[narrator] Previously on Sister Wives...
Kody and I are officially done.
I'm upset that I was neglected and abandoned,
and the story that he's been telling.
He's a slob and I'll leave him. [laughs]
He's gonna be so mad at me in this interview,
and I'm kind of not giving a flying rat's ass.
[Ysabel] Hello, Mama.
Ysabel's going to be moving to Salt Lake.
Not with me. She's made it very clear.
-I think this one qualifies as heavy. -[laughs]
The kids don't have a great relationship with Kody.
Not all the wives have a good relationship with each other,
so that's why I wouldn't say it's a plural family.
I would say that what Janelle and I have is a sister wife family.
Mykelti's pregnant with twins,
and so we have to have a party to celebrate that.
Hola, mi bambina.
Mykelti's like, "Dad and Robyn are here."
I'm like, "Okay, okay."
And this little piggy went "Hoo, hoo, hoo, hee, hee, hee."
I'm not gonna necessarily say hi.
That would mean I was gonna be friendly,
and I'm not.
The divorce has put me in...
I'll be honest, a pretty dark place.
[tense music playing]
Just the failure of the experience
that was everything.
All my goals.
[Meri] I kind of suspect that he's gonna wake up
one day and be like, "Wow, what the hell did I just do?"
He's gonna be accountable for that.
Whether he likes it or not.
[theme music playing]
[upbeat music playing]
Are you ready?
So we just finished moving Ysabel to Salt Lake.
We got her into her new apartment.
Maddie is six months pregnant and she was using her big SUV
to pull the trailer of stuff.
Maddie and Caleb have talked about coming west.
We've been dreaming about buying a piece of property.
As we were driving across, we found a couple of listings for property
that's not very far from Salt Lake.
So Maddie and I and the grandbabies are gonna go up and look at it.
Thank you, Julie, for letting me sleep in your room.
You're welcome.
When Janelle and I were in Idaho together visiting my brothers
on the way back, Maddie and Caleb started looking at property
and sending her pictures and calling Janelle on the phone.
And I listened to all of it.
Basically, if Maddie and Caleb end up buying property,
then Janelle was talking about moving with them.
-Have a safe drive. -Thank you.
-You bet. True. -Have fun taking Truely to school.
So I'm like, "So, are you, like, leaving Kody?"
That kind of... She's like, "Well, yeah, yeah." The woman doesn't share much.
I don't want to overstep or anything like that.
I do want to overstep.
But I really reigned it back because I'm like,
"That's a lot of information."
[country music playing]
Kody and I are not in communication.
Our relationship is over, but we both still live in Flagstaff.
Yeah, there's not been an official divorce.
I don't know how to get one, and I don't need one.
I'm already like, I'm already count--
Like I'm counting myself into this already. [laughs]
But that's the plan, I guess, right?
I was like, "Aren't we buying it together?"
Yes, we are.
Like, I have this piece in Flagstaff.
Well, I don't know if I really have it,
-because... -Yeah, what's going on there?
It's not paid off yet.
The note is due in about... Mmm, six months.
And they keep asking your dad and he's like, "I'm not gonna
make a plan till blah." And then it's like, "I'm not going to make a plan
till blah,"
So the first two-acre lot right now is Kody and I.
The second two-acre lot is Kody and Robyn.
The third is a four-acre lot, and it's Meri, myself and Kody.
And then the five-acre lot,
because Christine quitclaimed it, is Kody and Robyn.
Robyn's got her house.
Christine had her house.
Meri has built a business, but she didn't use family money.
She built that herself.
So she and I are both, like... This represents basically the only asset
we would be taking from the marriage.
So what happens if you don't make the note?
He, I mean, technically, the guy can take back the entire purchase.
Which is idiotic. I'm sure your...
I'm sure your dad's gonna... wanna pay that off, right?
I mean...
That's how the... how it's written.
The rest of our property is collateral, um, for the note.
It's insane to me that Kody is not taking this more seriously.
Well, Janelle asks me about the property all the time,
but I don't trust her anymore.
And so I don't give her any information.
We will pay off the property when the time comes.
And I'm not giving you any details about what I'm doing or whatever,
because I'm tired of disclosing information that goes through
the gossip mill of our broken family.
He leaks like a sieve.
He told me stuff about his other relationships and his other wives
that I was like, "I don't think you're supposed to be telling me that."
