Sister Wives’ Janelle Brown on Why She Doesn’t Consider Herself ‘Divorced’ (Exclusive)

Janelle Brown is single and proud to say it.

Despite confirming in December 2022 that she and ex Kody Brown had separated after a 29-year spiritual marriage, the Sister Wives star doesn’t consider herself “divorced.”

“Because we never were legally married, I can’t really say I’m divorced,” Janelle, 54, explained to PEOPLE during a wide-ranging conversation about where her family stands after a domino effect toppled three of Kody’s marriages in 14 months.

She continued, “I just say ‘I’m no longer with’ [him] when I explain it to outside people, I’m like, ‘I’m no longer with my partner.'”

Janelle says that she’s always told people that “my partner and I split up” when explaining her relationship status and prefers the term “single.”

“I don’t know,” she continues. “It’s nebulous for me at this point. It depends on who I’m talking to really. I guess I just consider myself single, I don’t consider myself divorced or separated or whatever. I just think I’m single.”

On the other hand, Janelle’s fellow former sister wife Christine Brown told PEOPLE during the conversation — which took place prior to her October wedding to David Woolley — that she loved saying she was “straight-up divorced.”

She shared, “I like things clear-cut. I don’t like gray lines. I can tell you the date I was divorced.”

Christine, 51, recalled that even though she “decided” to call herself a divorcée, Kody didn’t realize that she “considered us divorced” until after she left him in November 2021.

“I don’t think he was very happy about it,” she says of her ex-husband, 55. “But if we were in our church, there’s certain rules we’d have to follow and everything like that. But we’re not in that church, we haven’t been in that church for years.”

Christine and her husband David, 59, tied the knot in front of family and friends in Moab, Utah, on Oct. 7 after nearly a year of dating.

On the day of her nuptials, the reality star told PEOPLE that the festivities were a dream come true.

“It’s a fairy tale,” she gushed. “It’s everything I never thought I would have. I get to walk down the aisle to David, him just looking at me the way that he does, it’s a dream come true.”

“David is just home,” she explained. “I feel like wherever we are together, we just create this amazing unity together. We’re a solid unit, and whatever goes on around us just doesn’t even matter. Being married together just solidifies us together.”

According to David, 59: “I’m really very lucky, and very happy that someone let her go, because she’s a unicorn.”

Christine and Janelle were joined in their exodus from the Brown family’s polygamous marital arrangement by Kody’s first wife Meri Brown, 53, who confirmed in January that she and the TLC patriarch had officially ended their 32-year marriage, which had already been platonic for quite some time. Kody remains legally married fourth wife Robyn Brown, 45.

Sister Wives can be streamed in full on Max.