[man] ...Sister Wives.
Nobody likes what we're having to do
for this COVID experience.
The kids are actually having a little bit of a mutiny.
They're like, "Why can't we see each other?"
Then what's the point of, like,
not hanging out with everybody?
I mean, I'm not at risk.
[Janelle] It's really up to kind of Garrison and Gabe
figuring out how to limit their exposure
before I can have their dad over again.
[Kody] I got a big family.
If one of us gets sick,
then it's literally quarantining the family.
I'm sorry. I was out of turn,
because I was angry,
because I felt like I was giving...
Like I was giving you what you wanted
and you didn't want it.
-That's... -That's where...
-That's how I perceived it... -Okay.
...and I apologize.
Thank you.
Whatever.
[Christine] I never felt like I was queen wife
or queen mom, never.
In the plural community,
there's certainly a "basement wife" mentality.
If you have a situation where there's a wife
that's a queen bee,
well, the other wife goes in the basement
and she doesn't matter as much.
[Robyn] Then you know that
she's actually trying to sabotage
your relationship with Kody,
you can't trust her.
How are you friends with someone you can't trust?
[theme music playing]
[upbeat music playing]
[breathing heavily]
[Christine] Kody's working out at home.
Since gyms are closed.
[Kody] A couple of weeks ago,
Janelle told me not to come to her house
because of some concerns she had about the COVID-19
and the exposure that her kids were still getting.
Garrison and Gabriel are both existing
and working outside of the house.
But I don't know how much
actual social distancing they're doing.
I don't know if their...
own personal space
for social distancing
is as strict as mine is.
It's Christine's house, and Robyn's house,
and then Christine's house, and then Robyn's house.
Uh, once in a while, I'll see Meri for a visit,
um, I don't go over to her house regularly.
She advises me she travels and stuff like that,
so she... We can be cautious about COVID,
but I don't stay the night at Meri's house.
It's sort of like the world
is sort of just gone quiet for me.
I mean, I've been sort of enjoying the time
because I can't do anything else.
A lot more exposure to the kids,
but then no exposure to Janelle's kids.
[Christine] The other day, Truely was like,
"Dad, you can work out at home."
[Janelle] You know, I guess Kody really hasn't been here
for about a week and a half.
So, I don't know what the future is,
I don't know when Kody...
When I will feel safe having Kody come back.
But we're already a week and a half in,
I don't think it's gonna miraculously resolve itself
in the next four or five days,
so it's gonna be longer than two weeks.
I don't think like this workout,
it's just the best I got.
I'd rather lift just heavy weights,
hold them in. I'm supposed to do cardio
and this feels cardio as anything.
I guess it's more like aerobics.
[Robyn] Kody knows his age, he's in his 50s,
he's about 11 years older than me.
I'm always very comfortable with that,
I've always... My dad is a...
Is older than my mom.
But he teases me about being a baby
when he was[laughs]
older and stuff like that.
[breathing, panting]
[Robyn] But, you know, we can't be old yet
and I kind of feel that way about everybody,
because I feel like everybody's kind of like,
"Oh, we're retiring.
Our kids are growing up,
and they're gonna go move off,
and I'm gonna be alone."
And I'm like, "Not me.
I got years, babe," you know.
[panting]
I'm gonna go back to my music.
[Robyn] All right. Sounds good.
[panting]
[upbeat music playing]
Breanna is turning 16 today.
She's sweet 16.
Happy birthday.
[laughter]
If you can be sweet 16, it means
you've never been kissed
and Breanna's never been kissed.
She hasn't been kissed because her dad
-looks like this. -[laughs]
[upbeat music playing]
[Kody] We're kind of in a COVID lockdown.
We got four other birthdays coming.
It's kind of just an odd thing
the way we're doing birthdays right now.
[Robyn] Today is Breanna's birthday,
but in two days is Garrison's birthday,
then in three days, it's Aurora's birthday,
and then in five days, it's Truely's birthday,
and then in ten days, it's Christine's birthday.
[Christine] Breanna is turning 16.
It's kind of sucky to have such a...
separate, like, a COVID...
There's, like, milestone birthdays
and this is a milestone birthday,
you know, turning 16 is a milestone,
and having to do it during COVID, that sucks.
-I will get this. -No, I will.
[woman] That's only for, uh, entertainment.
[Kody speaking indistinctly]
[Meri] These are kind of... birthdays
that you really wanna celebrate
with as many people as you can and we can't.
And it's not fun.
