in your polygamy rules?
-No, no-- -And more equitable in your time?
-Oh, I was equitable in my time. -Okay.
See, that's where the lie is.
I had one of my children complaining
that I was always at one wife's house.
And whose house was that?
Oh, it's Robyn's. Robyn's to blame for everything.
And this is the why.
When I say she's to blame for everything,
I'm not blaming her.
But there's something that has drawn the wrath
of jealousy from the public, the tabloids,
from sister wives, something...
to go towards her where she's being blamed for [bleep] that I did,
or [bleep] that I didn't manage.
Or the bad relationship I had with one wife,
"Oh, that's Robyn's fault,"
because I had a good relationship with her.
There was a shift of blame towards Robyn
that got to the point where it was making me so angry,
that I was getting to the point
where if you had a complaint about her,
I'd be like, "Shut up. I will punch you in the mouth," you know.
I was getting sick of the complaints,
'cause it was really obvious to me she was doing nothing
but her best to be compliant
to what our family's structure was.
But he thinks you and Janelle were a bully to Robyn.
[scoffs]
And so, he feels like he's got to protect her.
I know. Right?
I have looked back and I have dissected my relationship with Robyn,
and I can remember a few conversations that I had with her
that I guess could've been more aggressive,
but we talked about it and we worked it out.
Robyn, one time, I offended her.
It was something that I said.
She'd come over to my house, we talked about it
for a while, and I thought we were fine after that.
And then I heard later about it again,
and again, and again.
And I'm like, I thought we were fine.
I thought we talked about it, and it was over.
So what was that thing?
I just...
It's just so stupid.
It's this stupid personality test.
I delved into it because I was fascinated
with the different kind of personalities that we all have.
So I was talking to her about hers,
and instantly, I felt the tension, I'm like, what did I say?
Well, what did you say about her?
Okay. In her personality type...
Her personality type loves drama.
They love drama. They love talking about their drama,
so other people can feel how they feel.
On the flip side,
they love listening to everybody's drama.
They love it. It is what they do.
They live for that connection with people, over drama.
That's what she got mad at. It was me calling her dramatic.
Okay, so there's a personality test
that Christine was talking about.
Do you remember the personality test at all?
Yeah. I don't remember what everybody was,
but yes, I remember taking it.
-Do you remember, like, what your personality was? -Yeah.
I'm the diplomat, the peacemaker.
Okay. Do you agree with that?
In my best moments, I'm that person.
[both laughing]
-Do you remember what Robyn was? -No.
-Do you remember what Christine was? -No.
Christine shared with us the personality test
that you guys have done.
-What was your personality type, out of curiosity? -Can't remember.
I don't remember.
Did you agree with it?
I did. I remember agreeing with it.
It seemed very similar to what my personality is,
maybe a three, or a "B."
I don't know what it was.
Do you remember any of the others'?
Nope.
Obviously, it was forgettable for me.
-Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, I'm just curious. -[laughing]
I'm just curious if you agreed with your personality test.
I do remember agreeing with my personality test.
And did you think your other sister wives
were described pretty accurately?
I felt like it was fairly accurate. Yeah.
So do you remember the personality test?
I never took it, but I remember it, yeah.
-You never took it? -I never did. [chuckles]
-Wait-- -Some us did, and I just never did.
Huh.
Christine had mentioned that you guys took it,
where you guys talk about, like, how...
what type of archetype you become, like, you know,
-who are you. -Oh.
Oh, wait. Maybe I did.
It was described as you... as somebody who
liked drama, and that
you were really upset about it,
and it kind of created this tension
between the two of you--
-I don't have a memory of this. -Okay.
And I don't...
If there was...
That's interesting. No, I don't remember taking it.
-It's okay. It doesn't matter. -I never filled out questionnaires.
So if somebody was coming up with my personality type,
they were taking the test for me...
Okay.
...and making the choices for me,
and going, "Oh, well, I think this is who you are."
And that was when...
You know, and if that's somebody doing that, that means...
Like, Christine didn't know me well.
She didn't take the time to know me very well.
[Christine] Hmm.
Can you name a reason why you're not friends with Robyn?
Well, I don't trust her.
I think she says one thing, but does another.
How can you say you want the whole big family picture,
but then do all these separate things with Kody?
How can you say you want the whole big family picture
when he's over at your house all the time?
So if you don't trust her,
how do you have a relationship with her?
I'm not going to, not even "How do you?" I will not.
But you shut down that relationship pretty quickly.
Yes. Yes.
I don't wanna sit here and blame Robyn, 'cause it's like... [sighs]
I'm not gonna be her friend, 'cause I don't believe her.
But I'm not gonna blame her for everything falling apart.
I think we probably all had something to do with that.
