Sister Wives’ Maddie Brown Details Estranged Relationship With Dad Kody: Even Her Children Wouldn’t “Recognize Him”
Much like a lot of children of reality TV stars, Maddie Brown has a complicated relationship with her parents. Especially her dad, Kody Brown. She no longer has a relationship with him and is not interested in changing that. The reality star recently opened up about her estrangement from her dad and sent a message to Sister Wives fans who can’t seem to take a hint.
As the next episode of Sister Wives drew closer, TLC dropped a sneak peek with an amused Meri and a shocked Kody.
But Maddie’s decision to have no contact with her father didn’t only affect her. Apparently, it also influenced Janelle’s choice to file for divorce. Here’s everything there is to know:
Maddie Brown Is Not Interested In Reconnecting With Her Dad Kody
When Maddie Brown was asked about her relationship with her father, she was very honest and explained what happened between them. While the issues are, of course, very complex, one of the main things is that father and daughter have clashing personalities.
“I have no contact with some of my family, and it’s because of stuff that has happened,” Maddie shared in an episode of her The Authentic Society podcast. Specifically about Kody, she said that he “doesn’t have any respect for boundaries, and you have to play by his rules, and I just don’t care to do that.”
Okay, Mister “I never loved Meri.”
“I’m a straight shooter. You ask me a question, I’m going to tell you what I think. And my dad would get very angry when I would be like, ‘I don’t know why you’re surprised here.’ So that was one of the reasons I went no contact. He didn’t like a mirror being held up.”
Maddie gave some examples of this as she’s supporting her mother, Janelle, who is divorcing Kody.
“I’d say, ‘In my opinion, there’s a lot of anger,’ and he’d be like, ‘That’s not true. I’m like, ‘It is true. I know this firsthand.’ And there’s other people that are the same. They’d ask for my opinion, and I’d express my opinion, and they’d get angry,'” she added.
Maddie’s Children Do Not Know Who Their Grandfather Is
While her relationship with her family, and Kody in particular, might not be ideal, Maddie is tired of people thinking they know better than her when it comes to her dad. She’s sick and tired of fans messaging her with unsolicited advice, or worse, with demands.
“I always get messages from people who are like, ‘You should just forgive your dad and respect him,’” she complained, and with good reason.
“And I’m like, ‘I don’t think you know what you’re talking about because your experience with your dad could be very different than my experience with my dad.’”
According to what Janelle said in an episode of Sister Wives, Maddie and Kody haven’t spoken in so long that Maddie’s kids wouldn’t even know who he is, and that’s heartbreaking to her.
“Kody has not been there since Evie was born and Evie is three and a half,” Janelle said in a confessional. “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?’” Speaking on the Somewhat Basic podcast in 2023, Maddie shared that her children would not “recognize him.”
Kody blamed Maddie for this, saying that she was “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.’”
By the look of it, Kody is in no rush to fix things with his daughter either.
Maddie And Kody’s Estrangement Contributed To Janelle’s Decision To Divorce
While Janelle was vague at first about the reasons for divorcing Kody, she has since opened up about one of the true reasons why she’s calling it quits. His damaged relationship with Maddie was one of them. More specifically, the fact that it seems to be a pattern for him to abandon his children.
“I can observe that Kody seems to have trouble relating to his older children, and he seems to dote on the younger children,” she said on the show, “and when my children were younger, it was very easy for him to be a father, right, because he was still kind of this important. He was important to them. His opinion mattered to them, his guidance mattered to them and now, because they question a little bit, I think it might be harder for Kody to feel like he’s respected.”
Janelle adores her children and the fact that he doesn’t seem interested in repairing his relationship with their kids was a deal-breaker for her.
Christine and David make it official, while Meri announces her move to Robyn and Kody.
“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,” she explained. “And I thought, OK, that was what was really holding me here.”
While Kody apparently wanted to reconcile, when made to choose between her estranged husband and her children, the choice was clear for her.
“I don’t know how I would ever reconcile with him and have him not have a relationship with my kids. No, I’m going to always choose my kids.”
So, with Janelle and Maddie both turning their backs on him and Kody seemingly not caring, it looks like the Brown family is falling apart.