It's weird not to get together,
like, practically every other day
for these couple of weeks
where we have all these birthdays.
I don't like it.
[Kody] All right. Should we eat?
[Breanna] I'm... Right now, I'm a little, like, worried,
and it's weird, and different.
I'm not used to it,
because we're all used to being with each other.
But I'm mostly just sad not to see my family.
[woman] Do not get on the table.
[indistinct chatter]
[woman] I love this man.
[Kody] Normally, the big family
birthday celebrations
are a little obnoxiously noisy.
[man] We did not. Look at this.
Isn't it so weird? It's so quiet without
the whole family in here, you guys, don't you think?
-[Breanna] Oh, yeah. -[David] Oh, yeah.
It's so weird to be here
doing a birthday party without everybody.
[Kody] It's actually kind of peaceful.
-I guess it kind of is. -Very peaceful.
[Breanna] It's just odd. I'm not used to it.
It's not that peaceful, it's not...
[Kody] Oh, it's so quiet right now.
This is the quietest birthday
I've been involved with for the family
maybe in years, in years.
[Robyn] So I'm the only one that's sitting here,
feeling like we should have the whole family here?
-[David] No. -[Breanna] No.
Then why are you saying that?
-Oh, yes. -Because...
-Because we don't know. -Wait. Wait. It's chaotic.
It is quiet, really.
I don't know. I feel like it's disloyal
or something to sit there and go,
"Oh, this is nice, quiet birthday or whatever."
You know, this is weird.
Because it does, it feels weird.
-Mmm-hmm. Because... -So I think we are
carrying out an extreme to protect us as a family
because there's a tendency for colds and flu...
-You know why? -...to go through our family.
Because you'll be seeing most of your family
if there was a case, all of a sudden.
I mean, right now, you don't see Janelle
and her kids. And...
But if somebody got sick in the family...
If someone else got sick in the family
like Christine or me,
you would stop seeing one of us.
This is the first time it's ever even come up,
uh, even in my mind.
If Robyn was to get sick, I would... I...
My first reaction would be,
"I need to be there to nurse her
and help basically take care of Solomon and Ariella.
Yes, if you're sick and you need to be taken care of,
I'm gonna have to come and do it."
So that would go for any wife, period.
I mean, who's gonna take care of you if you're sick?
-If you really got sick... -I don't know.
...who would take care of you? I would have
to be here to help you.
You know, I think if I were to get sick,
I would tell Kody to stay away.
My kids are old enough,
they can take care of themselves.
God forbid something really horrible happens to me
and I end up in the ICU or something, like, I need...
I need one of their parents whole and well.
[mellow music playing]
[Christine] If we got sick in our house,
Kody wouldn't come over, there's no way.
We would quarantine ourselves
and just hunker down ourselves,
and do our best to, um, doctor each other
while we're all sick. [laughs]
Be terrible. Yeah.
No, we would just quarantine even more so, but definitely
Kody wouldn't come over if we got sick.
[dramatic music playing]
[Meri] If I was to get sick?
If I was to get sick, nothing would happen.
I would just be at home alone sick.
Nobody comes over here anyway,
um, we don't see each other.
Oh, I disagree with him.
[laughs]
[Robyn] I know logically
what we should do,
Kody should stay away.
But I can't tell Kody that.
It's like, "What if someone's super, super ill
and that's their last week of life?"
Uh, I'm gonna sit there and tell Kody
to stay away from them? No.
There's nothing else could be done.
-Yeah. -But I'm hoping it goes away
-in a couple of weeks. -Yeah. Okay.
We can't talk about this anymore. Breanna's...
We got to do the birthday party
and I don't want this to put damper
-into Breanna's birthday. -I'm gonna grab
-the birthday cake. -Okay. All right.
[upbeat music playing]
No.
[Meri] Okay, guys.
We were talking that we needed to call grandma.
-She just texted me. -Yeah.
Mariah and Audrey had been here for about a week
and we had a conversation yesterday.
Now, we are going to video call my mom,
because we wanna talk to her about it as well.
Oh, there we go.
-Hi. -[Mariah] Hi, Grandma.
[Bonnie] [laughs] I just don't like
seeing myself on my phone.
A few years ago, I bought my old family home.
My great-great- grandparents built it in 1870
and my grandmother grew up here.
I actually talked to my mom into moving in.
So, here we are and now,
we're running it as a bed and breakfast.
-Okay. Mom... -[Bonnie] Yeah.
[Meri] ...uh, Mariah and Audrey, and I
were talking, um, last night
about the bed and breakfast,
how we probably should not have people coming there.