I feel like my relationship with Robyn, like,
that's something that she and I are working on,
and trying to figure out and navigate,
because it is different.
You know, as much as I think
we would like to say "No, it's not," it is,
because now I'm friends with my ex-husband's wife.
And I'm emotionally
not 100% there yet.
Do you still consider her a sister wife?
No, because when you're a sister wife,
it's because you're married to the same man.
And I am a single woman.
Are you less lonely out in Parowan?
Yeah.
-You have a bigger support system there? -Yeah.
My best friend, Jenn, is the one person
in the past decade
that I have trusted more than anybody else.
You're admitting you don't trust your sister wives.
Help me understand that.
Because I know she has my back.
I know that whatever I want, she will support me in.
I know she doesn't go out talking trash about me.
Why don't you feel that way about your sister wives then?
They don't have my back.
-Robyn has your back. -Oh, by the way...
I don't have sister wives, just FYI. [chuckles]
Robyn has my back, yes.
Robyn has my back.
But you don't trust her implicitly.
Um, no.
-Why? -Um...
During the catfishing situation,
there was a friend of Robyn's at the time,
that kind of inserted herself, um, meaning...
-The person who catfished you. -...crazy person.
-Yeah. -A psycho. [chuckles]
-Anyway... -That catfished you. Okay.
Yeah, so this friend of Robyn's,
who is feeding her information
and making her and Kody believe
that I was off having an affair.
And then Robyn would talk to me,
and I'm like, "Robyn, I've never met this person.
I don't know what you're talking about."
So I pulled way back, and so it kind of caused
a lack of trust between me and Robyn.
But that trust is built back up.
There was somebody that was trying to convince me
that there was something going on,
and I finally just said to this person,
"I don't believe you.
And unless you've got proof,
I don't want you to talk about it with me anymore."
And then it was a process of rebuilding your trust with each other, right?
No... no, because our relationship...
there wasn't a problem in our relationship, in my head.
-Mmm-hmm. -What there was was...
My understanding was that because she was in this weird,
awkward place and she felt scared to talk to anybody.
Not because of something I was doing.
I told her anything and everything that I was being told,
'cause I wanted her to understand what was happening.
Ultimately, don't you think...
just seeing this situation with Meri,
ultimately, that's a good thing for Meri right now.
-To leave. -Yeah.
Yeah.
As hard as it is to say it out loud,
it's a good thing for your sister wife,
or your ex-sister wife to be able to...
...live her life.
I'm sorry, what did you just say?
'Cause I called her an ex-sister wife.
[crying]
I'm sorry.
No, that hit you hard. I'm sorry... I'm sorry.
I know.
That's not how I see her.
How do you see her?
She's my sister wife.
So is Janelle.
And so is Christine.
I'm sorry, I don't know how to let this go.
And this isn't me just being dramatic.
Thank you, Christine.
Oh, it's so horrible to have her say that.
Gosh.
[narrator reading]
But did you all blend together when Robyn came in?
I think that some people felt like
this was forced on them.
They were being told to,
you know, sit down and shut up,
and to accept this family being merged in.
And I feel like maybe we should've taken some time.
There's not a division with Robyn and her kids.
There is now. There is now, because she put it there.
-[man] B cam. Mark. -[clapper clacks]
So in the past, your family's been doing gift exchanges,
and it's something the kids look forward to, right?
Oh, yeah. They love it. It's the best part.
-It's their thing. -It's their thing.
-Yeah.
And so this next clip is gonna share how something
that was a time for the kids
to kind of connect and enjoy
turned into something that was very difficult
to kind of understand.
So let's watch you and the family discuss this.
[Paedon] A few week ago,
Logan texted a group chat of the siblings,
that he wants to do a sibling gift exchange,
and somebody said, "Okay, let's tell all the parents
about this."
And Robyn gets involved in the conversation
and says, let's do a video chat.
I was pushing for the video chat,
for the sake of the kids.
When I was getting all this pushback,
I was like, fine, I'm out.
You know, this is an effort in futility.
[Christine] So I remember even at one point,
she said, "My kids don't even remember
who their siblings are."
And Hunter was like, "One video call's not gonna help that."
And it got blown out of proportion
that they didn't wanna hang out,
and then, suddenly, no one wanted to hang out.
And then all of these hurt feelings about
when Robyn first came into the family came out,
and it's like, oh, my gosh.
Then it just turned into this whole big, like,
kind of, squabble between my kids
and a bunch of the other kids.
It really just got blown out of proportion, I think.
Everybody was trying to deflect, but it just kept spiraling.
Chk-chk-chk-chk... and it was done.
With some of the things that were said and expressed,
I don't know if we ever come back from it.
[Kody] So when this text thread was going on,
I was just ignoring it.
