Kody Brown's son Gabriel breaks down in tears on 'Sister Wives' recalling that his dad forgot his birthday

• Kody Brown's son Gabriel said his dad forgot his birthday during a phone call on October 11, 2021.
• At the time, Kody and his wife Robyn's family had COVID-19.

On Sunday's episode of TLC's "Sister Wives," Kody Brown's son Gabriel Brown broke down in tears as he recalled a phone call during which Kody forgot his birthday, instead asking about Gabriel's experience with COVID-19. Kody, his wife Robyn Brown, and some of their children had the illness at the time of the phone call.

Gabriel is Kody's fifth child with his second wife Janelle Brown and one of his 18 children. He was turning 20 on the day in question, October 11, 2021.

While recalling the conversation, Gabriel said in a confessional interview that he and his dad had a "small discussion" about his experience with COVID. "I shouldn't have done this but I did anyway. I didn't remind him that it was my birthday because I wanted to see if he remembered, and he didn't," he continued.

Gabriel said the moment was "just a phone call" to Kody. The young man then broke down in tears in front of the camera before adding, "It was a lot worse than just a phone call for me."

He said that Kody called him back a couple of hours later and "tried to make up for it" by wishing him a happy birthday. "That's the last time I ever talked to my dad," Gabriel added, through tears.

It's unclear if "Sister Wives" producers specifically asked Kody about forgetting Gabriel's birthday, but no footage of Kody addressing his reported mistake appeared on the episode.

The rift between Kody and his sons with Janelle, particularly Gabriel and their 24-year-old son Garrison Brown, has been well-documented throughout seasons 16 and 17 of the show.

They lived at home with Janelle while some of season 16 was filmed and confronted their dad about how his strict rules about COVID-19 safety and traveling were hurting the family. They have blamed Kody's fourth wife Robyn for this, which Kody has expressed concern about.

In an earlier scene on Sunday's episode, Janelle admitted that she was going to spend Thanksgiving at her daughter Madison's house because of the "big divide" between Kody and some of her sons.

"Kody and my boys are very estranged. He doesn't even want to see their point of view," Janelle said in a solo interview. "He's like, 'you've offended me, you've offended those that are close to me' aka Robyn, 'you guys have to come mea culpa and apologize and grovel.'"

"My boys are just not going to do that," Janelle added.

In his solo interview addressing the matter, Kody said he simply wanted to clear the air between himself, Robyn, Gabe, and Garrison.

"Sister Wives" airs Sundays at 10 p.m. on TLC.