[Bonnie] Yeah.
We actually have four rooms which means,
like, for families could potentially come
through each night.
And we don't know what they've been exposed to
and my mom's in her 70s, and I just don't want
to expose her to do that.
[Mariah] You're over 65 or over 60,
-or whatever the age is. -I'm 75, Mariah.
[Mariah] That's what I'm saying, Grandma.
And you've lived a long and beautiful life,
and I'd love for you to continue to live
that long and beautiful life.
I don't want you around people.
Obviously, any business is gonna wanna stay open
right now, but not all businesses
are gonna be able to.
If we keep it open,
it's not heavily trafficked. I...
It's a safer space for people to be.
It's safer space for them to be...
[Mariah] For sure. And I get that.
...rather than, like, a big, public motel.
Some people have to travel.
[Bonnie] I agree with you.
[Meri] One of the tenants of our belief system
is that we get blessings
which is kind the word of God in our lives.
Mom has had these blessings that her life...
That have told her and, you know,
kind of inspired her to be that person
who people can use as a shelter.
That's been my mom's motto her whole life.
Sorry.
Um, just to take people in
and take care of people.
It's just who she is.
Well, we actually were talking about
-this yesterday, Mom. -[Mariah] Yeah.
[Meri] Uh, if you were to come down here...
[Mariah] And we just trade places with you.
-We're going there. -And the girls go up there.
[Bonnie] That would be amazing.
[director speaking]
[Mariah] No, I've never run a bed and breakfast,
-but, you know, we'll try. -But we're gonna keep
-grandma safe. -Yeah, that's what matters.
-So we're gonna learn. -Okay. Well then,
we're gonna pack up our stuff and come down.
-Yeah. -We'll see you soon.
-At a distance. -[Bonnie] All right.
[Mariah] At a distance. I love you.
-And it's gonna be hard. -[Meri] Love you, Mom.
I'm still hugging my kids. So...
-[Meri] She will hug you. -I know she will.
[Bonnie] How could I not?
[laughs] Oh.
Mariah and Audrey had been here for a week.
That is it.
My plan for their lives
was that they were going to spend a couple of months here
before they moved up to Salt Lake.
Okay. Bye, Mom. We'll talk soon.
-[Bonnie] Bye. Bye. -Love you. Bye.
Okay. How do you feel?
-Are you okay? -I'm scared.
-[Meri] Are you... -I'm just... This whole thing
is scary. I'm just like trying to, like,
not let the fear overtake me.
[Christine] We can't do a birthday party
for Garrison because of COVID.
We can't go inside their home.
And all the birthday party is gonna be like this.
What do you think, Truely?
Truely is very logical.
My hell, we survived a lawsuit,
and having to flee Utah,
and we all maintained our integrity as a family.
But a virus is gonna bring us to us our knees?
It's the dumbest thing ever.
[upbeat music playing]
[Meri] The girls are gonna be leaving today
and heading up to Parowan.
I mean, really, it's just all about Mariah
wanting to protect her grandma.
That's what it is.
How are you guys feeling?
It's been a week since you guys have been here,
-you guys. -[Mariah] Well, it's...
[Meri] That's it. A week.
It is not fun to see them go.
Again, I was just getting used to them being here.
[sighs]
-I love you. -[Meri] I love you.
And I will miss you and I'm so sad
that you guys have to leave.
I wanted you here longer.
[Mariah] Well, why don't you get behind the car,
can you, bunny?
[Meri] Hey, dude.
Come here. Come here.
I really just wanted them to be here longer
and so it's really just a big bummer
that they are leaving.
Drive safe.
I'll let grandma know you're on your way.
[Mariah] Okay. Bye.
Where is mom going?
[upbeat music playing]
[Christine] So because of Covid-19,
we are not able to have birthday parties.
Mmm-hmmm. We're not able to have birthday parties
altogether. It's so sad, right?
We can't do a birthday party for Garrison
because of Covid. Uh, we can't go inside their home,
but we can hang out outside.
And all the birthday parties is gonna be like this,
what do you think, Truely?
[Christine] About being apart for the birthdays,
how was it?
Truely is very logical.
We, kind of all have four separate for moms, sweethearts, so...
[Christine] It's true. It's true.
You're right. Truely has heard
that family were just supposed to stick together
and all of her friends
talk about how they're just staying
at home with their family.
Truely's family just happens to reside
in four separate houses here in Flagstaff.
So for her, she's, like, "Well, if we're family,
then why aren't we hanging out as family then?"