I wasn't gonna pick sides, one way or the other.
Janelle and Christine's kids have already chosen Janelle and Christine.
I always wanted to have the family have Christmas together.
It was a horrible day.
I think Robyn jumped to conclusions too fast.
It's just another example of them not wanting
to be a family with us.
It's been like this from the beginning.
How do you see this?
I saw the thread, I just wasn't on it.
I read through it, and I'm like, this is getting insane.
-Right. -This is something where I didn't realize
Robyn's kids felt like they did.
And this needs to be handled in therapy.
So Robyn's kids were on the thread saying, this is how we feel?
-Yeah. -Ooh. What did they say?
Yeah, they're just...
They've been feeling like what she said in the end, how they felt like
they were apart from the very beginning.
And I didn't know that. I'm, like, wait a minute.
They feel like that, from the very beginning?
Maybe we should've known.
Maybe we should've known that.
What had happened was I was being told,
um, that the kids hated me.
-In the text thread? -No.
Before that.
I was being told that the kids hate me and my kids.
Who was telling you that?
Mm. A person.
I was just being told this, and so when I was trying
really hard to get us on a video call
for the sake of the little kids...
Because this experience of...
this gift exchange is, like, a really memorable experience
for some of the kids and...
My little kids aren't remembering who their siblings are.
They don't know their names. They don't remember whose name goes with what.
And when I started getting kickback,
I just went, why am I trying here?
What happened?
My children never said anything.
They said, "Look, we're all in the East Coast.
We can't jump on a call at nine o'clock at night," or whatever.
They were asking to schedule.
And then it blew up into this whole thing about,
"Well, you've always treated us so badly.
I'm so tired of working on this,
and I've always been treated so badly."
And we were like, wow. Wow. Just wow.
-Who said that? -That was Robyn.
Oh, Robyn said that.
Robyn was like, "You guys have treated me so badly.
I'm so tired. I don't wanna work on this anymore."
And then all of a sudden, our kids started piling in with these, really things like
"You treated us so horribly.
We're never gonna wanna have our own families,
'cause this was such a horrible experience,"
and I'm like, whoa!
-Mm. -Like, I don't know how...
I don't know how we go from, "Let's not have a video call
at 9:00 p.m. Eastern,
to "You guys were so horrible to us."
Like, it just spiraled. It just was insanity.
They started trying to express themselves,
and the other kids started mocking them
and dismissing them,
and it made them feel very ganged up on.
And so what had happened was my kids came to me
and they said, "We don't feel
emotionally safe to be a part of this
gift exchange anymore."
After that, Robyn just said,
"Dad and I have decided our kids
aren't going to do the gift exchange anymore.
And we're not gonna do it." And they were devastated.
And they were like, "What does that mean?
I thought those were our siblings."
And they're like, why can't we just move past this and be siblings?
There's not a division with Robyn and her kids.
There is now. There is now, because she put it there.
But there wasn't there until then.
Some of the kids, yes. There's been some hard things.
There has been some hard things.
-Some siblings get along better than others. Yes. -Mmm-hmm.
Um, but we tried very hard
to include Robyn and her kids with everything.
I didn't realize Robyn felt like that, from the beginning?
You know, all of a sudden, she comes back with,
"Well, I've talked to your dad,
and we're just gonna do our thing separate."
And so my kids were like, "Our dad? Like, our dad?"
Now, like, it's...
"You mean the father of us all?"
-You know what I mean? -Mmm-hmm.
And then, why did she say what she said,
that "You've never wanted us before,
-and my kids know it now too"? -I don't know.
Like, it's some sort of weird paranoia she carries around,
that we never wanted her.
I don't ever remember saying that.
But Janelle and Christine never knew that your kids felt that way
about everybody else, until they saw the text.
That's not necessarily true.
I've had to go to Janelle and Christine and say,
a child of yours is being hard on a child of mine.
My kids just really, really wanted to belong.
And they had some of the other kids
kind of telling them they didn't belong,
and they weren't part of the family, and things like that.
But did you all blend together when Robyn came in?
So, I feel like that we tried in our own different ways,
and I know since then,
that many people don't feel like we tried very well,
or we had enough conversations, you know.
So I think that we could've done it better.
Who are you referring to when you say that?
I've heard it from multiple people
that, you know, we just should've had a little bit more conversations.
Maybe, you know, some people didn't really feel like...
I think that some people felt like...
that this was forced on them.
Like, they didn't have an opinion.
We're just gonna get married, and we're just gonna have this family,
we're gonna have these kids,
and everybody just has to deal with it.
I know that some people feel like that.
We didn't take the time to listen to our own children.
We just kind of told them to just accept these kids,
like, you know what I mean?
Like, we really hurried and kind of put it together
without really taking everybody's temperature.