-I don't know. -Is he having interest?
Robyn's sitting on the house.
-What are they gonna do with that property? -They say they wanna...
They say they want...
They say they want to build out there. I don't know.
Here's the thing.
I don't know if I...
really want to be next-door neighbors with them.
-I... -Oh, yeah. No, I wouldn't.
I would be great being neighbors with Janelle or Meri or even Christine,
to be honest, um...
I still have hopes for Meri and Kody
and definitely with Janelle and Kody.
I see it highly unlikely that I would ever build on the property.
I mean, I'm kind of in the middle of this
separation from Kody and from the family.
And doesn't make sense that I would end up building out there.
[Kody scoffs] We're never going to be neighbors.
Christine and I are never going to be neighbors.
Meri, I don't think she would build on Coyote Pass.
She's always said, "I'm part of this, part of this,"
but, nah, I don't believe she's going to.
Janelle, I think, would build on Coyote Pass.
And if Janelle builds on Coyote Pass,
then I've got to decide if I'm going to be neighbors
with somebody who pretty much just said I'm done with you.
Your dad always has this weird way...
-And give you... And then you would take some. -I would want four acres,
-and we would sell it. -Yeah.
If that were to happen,
if somehow we came in and bought the debt,
we would make sure Meri got her share and Robyn and Kody could take
what was left because all the family money helped buy the house that Robyn's in,
and they have an extra lot there, so I feel like that's kind of fair.
I will always pretty much want what's fair,
and I feel like Meri has been treated very badly by Kody for years.
And I just want to make sure that that doesn't carry forward
into this property division.
That would get you some of the money back that you put in for Robyn's equity.
Yeah, I know.
Back in the day.
Our family used to run... we would use all the resources to help one person,
then we would all rally to support the other person.
That's how it always worked.
Until the last ten years or so.
And all of sudden it's been about,
well, my estate and everybody needs their own estate.
[Robyn] The whole plan at that point, was for that home, my home,
to be kind of an asset for the family.
Eventually, when I'm built out on the property.
It was never supposed to end up being something that was just mine.
When I put the money into the house, I said,
"Well, I think it would be fair if all of our names
were on the the mortgage," and he's like," No, no,
we need to protect, you know... protect Robyn's estate.
She needs to have it
so it's hers. And so it's ours."
So with me leaving or trying to go somewhere
and do something different, I want my value of the property,
and I'd like to recoup some of the money I put into Robyn's house.
I mean, it's like we were working together for so long and we didn't
actually stop working together until, you know, just recently.
When Janelle's bringing up, oh, that Kody and I owe her something.
It's like, how do you...
How do you calculate, how do you figure that out?
It's so confusing.
I think it's ridiculous you haven't paid off that property yet.
-Your dad's typical. -How does he not have the money to pay it?
Because he says we had all these other debts,
-but yet I've watched-- -What other debts?
I've watched him add enough, like he keeps buying assets that he sits on.
Trailers and blah, blah and blah, blah, blah.
I see all the art on their walls.
I see all these things and that's fine.
They can... I have money, and I've spent it on things, too.
[Kody] Janelle took care of her household.
Christine took care of her household.
Robyn took care of her household.
Meri took care of her household.
Then I focused mostly on, sort of getting the cars for the kids,
you know, basically had a fleet, insuring the cars for the kids.
Kody and Robyn shared everything.
They shared the house payments.
They shared the utilities, they shared everything.
I don't know how it worked at Robyn's house. I don't know.
But I used to always be surprised at how nice her backyard was.
It was completely finished and there was always, like, stuff at her house,
and I'm like, "Wow, huh."
Kody and my money have...
has always been separate up until Christine and Janelle chose
and asked to be out of the family financially.
I used to be not so great with money.
When I was young, I had hard knocks.
And then I learned, during my divorce,
really how to budget myself very, very well.
You just must have had a different priority
of where your money was going to go than I did. That's all.
Like he doesn't prioritize what I need or what I want, you know?
Yeah.
I think after a while I began to see it,
and my kids were getting very angry about it.
Like my adult children.
Like, "What the hell, Mom?"
[Kody] There's a lot of misguided jealousy here, a lot of trash talk.
Is it true?
Well, some of it probably is.
But most of it's not.
[Janelle] Kody really did, sort of, kind of
cut off communication with Caleb and Maddie
when the family started to really dissolve,
and the kids really don't know who he is.