It sucks. It sucks that we are separate on birthdays.
It's really, really hard,
but if we can keep everybody
in the family from getting sick,
wouldn't that be better? And, certainly,
we don't want anybody in the family to die
and that's worst-case scenario, of course.
But we want everyone to be healthy, so it's...
There's a thing like it's for the greater good
and this is, kind of, a thing where
it's just for the greater good.
-Yeah. -Let's say half of the time,
I think it's ridiculous
that we're not hanging out together.
So, how can I sit here and have a logical
conversation with Truely when I think
she's halfway right?
Or some days I think she's %100 right.
So, I'm extremely hypocritical
if I'm just gonna try and argue one way or the other,
because I've to explain all over.
[upbeat music playing]
[Janelle] So, today is Garrison's 22nd birthday.
This week has been harder for me.
I'm not emotionally put together this week.
Hey, Savanah, so how many days have we been home?
-Huh? -[Janelle] How many days
have we been home?
-[laughs] -I don't know.
Time is irrelevant.
-[director speaking] -No.
Kody won't... Kody won't be here today.
So, like, it's a very weird birthday.
The days all sort of blurred together.
I don't know what day of the week it is.
Half of the time, I don't even know what the time is.
[Janelle] Like, in the twenty-two years
that Garrison has been on this earth,
I between there's not even two birthdays
that we haven't all been together.
I think it's kind of setting me off this week.
This is when it's really hitting home
that I'm being separate...
That I'm really being separate from the family.
[dog barking]
But Covid can't get through the glass,
so they can do as much as they want behind the glass.
All right. All right. All right.
Let's put the dogs away for a second.
All right, dogs. Go over there.
[Janelle] No, like, put them away, away.
[man speaking indistinctly]
[Christine] Wait, I'm gonna be out there.
This is perfect. They're so insane.
Yay. Yay, yay, yay. It's all glass.
I wish I could hug you guys.
[all] Air hug. Air hug. Air hug.
[Kody] I'm social distancing away
from Janelle's house.
I'm trying to be optimistic.
Uh, I'll be honest with you, I'm trying to keep
the kids from, sort of, creating a mutiny
and just go on, like, "I'm not doing this anymore."
I don't even want to imagine or ever say,
"Well, this could be for months,"
in the event that it might be.
I'd rather just say, "Well, let's just...
Let's wait a week and see what it's like."
-[Garrison] Like what? -[Truely] Oh, that was from me.
[Meri] The girls have been working,
Isabelle's working, Gwen has been working.
Oh, my gosh. Like, this... Guys, I've missed you.
-Let me see this. -[woman] I wanna hug you
so badly.
I purchased everything several days ago
and wiped everything down, but I wipe...
uh, I, uh, I wiped everything down again
and then we'll back off. Like, we'll put down
the presents and we'll back away.
COVID is really stupid.
All right. We have to go. Happy birthday.
[Garrison] All right. Bye, guys.
Bye. I love you.
[all] Air hugs, air hugs, air hugs.
[Garrison] Big squeezy.
[Meri] I don't like
what COVID is doing to our family.
It... I don't know. It's just...
It's really troublesome to me.
I don't like it.
It's, like, putting this division...
Even more of a division
within our family
and now it's like, isolation.
[Janelle] Here is probably the tiniest birthday party
ever for Garrison.
You should see the cake I made.
Garrison, this is probably the smallest thing I'm...
Mom, can you take it off?
[Janelle] ...have ever done.
For many months, I've had concerns
about the cohesiveness of our family.
I'm really worried that we're not even
interested in pro-marriage anymore.
This is so weird. This is how most families
-look though, for... -[Gabriel] Uh, yeah.
[Garrison] It's what we're dealing,
I'm not gonna lie.
[Janelle] But at least we're celebrating, huh?
It is easier.
It's lonely and I really miss everybody
when they're not around, but it's easier.
It's like faith is conspiring.
I mean, like, my hell, we survived a lawsuit,
and having to flee Utah,
and we all maintained our integrity as a family.
But a virus is gonna bring us to our knees,
it's the dumbest thing ever.
Um, Mariah and Audrey left.
Well, they got here about ten days ago
and then they left four days ago.
I don't think I've even said anything to Kody yet
about the girls came and left.
And how do you feel, Connor?
Connor is my nephew.
What is... What is weird?
[laughter]
I think he's trying to just figure us out.
Yeah. [laughs] He's a little confused.
