- Meri Brown says Kody Brown told her they weren't in a relationship anymore on their 32nd anniversary.
- Kody previously told Meri he "never loved" her.
Meri Brown reveals how her ex-husband Kody Brown explicitly told her their marriage was over on Sunday's episode of TLC's "Sister Wives." According to Meri, the couple — who haven't been romantically involved for many years — were at dinner together acknowledging their 32nd wedding anniversary in April 2022 when it happened.
"At one point, he made some reference to faking relationships or something like that," Meri says in a self-taped video confessional. "And I was like, 'Well, what do you mean faking?'"
The conversation between Meri and Kody wasn't filmed for the show, but when recounting it, Meri says Kody then gestured to her from across the table, insinuating that they were faking their marriage.
When Meri told her then-husband she wasn't faking anything, she remembers Kody saying, "I don't know why you even bothered to call and say happy anniversary, Meri." He stopped short of saying they weren't married and instead said "we're not living as a married couple," according to Meri.
"I felt like in that moment he stopped himself from saying, 'Well, we're not married.' That was a big realization to me," she says in a separate interview on the episode.
"All these years, that's how he's felt about it? But I haven't known that," she continues.
From Kody's perspective, their marriage had been rocky since 2015 when Meri was involved in a catfishing scandal, and after a certain point he gave up trying to fix it.
On Sunday's episode, Meri admits she asked that they take a "break" from their marriage at the height of their problems but denies kicking him out of her house.
"He actually said to me, 'I have no desire, Meri, to have a relationship with you,'" Meri recalls of the anniversary dinner. It was apparently the first time since 2015 he'd explicitly said their marriage was over.
Meri says the moment was painful for her, especially because she used to have fears early in their marriage that he wouldn't love her forever.
"He has said to me, 'I never loved you and I never felt like that about you. I was trying to affirm it,'" Meri recalls later in the episode about another conversation that happened at an unknown time earlier in their relationship.
''That's a bunch of bullshit," Meri tells cameras. "Ask anybody that we know. Ask anyone who saw us in our early years, even ten years ago. And they would know that that's just a bunch of crap that he's spewing to… Maybe to try to justify how he feels now."
Kody has been honest with cameras that he hasn't felt romantic love for Meri in many years, although on season 17, he admitted that after one anniversary date he considered reconciling with her because she made him a Rice Krispie Treat for every year they were married.
The sentiment was short-lived, however. On a previous episode of "Sister Wives" season 18, Kody told cameras that Meri was in denial about the state of their relationship after he suggested she go live above a storage barn he wanted to build for his extra cars.
On Sunday's episode, Meri also recalls Kody asking her to keep their split a secret because of "criticism" he faces from the public. She tells cameras she's adamantly against his wish.
"This is my story, too," she says. "And I have the right to tell my story."
In January 2023, Meri became the third of Kody's three former wives to announce they'd officially split. Kody's third wife, Christine Brown, announced that she considered herself divorced in November 2021, and his second wife, Janelle Brown, announced her separation from Kody in December 2022.
Meri became Kody's first wife in 1990 and legally divorced him in 2014 (shortly before the catfishing scandal) so that he could legally marry his fourth wife, Robyn Brown, in order to adopt Robyn's kids.
Robyn is now Kody's only legal or spiritual wife.
"Sister Wives" airs Sundays at 10 p.m. on TLC.