He's not been out to visit, he doesn't call.
I have encouraged Kody
to work any relationship out that he can with his kids,
but I guess it's been a two way street.
Maddie hasn't been reaching out to her dad, either.
Maddie is mama bear to an extreme.
She has felt like until he can be consistent
and show up
and not be dramatic, that she feels like it's probably better
if they don't know about him.
And Maddie and Caleb don't really have
much relationship with him because he doesn't call them.
I do think it's smart for you to move away from Flagstaff.
To be honest with you, I didn't really cut off communications with Madison.
She cut them off with me.
Every time I talked to her,
it was a fish for gossip.
And I got tired of it.
[Toni] Are you gonna make mud pies?
[Janelle] I love this property.
It's like everything that we had wanted in a piece.
Maddie, look how big this property is.
It goes clear back.
[Christine] Where do I need to throw my support?
Get out of Flagstaff.
Move in with Maddie.
[Robyn] If Janelle were to move, it would devastate me.
I don't know how to let this all go, and I am not
letting go of Janelle.
[upbeat music playing]
As Maddie and I were coming across country
with Ysabel to come back to Salt Lake.
Maddie was just looking up property,
and we found this and we were like,
"Oh, we need to see this property."
And so we started making phone calls. [laughs]
The real estate agent, she was amazing.
She'd agreed to meet us, so.
-Hi, I'm Maddie. -Hi!
Hi, Maddie. I'm Toni.
-Nice to meet you, Toni. -You, too!
This location is really great because it's about five hours
from Christine and her children in the Salt Lake area.
So that's really good, because that's really the core group of the family.
There's no contact, really, with Meri or Robyn or Kody.
I don't really foresee that's gonna change much.
Now the creek
-feeds the ranch. -Oh, wow, it's running.
-Oh, yes, this is a year round creek. -[Janelle] Year round.
This part of Montana is just beautiful.
There's a big river that runs through here.
And there's a lake that's not far away
and I just think it's wonderful,
So, the lot starts here.
-At the road, goes all the way back to that fence line there. -[Janelle] Okay.
We'll see the far end down there.
Yeah, you know, it's really hard to visualize what 40 acres looks like.
You know you're used to seeing half an acre or an acre,
maybe in a residential area.
But when you take 40 and there's nothing on it, it's a pretty big space.
[Toni] Are you gonna make mud pies?
I love this property, and I know Maddie does, too.
It's like everything that we had wanted in a piece.
We're not farmers, we're not ranchers,
but we want to live that rural lifestyle.
A couple animals, maybe a green house.
Pretty basic.
Maddie, look how big this property is.
It goes clear back.
[Maddie] I know.
[Janelle] So the price is really good.
The biggest thing is, it is 40 minutes from "town," which is about 1,000 people.
But it would mean that we would have to take the kids to school.
Like, it sounds all great.
Forty minutes, no big deal.
But when you're running back and forth
every single day, it's just a little bit outside
of the range of what's probably doable.
[Maddie] Oh, they got out and ran and ran and ran.
[Robyn] If Janelle were to move, it would devastate me.
I don't know how to let this all go,
and I am not letting go of Janelle.
They could still work it out and we could still be a family.
That's how I see this.
And I feel like I'm kind of the idiot that just won't get it.
But I don't know how to let it go.
-Okay. -[Axel] Are we going in there?
-Come here, get in. -[Janelle] Come on, Axel.
[Kody] When Maddie and Caleb were living with us in Las Vegas,
that was the best time of my life.
-[somber music playing] -We had the four homes together.
Everything was going along smoothly,
Maddie and Caleb were around,
and it was great having them around.
And I loved Caleb.
He was definitely like family.
You know, things started to fall apart with the divorce,
and then with my differences with Janelle and the differences over COVID,
it just made all those relationships go sour.
[Christine] Kody's allegations are absolutely ridiculous.
All the kids that were frustrated, were frustrated way before I left.
My leaving didn't change his kids' relationship with him.
Kody can still fix his relationships with his children.
[Kody] I'm so angry about how I've been treated that I haven't gotten past that.
Here's the thing is, I'm not willing
to take blame for things that my wife or ex wife
is sitting there telling them that I did.
I hope the time comes when the contempt will subside
and we'll be able to find forgiveness and love again.
