Janelle Brown of Sister Wives Reveals Kody Hasn’t Seen Grandchildren in 3+ Years
As Sister Wives’ star Kody Brown complained about his daughter Madison Brush avoiding him at a family event, her mom Janelle Brown said that Kody hasn’t seen his own grandkids in three years.
Kody Brown is no longer multiplying his love.
The tension with some of the Sister Wives star’s older children is impacting his relationships with his grandchildren. During the show’s Oct. 6 episode, Kody and his only remaining wife Robyn Brown are at-odds over Kody’s fraught relationships with many of his older children. One daughter in particular, Madison Brush—the second oldest of the six kids Kody shares with his ex Janelle Brown—became a source of contention after she had ignored her dad at a family wedding and allegedly separated him from her children.
“You saw the way Madison took her kids and scuttled them away from me,” Kody told Robyn of his 28-year-old daughter. “She never told me she was pregnant. She never told me she’s going to have a baby.”
In a confessional, Janelle explained Madison’s position on her dad.
“The only thing the kids are upset with is the way he has treated the family, the way he has completely ditched out,” Janelle, who left Kody in 2022, said. “And really, Maddie doesn’t have any contact with them.”
Madison and her husband Caleb Brush are parents to son Axel Brush, 7, and daughters Evie Brush, 5, and Josephine Brush, 19 months. She recently announced that she is pregnant with baby no. 4. But at the time the episode was filmed in 2022, Maddie was pregnant with Josephine.
Instagram/Madison Brush“Kody has not been there since Evie was born and Evie is three and a half,” Janelle said at the time. “And she didn’t just want him to drop in and be like, ‘Oh, I’m your grandpa!’ and them be like, ‘What? Who is this guy?’”
Kody, who lives in Flagstaff, Arizona, doesn’t think he is to blame for his estranged relationship with his grandchildren.
“It’s unrealistic expectation for grandparents to be in their grandchildren’s lives all the time,” he said, noting Madison and her family live in North Carolina, “especially if you move your children to an entirely different coast.”
Kody also accused Madison of creating further tension between himself and Janelle amid their separation.
“They’re purposefully leaving me out of their lives to punish me for a crime I did not commit,” he said. “I am only guilty of not falling madly in love with their mothers. Well, Madison actually called Janelle saying, ‘Dad said he didn’t love you.’”
Janelle Left Kody for This Reason
While second wife Janelle Brown previously told, “We just kind of started to grow apart,” ultimately it was Kody’s lapses as a parent to some of their kids that pushed her to leave.
“The big spark for me was when his relationship broke down with my children and he didn’t seem like he would move heaven and earth to fix it,” explained the mom to Logan Brown, Madison Brown Brush, Hunter Brown, Garrison Brown, Gabriel Brown and Savanah Brown. “And I thought, OK, that was what was really holding me here.”
Maddie Isn’t Speaking to Her Dad
Add Janelle’s eldest daughter Madison to the list of kids Kody doesn’t currently have a relationship with. “I know that Maddie has not had any conversations with her dad,” Janelle explained during the premiere. “He’s not called, she’s not called him, and she doesn’t have any relationship with Robin. She’s pretty much written them both off.”
At issue, said Janelle, is Kody having a half-hearted relationship with Maddie’s kids Axel, Evangalynn and Josephine: “She doesn’t really want him to have any contact unless he can commit to it.”
As a result, Janelle shared in the Sept. 22 episode, Kody “did sort of cut off communication” with Maddie and her husband Caleb Brush (whose sister was married to Kody’s brother) “when the family started to really dissolve.”
With Kody not visiting or calling, Maddie “has been Mama Bear to the extreme,” added Janelle. “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 while Robyn noted she’s been encouraging Kody to reach out and mend things, she said, “I think the kids should be doing the same thing, too.”
For now, though, Kody doesn’t seem ready to repair the rift, griping that every time he spoke to his daughter, “It was a fish for gossip and I got tired of it.”
Sister Wives airs Sundays at 10 p.m. ET on TLC.