[upbeat music playing]
[chickens clucking]
Well, in the continuing saga of Browns
and their moves,
and couple that with the Coronavirus,
things are crazy, y'all.
Mariah and Audrey left.
Well, they got here about 10 days ago
and then, they left four days ago.
Um, three days ago...
I don't even know what day it is anymore.
I don't think I've even said anything to Kody yet
about the girls came and left.
You know, I mean he knew
that they were gonna be quarantining
for a couple of weeks anyway,
so he wasn't gonna see them.
Oh, my gosh, this fly or this gnat
is driving me nuts.
I am now going up there to pick up mom
and take a bunch of stuff.
I have a full car yet again.
At this point we're just taking it day by day.
I really have no idea how long it will be.
You know, I'm sure it'll be at least a few weeks.
I haven't seen or talked to anybody
for about like a week and a half.
I mean besides Mariah and Audrey.
Our family just doesn't communicate.
It really just comes down to that,
like, we don't talk to everybody every day.
[Christine] It seems like the only times
that we really talk to each other
is when we have to.
[Janelle] We're like a little over a month
past the, "Please stay home" thing.
Honestly, I sit and watch TV,
like, I don't even wanna pick up my phone
and talk to anybody.
I don't text anybody.
Like, I'm not good.
Yes.
You're gonna come on a road trip with me
but it's, like, you don't get to sit on my lap.
He always thinks he gets to sit on my lap
when we drive
and no sirree... no sirree,
you got to sit in your little seat
over there next to me.
[upbeat music playing]
[Meri] Hey, dude.
-What's up? -[Meri] Sup.
-What's up? -[Meri] I love your socks.
All right, so we're out here.
-[woman] Yeah, I guess. -[Mariah] Yup.
[Meri] Okay. Are you up
to run in a bed-and-breakfast,
-Mariah? -I don't know.
[Meri] How do you feel about coming to live with me, Mom?
-I'm excited. -[Meri] Yay.
And how do you feel, Connor?
[Meri] Weird? What is... What is weird?
-[Audrey] Oh. -[laughter]
[Meri] Well.
Connor's really cute. He's really sweet.
Like, I think he's trying to just figure us up.
Yeah. He's a little confused but we love him.
He's so freaking cute. I love that kid.
[Meri] So what's so weird about it?
-I don't know. -[Meri] Come on.
Talk to me.
[Mariah] I think this is the first time
that he knew that we were together.
Him and I had some good conversations about it.
He didn't quite get it
but, you know, we talked about it
and he was... he was really, really sweet
-about it. -Yeah.
[Meri] But you like Audrey and Mariah, right?
Yeah.
[Meri] Is Audrey your best friend?
[Meri] Oh, isn't that the same thing?
-[Meri] Oh. -Yeah.
Yeah, we're best friends forever.
-[Meri] Best friend forever. -There's a difference.
[Audrey] Connor and I had some good conversations.
I just let him talk and do whatever he wanted.
He... But, yeah, he probably loves me
because I let him do whatever he wanted.
People like Audrey more and I understand.
[Meri] Load her up.
-All right, puppies. -[Connor] Goodbye, Mosby.
Goodbye. Goodbye, Mosby.
[Meri] Who's coming with grandma?
[sighs] It's fine.
They're gonna love living here
and actually, secretly
because I've kind of mentioned this
to Mariah before,
like, you know, you are my only kid.
This house would be passed to you
and she's like, "No, Mom.
I don't want this house."
And so secretly, I'm, like, "Okay, go ahead.
Embrace this house. Just feel it.
Learn to love it
because maybe one day it will be yours."
Bye, Connor. Be nice to the girls.
[Connor] What?
Be nice to the girls.
-Okay. -[Meri] Okay.
-Love you, guys. Bye. -[Mariah] Love you. Bye.
Thanks.
It's a five-hour drive.
I'm sure we will be making one stop.
We'll just do it quick
and use hand sanitizer
and stay away from people.
[Kody] Hey, so...
Hey, I'm sorry you didn't get to see Truely.
He's upset.
He doesn't wanna really talk about it
even though he needs to.
The whole reason you're not going to school
also is because people are worried
about making other people sick, okay?
[upbeat hip hop music playing]
April is a really big month for us as far as birthdays.
In the span of 10 days in April,
we have five birthdays
and we usually spend those birthdays all together.
We're not able to do that right now because of COVID.
It's Aurora's birthday today and so we're surprising her
with singing to her a beautiful song.
Aurora's 18.
Holy... Ugh.