[upbeat music playing]
This is a welcome home party for Ysabel.
Ysabel moved to Utah.
So Mykelti, Avalon are here.
But Maddie's here, of course, with Axel and Evie, Hunter's here, too.
And then it's me, Truely and Ysabel.
It's just, ugh... chaos.
It's awesome.
I'm glad you all came over to hang out.
-You, too. -Thanks.
-[Christine] Thank you for having us. -And now I can relax.
Maddie and Janelle just got back from Montana.
They looked at some property there.
[indistinct chatter]
Janelle's back in Flagstaff already.
I need to find out what's going on,
like she really opened up the conversation,
when we were traveling back from my brother's house in Idaho,
about really being separated from Kody, but more separated
because she's talking about buying land
and moving in with Maddie.
Where do I need to throw my support?
Because for me, I'm like,
totally supportive of, get out of Flagstaff,
move in with Maddie,
get going living with her, things like that.
That's like, yes, but I don't know if she's there.
I have no idea.
-You got it on your foot. -She didn't have to--
No. No, no, no.
It's a water stain.
-[Ysabel] Oh, you're fine. You have a child. -[laughs]
-[Hunter] What does that have to do with anything? -Oh, my God.
You have a child, so it's an excuse to look like a slob.
[Ysabel] Exactly.
Oh, Mykelti hates being pregnant.
She hates it.
But Maddie's pregnant now, too, so they can commiserate.
Janelle and I were pregnant together, too,
but I loved being pregnant, whereas Janelle really didn't.
It's kind of funny, right?
That our daughters are pregnant together, too.
[whispers] It's funny.
Mykelti really can have the babies anytime.
So this is towards the very end of her pregnancy.
-[Kody] Here, Avalon. -[Mykelti] Oh, my God.
[Christine] Mykelti loves Robyn.
And, of course, Robyn's going to be at the birth.
And it is awkward.
It is awkward, but it just doesn't matter.
Robyn and I are going to behave like adults.
Yeah, that could be awkward, but I'm just not gonna let it be.
This isn't about me or my feelings,
It's about Tony and Mykelti, especially Mykelti,
feeling safe, secure and supported.
And that I'm there to help with babies and Mykelti and Tony in any way possible.
Your carrot cake is here somewhere.
-Somebody ate one of them. -Really, it is?
And it's gluten free.
Isn't that cute?
Hey, husband.
[Christine] I don't have a relationship with Kody and Robyn.
I know that Kody and Robyn are still...
well, Kody is angry.
Robyn's heartbroken, um...
I have moved on.
And I love being single.
I love my life now.
I've been on a few dates.
Met some really nice guys.
But nothing emotionally attaching.
It's just fun. I really like it.
[upbeat music playing]
[Aspyn] All right, everyone. You've got your butter.
You have your lobster.
Thank you all for being here, for eating at our home.
Our small home, that accommodates children.
Yes, it does.
[Christine] I love a table
with a lot of people and not room for everything.
I just feel blessed.
I feel so blessed that I was able to leave and still have a rich life.
-[Ysabel] Paedon! -[all] Paedon!
-[Hunter] What's up? -Hi, everyone.
It's great to see you.
-[Ysabel] You're almost as tall as the ceiling. -Oh, yeah.
Paedon lives in Ogden.
It's about an hour away from us.
He often makes it late to gatherings.
[Paedon] Mmm-hmm.
-Yeah? What are you doing? -[Paedon] Um...
Oh, uh...
Wait, wait. You got a job?
Oh, my gosh, what?
-Dude, Paedon is a bouncer. That is awesome. -That is so cool.
Yeah, no, Paedon has a job at a bar,
I'm just going to leave it at that.
-Yeah. -[Aspyn] Seriously?
Yes, seriously.
-[Aspyn] Oh, my God. -Yep, honestly.
Yeah, I'm a bouncer.
[Aspyn] Wait, which one? If we go there, will we see you?
[Maddie laughs]
[all laughing]
This is not the Utah I was raised in.
This is not the Utah I ever dreamed my children would live in, either.
You know, I thought we'd get that more in Vegas.
No, this is just proof that my kids are growing up
and they're gonna do their own thing.
Hey, you guys want to clean up dinner and we can play some games?
Love to.
-[Mykelti] It's been great, thank you for dinner. -Thank you, Aspyn.
This was an incredible dinner.