They were being told to, you know, sit down
and shut up, and to accept this family being merged in.
And I feel like maybe we should've taken some time.
Can we get back from this?
Can we come back from something like this?
I'm gonna say...
I am not willing, personally...
I'm not willing to fix it yet.
There's still so much
blown-out-of-proportion comments that are being made,
that are so outlandish.
I'm, like, I am not interested in fixing anything right now.
With the kids, yes, always.
But with Kody and Robyn, no. Not yet.
No, I don't trust them right now,
and I realize that takes communication,
but that takes a desire,
and that takes something you want to do.
I don't want to right now, just to be honest,
and just to be real.
[Sukanya] Okay.
[narrator reading]
I'm engaged to... I know, engaged!
I'm engaged, I'm getting married!
To the love of my life.
-Can you show off that ring? -Yes.
I met the love of my life. I did.
How different is the relationship with David
than it is with Kody?
[man] It's rolling now.
So where are you at now, and who are you seeing?
-Yes, so-- -Who are you dating?
Yes. [squeals]
So I'm engaged to... I know, engaged!
I'm engaged, I'm getting married!
To the love of my life.
-Can you show off that ring? -Yes.
I met the love of my life. I did.
-Okay... -Soulmate.
You wanna hear about it? Okay, so we met online.
And it was like... I knew what I was looking for.
I wanted a partner. I wanted someone to have a good time with,
but I really was only casually dating.
I wasn't looking for, like, the one, you know.
But then I see...
I signed up to do this online dating thing.
And the night that I signed up for it,
there was his picture, and he has these eyes.
And I'm like, I wanna be looked at with those eyes
with the look of love in 'em, for the rest of my life, so check.
So I went on a date with him, and met him in person...
-And he's just charming. -Mm.
And he's kind, and he's sweet, and he says everything right.
Everything right. So sweet and so kind.
So immediately, I'm all, that can't be right.
There's no way he can be that great.
And then after that, we just had a couple more dates,
and I still was like, is he real?
You know, is this really real?
'Cause he says everything and it's just so perfect.
So he goes, "Would you wanna come to my birthday party?
And you can meet my whole family.
I'm like, yes.
Because when you meet the family, then you can see if it's real.
No, I met them all, and they were amazing.
And then at the dinner is when I fell in love with him.
-I'm not kidding, it was that fast. -I love it.
It was, like, our fourth date. We're sitting there with this huge group of people,
and he pulls his chair... my chair to him,
and he puts his arm around me,
and I put my head against his chest,
and it was like I took my first breath.
And my heart beat for the first time.
[Sukanya] Aw.
And I didn't even know what I didn't have before.
But I knew at that point
that this was it.
He's it for me, and he's my soulmate,
and I love him.
How different is the relationship with David
than it is with Kody?
So, first thing I realized was that
David loves me.
He loves me, and I felt so loved.
But with that comes a confidence that I can just be me.
There's no strings attached to it. Nothing.
I don't have to do anything to earn his love.
It isn't... It's just always there.
It's just always constant.
May I ask you a total girlfriend question?
-Yeah. Yeah. -Okay.
So you know when you kiss somebody, you feel that, like, unh...
like from the bottom of your toes to the top of your head,
and then it's like that...
Did you feel that, like, in ever--
-The first kiss? -Yeah.
Yes. Yes.
Yes. It was a movie.
All... It was hours of goodness
rolled up into that kiss.
-Yes. -Yeah.
It was 100% everything.
Yeah, and then you know.
Yes. I'm like, oh, that's what it's like...
to feel desired and desirable.
-Mm. -It was magical. Magical.
I can't wait... I can't wait for you to meet him.
I love introducing him to people. I love it.
He got to meet Janelle, so excited.
And then, same thing, every time I get
to introduce him to anybody, I'm like,
you just wait, just wait.
[narrator] Next time on Sister Wives One on One.
I'm sorry, Christine, if I'm telling on you.
She said, "I did not know what it was like
to be loved like this."
Do you actually think Robyn really wants to live a plural life?
No, I don't think that Robyn has any desire
to live polygamy or plural marriage.
I don't think Christine knows Robyn at all.
She was a [bleep] sister wife.
She'll probably, and I hope, be a very good wife for David.
Could you find happiness
with just Kody, at this time?
I wanna say yes...
to be loving and respectful to Kody.
I wanna say yes, but...
-I think we all need to meet him. -I agree.
-Hey, baby... -Hey, David. Come on out!
-So nice to meet you. -Nice to meet you.
I have so many questions.
Can I ask you all the questions
-that inquiring minds want to know? -Sure.
Here's the thing. For David's sake,
Christine has to destroy my character,
or David doesn't feel like he can marry her,
'cause she left a good man.