Sister Wives' Christine Brown Reveals 'Devastating' Oxycodone Addiction: 'I Didn't Feel Normal'

Sister Wives star Christine Brown opened up about developing an oxycodone addiction after a 2016 knee surgery, admitting she was popping pills before filming the show.

“I had never taken oxycodone before — if something hurt, I took ibuprofen or aspirin,” Brown, 53, writes in her new book, Sister Wife: A Memoir of Faith, Family, and Finding Freedom, which was released on Tuesday, September 2.

Following her surgery, the TLC personality turned to her prescription medication for relief and found the results to be more effective than she expected.

“On the third day, after the surgery, I felt like I had the flu. I was achy from head to toe,” she recalled. “I took an oxycodone, and all the symptoms went away. Oh, I thought. I’m not taking this for my knee anymore. I’m taking it because I’m achy everywhere.”

Brown described taking the medicine before filming confessionals for Sister Wives, which gave her the “best high” she had ever felt.

“I was on top of the world and I could accomplish everything!” she wrote. “I lived about two minutes away from the interview set, so I could take an oxycodone just before I left, drive to work before it hit and then feel great on set. Oxy made the set fine. I could do anything on oxy.”

Brown, who shares six children with her ex-husband, Kody Brown, recalled feeling a crash without the medication, admitting, “About 45 minutes later, I would feel the low coming and I’d feel so sad. … All I could do was think about the next hit and it was hours away.”

Two weeks into the habit, Janelle Brown's daughter Maddie Brown was the one to address Christine about her addiction. “You’re a mess. I miss you — we all miss you,” Christine recalled Maddie, 29, telling her. “We all need you back, so whatever you’re doing, figure it out.”

At the time, Maddie was on the brink of walking down the aisle with her now-husband, Caleb Brush, and Christine decided to quit the habit before the family event. In an effort to break the addiction, Chrisine gave half of the pills to her eldest daughter, Aspyn Brown, because she “knew it would be mortifying to have to ask her for more.”

Christine was eventually able to kick the habit, but explained it led her to feel “unbalanced” for about six months.

“I didn’t feel like me and all I wanted was oxycodone. I couldn’t get it and that made me angry,” she wrote. “I knew I would never feel that high again. It was that fast to become addicted and then that long to find myself again.”

Christine is known for her appearances on the Sister Wives franchise. Christine was one of Kody’s four wives, alongside Janelle, 56, Meri Brown and Robyn Brown. As of 2025, Kody, 56, remains married only to Robyn, 46.

Across his four marriages, Kody has 18 children, whom all the wives consider as their own. Christine credited Janelle’s daughter as the reason for getting clean.

“I don’t know if I would have been strong enough to get out of it if I hadn’t already discovered that I loved myself enough to want me back,” the Utah native explained. “But my kids weren’t done with me.”

Sister Wife: A Memoir of Faith, Family, and Finding Freedom is out now.