And it's cool to see everybody all together.
But now Ysabel's part of our Utah group.
So maybe Maddie and Caleb and Janelle and Hunter and Logan.
Maybe they'll come more. That'd be great.
He's not talking to me about it,
so I think I'm gonna have to lawyer up.
It's really complicated because there's no legal marriage.
I think it's wise.
I think it's really wise.
-Like I think... -Is your marriage with Kody over?
I feel like I'm on trial, like I'm being cross-examined.
[upbeat music playing]
Oh, my gosh, Ysabel's back home.
She lives about 20 minutes away from me now in Utah,
and she's doing great.
Then I'm gonna go hang out with Janelle for a little bit
to see how she liked the property in Montana.
This is a big deal for her to be thinking about moving in with Maddie,
and if she's going to be building with Maddie,
is she still going to be building in Flagstaff?
I just have questions. I'm just gonna meet up with Janelle in Flagstaff.
[knock on door]
-Hey. -I like your wreath.
-I know. It's just that-- -I love it.
I'm just concerned about her situation with Kody.
Are they over? Are they done? Um...
What does she need?
Are you still thinking of building out on Coyote Pass?
I love it here.
-You love it here. Okay. -I love it here.
But I'm not sure it's functional for me to stay for the rest of my life here.
[Christine] The property needs to be paid off.
So how serious is anybody really about living on that property?
Is anyone really going to live there?
I've actually thought about asking him if he wants to buy me out.
And not have anything on the...
That's been kind of a hard realization,
because it's like, my dream, right?
Like forever, even when we lived back in Wyoming,
I wanted the whole homestead thing.
And you really wouldn't build... Oh, my God.
[laughs]
I've always wanted my own piece of land that I could...
have a garden, maybe a few animals,
and just kind of live simply.
And Kody hates everything about
living on a farm and living on a ranch.
And he always wanted to be the city guy with the fancy car
and the great job
and like that was always what he wanted.
Kody grew up on a farm, and I think he was like, "Nope, had my fill of that.
Not interested."
So what changed my mind was when I went with Maddie,
to look in Montana, and I'm like,
"Oh, I could have this somewhere else."
It's no-brainer.
Living with Maddie and Caleb on a property in Montana versus living
on Coyote Pass with a house and who knows?
Maybe Kody and Robyn right there living on the same property.
Maybe Meri is going to have a house there, too.
Yeah, that's just no. Just no.
However...
if Kody's not willing to buy me out,
then I think I'm gonna have to do...
I'm gonna have to do something with it,
But we've got to pay it off, and he's not talking to me about it.
So I think I'm going to have to lawyer up, I think.
Because I think that's the only way I'm ever gonna
-get any kind of decision out of him. -Mmm-hmm.
And you need to have a...
Definitely get a lawyer involved. I think so.
I don't know what else to do.
-I don't know what else to do. -Mmm-mmm.
Part of it is I really have no legal rights
to make any kind of claim on Kody's property.
Like we're not legally married.
It's not like I'm just calling a lawyer and saying I need to divorce this person.
No, it's really complicated because there's no legal marriage.
Yeah, it sucks that she just can't
work it out with Kody, that she's got a lawyer up.
That's ridiculous.
I think it's wise, however.
I think it's really wise.
Like I think it, well--
Is your marriage with Kody over?
Yes, yes.
Does he know?
Well, he's not talked to me for a very long time, and now we've resorted,
even business is done via text.
-Really? -Like, we aren't even talking on the phone.
Did you tell him the words "it's over"?
No, like I don't see him, he avoids me.
So in our church, there's no legal marriages
except for, like Kody and Robyn are legally married,
the rest of us aren't. So when you end a marriage...
I mean, for me, um...
There was a definite ending point where I could look back and go,
"Yes, it's over," that kind of a thing,
so I could move on.
Why don't you have a conversation with him and tell him it's over?
I've been trying to talk to him about the land, and he keeps putting me off.
Keeps, like, can't talk for this reason, and then that reason passes,
and then he can't talk for another reason.
-And so it's like... -For a lot of reasons
you need to make that call.
[Janelle] So this is what frustrates me.
Christine comes into town and she starts grilling me and expects that
my breakup to look just like hers and to cross off
all these boxes that hers did.
And it's a very different relationship,
and it's come apart very differently.
I've told Kody, he knows, we've had a conversation.
