Who Is David Jessop, Sister Wives’ Robyn Brown’s Ex-Husband (And Kody’s Cousin)?
Throughout the years, there have been a multitude of characters introduced to audiences on the Sister Wives reality television series. Some people have come and gone, while others have stuck around for several seasons. At the very beginning of the show, a new wife was brought on board. This wife had previously been married and came to the Brown family with three children from that relationship.
Out of all the people that have come into the show, one that fans don’t hear about is the biological father of Robyn Brown’s oldest children and the husband of her first marriage. Who is this individual, and what role does he play within the family outside of being an ex-husband and father? Since Robyn has remarried, what has become of her first husband?
Updated September 2024: David Jessop has been battling cancer medication side-effects since early 2024. As of September, an update on his GoFundMe account shows that David may be faring better than he was earlier in the year.
Robyn Brown Was Married To David Jessop Before Marrying Kody Brown
Robyn Brown got married to David Jessop when she was 21-years-old
When Robyn Brown was just 21 years old, she married David Jessop in Montana. The couple went on to have three children (Dayton, Aurora, and Brianna) before separating in 2007.
Their divorce was finalized in 2009, and Robyn met and spiritually married Kody Brown the following year, in 2010. She then gave birth to their first child together, Solomon, in 2011.
Later on, in 2014, the two entered into a legal marriage in order for Kody to be able to adopt Robyn’s older children. To do this, Kody had to legally divorce his first wife, Meri, and enter into a union with her that was merely spiritual.
Both Christine and Janelle were spiritually married to Kody as well. Robyn and Kody welcomed the youngest Brown child, Ariella, two years after legally marrying.
Whereas Robyn’s first marriage was monogamous, her second marriage was polygamous, with three sister wives and many children in an already functional family. This shift for both the current and new family members was substantial, although Robyn herself is a child of plural marriage.
Her mother was a sister wife in her own regard, although they lived in separate homes and rarely interacted, per previous reports by Robyn. Therefore, while Robyn was part of a family rooted in plural marriage, the organization was much different than what the Brown family and other Mormon polygamous groups demonstrate.
David Jessop Is Related to Two Other Brown Family Members
David Jessop is a cousin of Kody Brown’s and is also Christine Brown’s first cousin
While David is the ex-husband of Robyn Brown and the biological father to her three oldest children, he is more intermixed in the family than just that one relationship.
Not only is he a third cousin to the family patriarch Kody Brown, but David is also a first cousin to Christine, the mother of six of Kody’s children, Aspyn, Mykelti, Paedon, Gwendlyn, Ysabel, and Truely.
There are many nuances within the Mormon religion and polygamous culture that dictate who can rightfully be married to one another. Because of these stipulations, there are often common ancestors that span across different extensions of the family.
While in monogamous marriages, it may seem odd to have a cousin in common or marry an ex-husband’s family member, this isn’t the case when it comes to Mormonism.
Where Is Robyn Brown’s Ex-Husband David Jessop Today?
David Jessop is remarried and is currently battling cancer
Although it’s well documented through the family’s famous reality television series Sister Wives that the Brown family is going through a rough patch, not much is mentioned about David Jessop in the news or otherwise.
It was said on an early episode of the show that Robyn’s oldest children, whom she shares with Jessop, were regularly visiting their father; it appears that those stopped a few years into Robyn’s marriage to Kody.
Sources say Jessop initially approached Kody about pursuing a stepparent adoption to alleviate child support obligations. However, the conversation stopped when David learned that such a change would come with visitation rights being removed.
While it hasn’t been confirmed, some speculate that Kody moved forward with the idea, and the courts sided with him after Jessop’s lapse in support payments for an extended time.
Robyn Brown has made statements in the past that alluded to David being abusive and acting in a bullying manner towards her and her children during their marriage. While this accusation was never corroborated, David was arrested for domestic assault in August 2018.
While the charge was eventually lowered to disorderly conduct and David was required to pay fines, the incident seems to further cement Robyn’s claims about her tumultuous and problematic eight-year relationship that she had with him.