How sad to have yet little landmark birthday
at another landmark kind of a thing
because of her graduation
and now she's turning 18 with COVID.
Well, that kind of sucks.
Aurora?
[woman] Where's Aurora?
[woman] We have a song to you.
[indistinct chatter]
[all]
♪ Happy birthday to you♪
♪ Happy birthday Dear Aurora♪
♪ Happy birthday to you♪
[man] Hey, good job, on pitch almost.
-[Truely speaking] -[woman] Happy birthday.
Aurora is turning 18,
Rihanna's turning 16,
Hunter's graduating from the Air Force Academy
for crying out loud
and it's all being interrupted by this COVID,
like, we can't do the normal things
and these are big, big milestones.
Oh, long hugs.
Long distance hugs.
[woman] Social distancing hugs.
[woman] Yes. Social distance hugs.
[Truely speaking]
[Robyn speaking]
It's awful to hear. She can't.
She has to still say... Stay socially distanced
and she's more frustrated than Gwendolyn
is because they get it but Truely doesn't get it.
She's, like, "They're my siblings.
Why can't I hang out with them?"
[Robyn] The idea of living in one big home together
during this right now, what would it be like?
I'm sitting here thinking
like what are other plural families doing?
And here we go.
-There's the house. -[woman] Wow.
[Robyn] There's a part of me that's, like,
there would be some major benefits for us
to be living in one home
right now during this pandemic.
We would just be hunkering down together
and being careful together
and we'd have to come to an agreement
about how to do it 100%.
[Janelle] Coronavirus hit at the time
where we're so separated.
If we'd been in one house then of course
that would have just been a natural thing
that we would have just been, like, a pod,
a village, a little mini isolated village.
[Christine] I imagine if we were all together
in one house.
No, I can't imagine that.
I don't want to imagine it.
I'm just not gonna even imagine it.
[woman] Yes. Yes.
-[Ariella speaking] -It's great.
Good. A little bit awkward.
[Ariella speaking]
Sounds... I mean, happy birthday songs
were always a little bit awkward.
[Ariella speaking]
[woman] Okay, Truely come here.
She's lonely. She's super, super lonely.
It's okay. You're alright.
-[woman] Anyway, how are you? -Doing great.
[woman] How's your birthday today, so far?
-My feet are cold. -[Kody] Truely, I guess,
Arie wants you to have that pet.
[woman] Ooh. Just to see it, right?
Do you wanna give it to her?
-Yeah. -[Kody] She misses you.
So, she's going to give you her pet.
[woman] For real. We're both wearing flowers, see?
[Kody] Not yet, sweetheart.
The only person that's traveling
from house to house is me.
Sorry.
Listen.
Five steps is a really high count, maybe?
That's a really high count in five steps.
-[Kody] Mmm-hmm. -[Truely speaking]
-We are being careful. -Truely.
We don't wanna have it.
We're just trying to be very careful
with each other. Actually,
being apart from each other right now
is the best way to love each other.
To make sure that we're not giving it
to each other if any of us have it.
-[woman] Yeah. -But none of us have it.
Truely, we might have coronavirus.
We don't know that.
Anyway if makes you feel any better, we want
to hang out with you and love you guys
-just as much as you wanna... -[woman] Yeah.
...come in here and live on us too.
[woman] Yeah.
[Robyn] Truely is visibly upset
and so Arie struggling with it too.
And it's just like, you know,
way to tell your kids.
[Kody] I don't like setting my kids up
to live in a world of fear and so,
we haven't really gone into great detail
about we don't want you get sick.
We just sat here address sort of have
to monitor, "Hey, listen. We can't touch each other.
We've got to be careful about this."
I still just don't think they really get it.
All right. We're gonna go. Happy birthday.
[woman] Happy birthday. We love you so much.
I don't know if this was better than last time.
I think, it was actually worse
because Truely knew what to expect.
Because she wasn't gonna be able to hang out with him
and even though she asked if she could hang out again.
-I'm like, "No." -[Kody] I'm sorry.
-I'm sorry. -[Truely] Yeah.
-Soon, we can correct it. -[Kody] I hope.
-We can cry at home. -I love you, Truely.
[Christine] So, yeah. I have a feeling
we're gonna go home and Truely
is gonna lock herself in her bedroom again
and cry again. It's super sad.
I know that it's hard emotionally but it's...
We're still doing it.
[birds chirping]
[Kody] Hey, so...
Hey, I'm sorry, you didn't get to see Truely.
Hey... you got to talk to us, buddy.
You know that people are getting sick
and we're trying to keep the family healthy.