I don't want him to be part of my new life.
I don't have any official divorce 'cause we weren't really ever legally married.
As soon as the Coyote Pass property is settled and I can get my part out,
I probably won't interact with him ever again.
I was always asking Janelle about our relationship,
and she was always indicating that she didn't want to reconcile.
It was kind of this, sort of just, like, we're not in the same place.
We're not necessarily in agreement.
We're not really working on the relationship.
But there was never anything cut and dried.
It was more, like, just, we're gradually just fading away.
I just think this is so funny.
This is comical.
Kody's sitting here complaining about Janelle,
saying that there was no communication. Nothing was clear.
Dude. You did the same exact thing to me.
Exactly.
[whispers] Karma's a bitch.
[laughs]
I mean, like, look, it's over.
I mean, Kody and I are never gonna be a married couple again.
Um... But...
There isn't anybody because I still have my faith.
I still believe in the faith.
Christine has just decided that she doesn't believe in the faith anymore.
And so their wedding vows have no validity, which is fine.
She can decide that.
I still I believe in my faith.
And if I do, then my marriage vows have validity.
Even if I'm no longer with Kody, physically,
like in the same house or whatever.
You know, I don't want to...
but we're all in this different place in our faith.
I, uh, don't want to disparage my former faith.
I'm not interested in it.
I'm not interested in their BS,
but I don't want to disparage it.
Would you, if things were different...
If... I mean, whatever,
would you go back to Kody, or are you interested in...
-Is it over over? -No, that's been in progression
last summer, when we talked about it, yes.
Okay.
-Yeah. -But I don't see any path back, really.
I don't want to go back because I don't want
to even do all the work that would be involved,
if Kody was even open and he's not really.
He sort of feels like I should conform to him.
I'm gonna be the head of my household again.
And so,
if everybody is willing to conform
to patriarchy again, I guess, because...
I've been fighting to make everybody happy.
Those things that he's asking me for now,
obedience and whatever, for him to be the patriarch.
Those were not ever part of our original marriage contract.
It was not something we discussed.
It was not something he asked of me.
I probably never would have agreed.
I probably never would have married him.
This whole patriarchy thing,
I've never done that.
I've never intended to.
And when I spoke of it, it was out of grief and pain
and failure.
Because I didn't know what I had done wrong.
Maddie, look how big this property is.
It goes clear back.
So that coupled with the fact that I'm excited about
where I'm headed with my life, it just will never work.
About eight weeks ago, Meri told me that she was gonna go
to meet with our church leaders and basically request a divorce.
It's called a "release" in our church.
The damage was done so badly that we're not going to reconcile, no matter what.
I needed her just to go away.
It's been done
and over for years.
[upbeat music playing]
[Kody] Um...
About eight weeks ago, Meri told me that she was gonna go to Utah,
meet with our church leaders and basically request a divorce.
It's called a "release" in our church.
When each of us four ladies married Kody, it was through our church.
Obviously, we can't all be legally married,
but it was what we called a covenant.
So I feel like it's best to terminate that
because we're not moving forward with any marriage
and I don't want to be like sealed to him for eternity
if he doesn't want me and, you know, I'm at a place
that like, let's just separate this completely.
When I was asking Kody how he felt about moving forward with the release,
He was kind of resistant to it.
You know, he said that he didn't want to...
acknowledge the authority of the church leaders.
The damage was done so badly that we are not going to reconcile, no matter what.
And so, however we are made accountable to God,
I don't want to be accountable to this church and all their BS.
So I'm going to let Meri go and do her thing.
Because if I am angry at her,
it becomes a fight.
I needed her just to go away.
Because it just took forever for her to finally realize.
It's been done
and over for years.
[Meri] I've been living in limbo in this relationship for nearly a decade,
and I'm just not going to keep doing that.
So I'm moving forward with this.
When Meri and I got married,
there was a lot of wisdom that we lacked in our marriage.
I didn't know who she was. When we got married,
she was very different.
And I think just there was some baggage that Meri had that I didn't know about.
Initially, I felt like I could live with it.
I mean, "Here, baby,
want a piece of gum?"
[angrily] "You know I don't like spearmint."
I can't live in a world where she is constantly angry at me.
And as time went on,
our relationship just got worse and worse and worse.
Janelle came in the family, and it diluted this experience I had with Meri.
