‘Sister Wives’ Star Meri Brown & BFF Discuss the Demise of Meri & Robyn Brown’s Friendship: “There Was a Divide”
When new episodes of Sister Wives resume Sunday on TLC, viewers will get to see Meri Brown discuss the demise of her friendship with former sister wife Robyn Brown, while also hearing both Meri and Robyn’s explanations for why their once-close friendship crumbled.
In a sneak peek from the return of the TLC series obtained by People, Meri talks to her best friend Jenn Sullivan about her fractured friendship with Robyn, hinting that Robyn’s marriage to Kody Brown– from whom Meri split in January 2023– played a part in where she and Robyn stand today.
“There are so many people that are like, ‘She was a fraud, she was a liar, she was manipulating,’” Meri says of Robyn.
Jenn goes on to give Meri “the look,” before explaining to her BFF that she’s only being “cautious.” However, Jenn also tells Meri that she doesn’t believe Robyn was guilty of “intentional manipulation,” insisting that Kody’s relationship with Robyn was what actually tore Meri and Robyn’s friendship apart.
“I do think that Kody decided that he had this new person that was this new insider with him, and then it just became them against everybody else,” Jenn says, with Meri agreeing, calling Kody’s now-only remaining wife his “new shiny toy.”
While neither Jenn nor Meri believe that Robyn’s manipulation was intentional, Jenn notes that Robyn had a tendency to act like she was Meri’s best friend, only to then completely ignore Meri and proceed to hurt her feelings.
“Like, that’s really f**ked up,” Jenn says of Robyn’s treatment of Meri. “Like, either be an a**hole or don’t.”
Meri then tells viewers that she knows her and Robyn’s relationship “was a good one” that she felt “very solid in,” but she realizes that at some point, there became “a divide.”
Meanwhile, Robyn claims that she never felt “a divide” and insists that she always had Meri’s back– even when other people in the family allegedly didn’t.
“I always had Meri’s back,” Robyn says in the clip. “Even when people were plotting against her, ignoring her … .
“I never felt a divide, other than when she moved [to Parowan, Utah], that’s when things changed,” Robyn continued. “She changed it after that. But I always cared.”
During Meri’s appearance on The Tamron Hall Show earlier this week, she revealed that, currently, she and Robyn only “talk when we need to.”
Tamron— who hosted the ‘Sister Wives’ Tell-All episodes (until certain members of the Brown Family asked that she be removed as host, due to her asking “tough” questions)— stated that she often felt tension between Meri and Robyn when they were on-set.
“I felt like the most tension was between you and Robyn. You were [Kody’s] first wife…” Tamron told Meri. “I felt like when I asked about certain things, you would look at Kody and [Robyn] was always…So was I wrong?”
“No, you’re not wrong,” Meri replied.
New episodes of ‘Sister Wives’ begin airing this Sunday on TLC.