[Robyn] It's confusing.
Solomon's uncomfortable when he's vulnerable.
And right now, he is... he is very vulnerable
because he feels bad that he wasn't able
to play with Truely. He's upset.
He doesn't wanna really talk about it
even though he needs to.
-Look at me, Arie. -Huh? Hmm.
People are sick and we're preventing everybody
from getting more sick, okay?
-Hmm. -All right?
So, we're being super careful.
And maybe, we'll be done in a couple of weeks, okay?
All right?
The whole reason you're not going to school
also was because people worried
about making other people sick, okay?
How Audrey and Mariah doing?
[Janelle] Oh, they're actually not here.
They're up there running in the bed and breakfast.
[Director speaking]
-I was not teasing. -[Director speaking]
[Janelle] How do I say that?
It's gonna make him look like a jerk
for not calling me and me look like a jerk
for not calling him. We do not communicate.
[pop music playing]
[Kody] Well, I think it's time to do
some more coronavirus journaling.
Totally, we're inexperienced.
It gets weirder every day.
The call to self-quarantine came out
about three and a half weeks ago
which for some people means different things for...
if you're 20-year-old, I guess that means,
you keep going out with your friends.
The highest number of cases are amongst
those from 20 to 44 years old.
And I believe that's because they think those ages,
that those groups, those genres if you will,
think that they are immune because...
Oh, they might get flu-like symptoms
but they're not gonna die.
They're still carriers.
Anyway, so, I've been away from Meri for quite a while.
Haven't even seen Audrey and Mariah yet.
So, Meri wanna talk to me so, I'm headed over to her house.
[upbeat music playing]
[Meri] Ready?
Get it.
Oh, I guess, Kody is on his way over.
I haven't seen him for quite a while
and I'm gonna tell him that he never
got to see Mariah and Audrey.
Did you find it?
Hold on. Wait. There's a car.
[Kody] Audrey and Mariah just left Chicago
just a little over two weeks ago.
I'm really excited about seeing them.
[Meri] Get it.
[Kody] That's fun. Hi, Mosby.
Cutie, little doggie.
Come here, Mosby dog.
Mosby dog. Cute little doggie.
Oh, shoot. Oh, he pees all over.
He pees when he sees me.
Every time Mosby seems me,
it must be the alpha male thing.
I have no idea. But he lays down and pees.
I can't help it. I'm just so alpha,
you know what I mean?
I had to get one and Robyn got this for me,
because I... We got so tired
of holding these things.
And, you know what, the iPhone is new to me.
It's the slickest thing. It's slicker than a...
What do they call? A wet seal.
So, in this world of COVID, like, we're just
kind of figuring things out and doing things different
than we normally would.
I'm just carrying this phone around
and, you know, just doing these recordings of me
and I'll be doing some recordings of Kody
when he comes over and it's just kind of weird.
It's like a weird thing to be doing
because this is not normal.
How are Audrey and Mariah doing?
-Good. -[Kody] It's almost...
They've been here almost long enough
for me to see them, haven't they?
Well, they're actually not here.
Well, they changed their minds?
No. Mom's here.
They were out there running in the bed and breakfast.
That happened about a week ago.
-Oh, really? -[Meri] Exactly a week ago.
I'm actually really disappointed.
I really was looking forward to seeing them.
And oh, what a bummer.
So, I mean, this is probably better for grandma.
But I am really disappointed that they're not here.
[Meri] Yeah.
But I was hoping to see Mariah.
-So, they've been here... -[Meri] They've been here...
They got here from Chicago two weeks ago today.
So, I wouldn't be able to see him today?
[Meri] Well, yeah, if they were here but they're not.
Yeah.
[Director speaking]
-I was not teasing. -[Director speaking]
Was I teasing?
I don't think I was teasing him.
Kody and I don't talk.
I'm not...
How do I say that?
It's gonna make him look like a jerk
for not calling me
and me look like a jerk for not calling him.
We do not communicate.
I'm just really disappointed.
I'm like, why didn't we just close the business?
You know, your pride barely paying
for the electricity with the few guests you get.
Why not just close it down?
But, you know, it wasn't my call.
I...
Hold on a second. Do you wanna cut?
Yes. I'm talking to Meri in her driveway,
I have to top recording what we're doing
because Robyn called me.
-[Meri] Is... Are you on... -She's on FaceTime.
-[Meri] FaceTime? -Yeah, here.
Here, let's...
-Hi. -[Kody] Oh, gosh.