What ended up happening is that sort of...
anger or...
dysfunction started to manifest between Janelle and Meri.
And...
that got pretty bad.
Christine came in the family, sort of diluted
the relationship between Janelle and Meri.
Which I'll be really honest with you,
probably saved it.
You know the thing in plural marriage
that is very funny
about divorcing, is a man has no choice
after he's already married in plural marriage.
If he wants to stay faithful and in the faith,
he cannot request a divorce.
It's not allowed.
So I was not able to get out of that relationship.
At the same time, I didn't necessarily want out of the relationship.
I wanted to know if we could save it and fix it.
There was a complete nuance about,
well, we're going to figure out our relationship.
Like there were several times I was with her, where I'm like,
"Well, here's to a new beginning.
We're gonna figure this out."
Every time I was with her, she wasn't nice.
She wasn't fun.
She wasn't kind.
She wasn't interesting.
I'm trying to be curious with her.
And I'm bored.
And so I guess, to be fair, Meri feels abandoned.
But I didn't kick me out.
Christine, Janelle and Meri all chose to have me leave the home.
And I'm not playing the victim card.
I'm just saying it's just the way that it was.
And that I wasn't ever going to leave them.
No matter how much I didn't love them.
But they made choices that separated us.
And maybe I made choices that separated us, but they eventually moved on.
Robyn has always been a loyal wife.
She's always been loyal to her sister wives,
and she has always been loyal to me.
The one thing that Robyn brought to this family was loyalty.
And so my loyalty is to Robyn.
In the end,
it's not about blame, it's about choice.
We chose the road we've been on. This is the life we chose.
And when we chose well, we were a happy family.
And when we chose badly, we weren't.
But everybody's on their journey.
And I hope in the end that everybody is happy.
There's a lot of hurt feelings.
I have hope that in a few years this will all sort of calm down.
I hope so, too.
[Kody] I'm going to move forward and find happiness and joy
outside of my club.
Because it was my club and I got kicked out of it.
[upbeat music playing]
[Christine] Are you gonna do
Thanksgiving with Logan?
-Because they sent out that text. -Yes.
-Are you? -Yes.
-At Logan and Michelle's? -'Cause they're so excited at their new house.
And Hunter lives there now, in Vegas.
So for Thanksgiving this year, we're gonna be gathering at Logan,
my oldest son's, house.
He and Michelle are hosting. Um...
All my kids are going to be there, except for Maddie and Caleb.
Have you told Kody that you're not gonna be here for Thanksgiving?
No, I haven't talked to Kody.
We're not talking, like, there's no communication.
I'm not tracking the holiday in Kody.
I don't think he's really tracking what I'm doing.
I don't think he's really even tracking what the kids are doing.
He has been pretty focused at what's going on in Robyn's house.
That's his world now.
Did you feel like... Do you feel like he's, like,
stringing you along or something?
No, I don't know what he thinks is going on, but I'm ready to move on.
But I can't conclude business without...
-Some sort of... -The business
part of it is why... I mean, you can't really say
we're over if you still...
Well, it's the land.
-Honestly, it's the land. -Right. Okay.
The land keeps me tied here.
I think Christine's, like, looking for me to say the word divorced.
And I guess I don't really need to say that word.
To me, I hate that word. I just... I don't want it.
I don't like it.
So what I tell people is I'm just no longer with the father of my children.
I don't really care what they think of me. In this day and age,
lots of people don't get married.
I don't have to say divorced.
I think Janelle doesn't want to define this because she doesn't want
to have to actually go, cap in hand, back to our church leaders.
I think Janelle, like she does many things,
is just want to sweep it under the rug and walk away.
If anything, I just hope, at least, that Kody has a connection with his kids,
-you know what I mean? -I hope so, too.
-He and I may never. -Which is...
Which is okay.
Yeah, it's fine.
Most ex-spouses don't really go hang out with each other or whatever.
I know, but I really honestly hoped that we would get to that point.
So, you know, in a few weeks we have our first big family event,
where we'll all see each other.
It'll be the first time we're all together
in one space since Ysabel's graduation party.
There's a lot of hurt feelings with Kody
and his kids, but they're going to be there.
Kody and Robyn are going to come.
Uh, their kids will be there.
I don't know what any of this looks like.
I'm super nervous.
Awkward, awkward will be the word of the day.
