Christine Brown is airing all of her grievances in season 17 of Sister Wives. The TLC reality series following the lives of polygamist Kody Brown and his four wives returned on Sunday with an explosive episode, which mostly consisted of Christine and Kody facing off over her decision to leave their 25-year marriage.
Christine said in an aside interview that she and Kody had a conversation "months ago" in which she claims he told her "he wasn't attracted to me anymore and we were not going to have an intimate marriage anymore."
That conversation led to Christine telling Kody not to sleep in her room anymore, which led her to move his things into the garage.
Kody decided to try to talk to Christine about the status of their marriage, but rejected the notion of staying on the couch, despite his wife, Robyn's, urging.
Once Kody and Christine come face-to-face, it's clear that they are on completely different pages.
Despite Christine's claims, Kody told her he didn't say that he'd never be intimate with her again.
"I just shrugged my shoulders. I didn't tell you it was over," he said, with Christine declaring, "I don't want to be married to a guy who's just shrugging his shoulders when I'm asking him if we're going to have an intimate marriage... Bulls**t that."
Kody said that his infamous shrug came from a place of rejection from Christine, claiming she'd been telling family members that she wanted to leave him for a year.
"I shrug my shoulders because I'm not going to be fooling around with a woman who's talking about leaving me," he said in an aside interview.
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Though Kody tried to pin the blame on the COVID pandemic, Christine disagreed, saying their marriage has been bad for 10 to 12 years, which not-so-coincidentally is when Robyn joined the family. Kody repeatedly said that his lack of attraction to Christine stems from how she treats her fellow sister wives.
"If I have to meet all these criteria in order for him to be attracted to me then I just can't be myself. He's just not attracted to me. I can count on my hand how many times he told me I was beautiful, and I don't think that has anything to do with my sister wives," Christine argued in an aside interview. "That's just what it comes down to. I think he has a favorite wife and that's why all of this is like it is. And apparently I'm not treating her well enough so there's nothing I can do. I mean, honestly, what he's asking from me is ridiculous."
Making it clear exactly whom she is talking about, Christine later said, "I feel like to Kody, Robyn's more important, certainly than I am. And I've been a third wheel for years now. And I know it and everybody knows it. It's sad and it sucks, but my relationship with Kody isn't as important. It's not. No matter what he says it isn't."
When Christine calls Kody out for only being intimate with her "a couple times a year," he argues that he's more intimate with her than he has been with his first wife, Meri Brown, for the last five years. Kody and Meri have previously shared that they have a sexless marriage after Meri was involved with a cat fishing scandal.
"I would never ever want what you and Meri have and I would never want what you and I have," Christine said. "Nor do I want Meri to have that relationship with you. That's so heartbreaking."
Kody also told Christine that he "felt pressured" into their marriage, saying, "I did not know better at the time."
"So did he marry me out of obligation? You know, our church doesn't have arranged marriages, but it sounds to me like he felt like he had to marry me," Christine said in an aside interview. "That's so sad."
Kody admitted to feeling "dumbfounded" and "pathetic," before finally conceding that Christine can divorce him.
"I'm good with that," he said. "No one's a prisoner here."
But he did take issue with Christine's desire to move to Utah with their only underage daughter, Truly, 12.
"Grown-ups make it work for the kids. I don't have to be your lover to be able to be a good parent to our children," Kody said. "So the idea of moving doesn't work for me."
The two didn't come to an agreement on the topic, but Kody did finally concede that he's fighting for Christine to stay in the marriage because he thinks he's "supposed to."
"But you don't want to. You don't really want to," Christine said.
"I'm sorry," Kody replied, hanging his head.
"I'm sorry too," Christine said.
"We can't make ourselves into something that we don't want to be because I think I tried doing that for years now," Kody admitted before the episode ends.
Sister Wives airs Sundays at 10 p.m. ET on TLC.
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