I'm supposed to social distance.
And he got freaky.
Sorry, I forgot.
Do you think I should be social distancing from...
[Meri] I am still a member of your family.
I know but I'm social distance...
Well, you haven't been on exposure.
So today, it would've been to...
What about grandma?
Did she have any exposure to anybody?
[Meri] Whatever. It doesn't matter.
-Just don't touch me. -[Kody] I don't have
to social distance from Meri anymore, do I?
[Meri] Whatever.
I'm socially distancing from Meri
because she's had two new people
or three new people in her home.
So, Audrey and Mariah traveled.
That's a lot of exposure and this is all my thinking
in an effort to try and, you know,
lower the transmission amount, you know?
[Robyn] How much is your mom?
How much exposure is your mom have?
[Meri] I don't know. Just stay away from me.
Stay away from me, Kody.
You know, that didn't work out very well
for you the last time, right?
I don't think you should say that to me anymore.
-[Robyn speaking] -[Kody] All right.
Anyway... I was joking about Meri during the catfish.
She basically, during that experience...
I mean, it's a sore object.
It was uncool joke of me but I figured,
if you can't laugh at the mistakes
of your past or whatever, you know.
[Meri] I'm feeling out of place
of limbo right now.
Don't be surprised if I just up and I'm gone.
[Kody] So, about five years ago,
Meri and I we're in a bad place.
She basically asked me to stop staying at her house
and ultimately, what happened, is she went through
an experience where she was catfished
by a person pretending to be somebody else.
[Meri] So, when I started talking to this "guy",
you know, we're becoming friends
and we were laughing and he was saying
all the right things to make me trust him
and make me think that he was this real person
that really cared.
[Kody] And it turned out to be extremely
exploitative and abusive.
And from that experience of...
Meri and I sort of saw our marriage just dissolved.
The struggle I think that I have with it
is that I got shut out because of them.
[Meri] So, what he's referring to
is about five years ago,
he was more distant than I wanted him to be.
At night, I just wanted him to put his arm around me.
And I couldn't sleep because I felt the coldness
coming from him.
At the same time, I couldn't sleep
because of this outside situation.
You seem so angry.
I didn't feel like I could get to you.
I didn't feel like we could even talk.
I'm not gonna lie.
I'm... I was angry at you.
And I did not manage the situation well.
I said to him, "Can you just not stay here for a while?
Can we just take a break for a minute?"
He took it as, "Go away and don't ever come back."
Because that's what he's done
and that's not what I meant.
I was just like, "Can we just take a break
so I can't get through some stuff?"
And so, for him to say it didn't work out very well
for you last time, it was just...
It... I'm feeling, like,
"Okay. You're right. It didn't.
Didn't work out at all
but that's not what I was saying."
You know, we've not... We've never
come back together from that.
-[Robyn speaking] -[Meri] You too.
You guys can FaceTime each other.
[Meri] It's been a while.
Oh, my gosh.
-All right. -[Robyn] Bye.
We'll talk to you later, okay?
-[Robyn speaking] -Bye.
[Robyn] It's like he's got, like, a little bit
of PTSD a little bit from the experience
or Meri telling him to move out of the house.
And they're just, like, doing this right
in front of me which is awkward
and then, I don't know.
It was just no fun.
[Kody] The catfish situation and the year basically,
the year before it, whatever happened,
it just got flipping ugly.
And even the year in to living in flagged staff,
I was still dealing with a lot of bitterness
about our past.
What were you talking about before Robyn called?
[Meri] Okay.
I think, things are just gonna change
as far as how we do things in the world now.
It's not gonna go back to normal.
I'm like, because, like, we can't stay
quarantined from each other forever.
[Kody] In the past few months, I have been able
to really let that go for myself.
And I feel more friendly with Meri
than I have felt in six or more years
but it doesn't mean I've got
any romantic inclinations within our marriage.
Next time on Sister Wives.
[Christine] John and Kody were in quarantined
from each other for, like, five weeks?
The whole family is gonna fall apart.
-We're done. -[Robyn] This isn't fair.
He shouldn't be at my house this much.
[Kody] You want to be with me but you're chording me
-to that relationship. -I didn't know
I was supposed to support you.
I can't. I can't make him love me.
It makes me wonder if people who have been unhappy
for so many years couldn't just leave
and go find something that make them happy.
With every one of these women
be better off married to another guy.
This not what I want.
This isn't what I signed up for.
Dude. You've got four wives
and eighteen kids.
You just gonna pick and choose who are you gonna keep?