I have hoped that in a few years this will all sort of calm down.
I hope so, too, because honestly, it's so sad how it is.
It's so sad, and I think so much goes back
to the very, very, very beginning.
I know Robyn's kid's, based on the text thread from last year, um...
There were just so many things said.
About a little over a year ago,
there was a text message chain about the Christmas gift exchange.
It all went bad.
It all went south.
Kody and Robyn and their kids were on one side.
And they wanted nothing to do with Janelle,
me, our kids.
And there was a split that happened after this text thread.
And so my older kids all said, you know, this was emotionally unsafe.
We just need to kind of step back.
We just need to put down a boundary here.
But it was never anything about, "We don't want to see you again.
We don't want anything to do with you."
It was about... It was just about, like, "Hey, this got yucky."
They just didn't feel like they were ever even welcome into the family.
And for me,
I thought I was welcoming.
Yeah.
My mom's kids and I have each had
our own experiences.
Um, being told directly...
I have been told directly in multiple circumstances
by multiple different people
that I was not accepted, that I was not their sister,
that they didn't consider or see me that way.
The parents could have done a better job with...
you know, connecting us as a family.
And it never really happened.
[somber music playing]
They're yours?
[Christine] Robyn's kids and Robyn were invited to everything.
Like everything that we did, they were always invited.
And I would just say, "Just come in.
Come into the house anytime you want."
Like Ysabel is so, so close to Robyn's kids and Mykelti,
come on, she lived with them for a while.
There were hard times and my kids were frustrated.
But they always considered Robyn's kids their siblings just the same.
Truely didn't even know
that Dayton, Aurora and Breanna
weren't biologically her siblings as well.
She had no idea That's how combined we were.
To the Brownies and their friends.
[all] Cheers.
[Kody] There's some people in my family that feel like they are superior to others.
And they're like,
"Oh, well, we're not going to include them in our club."
I am going to move forward and find happiness and joy outside of my club
because it was my club and I got kicked out of it.
You know, I'm really actually pretty happy.
I don't even know...
I don't even want to have to adjust my schedule anymore. [laughs]
No, I know.
So I kind of had this two lives, like I had this schedule
I lived and I loved and went to bed when I wanted
We didn't have to follow crazy food rules for dinner
because he's allergic to everything or whatever. I don't know.
And so when he would come every third day,
all the sudden, it was like this whole alter universe,
and that was... Like, I was willing to do it.
But it was hard, and now I don't have to do that anymore.
It's very liberating.
Life felt normal
when he was there and when he wasn't there, it was just the situation.
It was plural marriage, and as a plural wife,
you become a little more independent.
You're handling things with kids more on your own.
But for the most part, it was just... it was what life was, you know?
So...
I can't remember. [laughs]
It has been so long since Kody's been around at my house.
Like the norm is for him to not be around.
[Christine] Isn't that the saddest thing?
I'd be like scrambling, trying to fit him into my life and like--
See, I didn't really mind.
And I actually would do plural marriage again for the independence.
[jolly music playing]
So when it's functioning correctly,
you have this amazing family unit
that you're part of, a community that you're plugged into.
You have a husband and you have a great
relationship with him and you have everything, right?
And then I have all my independence.
So to me, plural marriage really was a really great arrangement.
But I'm at peace.
I'm okay.
-I mean-- -It's nice, right? You're good.
You're peaceful.
Yeah, it's not exactly what I envisioned,
but it's okay, you know what I mean?
It's okay.
It's so strange because I see this life I had, and I see it over here,
like, kind of in the, like, in the past, and I remember all those things.
But now it's just, like, it's not even relevant to me now.
It's so weird to be so separate from that life.
Think it's just complicated.
It's a lot more complicated for Janelle to leave.
She has the ties to the land.
And then she has the ties to her commitment to God.
She's got some serious ties that I didn't understand, and now I get it.
[Kody reading]
We didn't really talk to each other.
Kody, Robyn...
I nodded at Meri, Christine and I sat together with the kids.
It's... civil war.
You are set up for an induction.
Gonna turn it to a C-Section.
Losing the chance to be able to hold my child, first thing,
I'm just having a hard time with.
[Robyn] Tony and Mykelti want me there,
and they want Christine there.
This is the deal. We see a lot of things behind each other's backs.
My plan is to play nice.
Being there for my wife, super important.
Having kids come back, best part.