Sister Wives' Kody Brown Is Still 'Angry' With Meri as She 'Moves Forward' With Church Divorce: 'I Needed Her to Go Away'
Sister Wives star Kody Brown is "resistant" to the idea of Meri seeking a religious divorce through their church.
On the Sunday, September 23, installment of the hit TLC show, the mother-of-one revealed she thought it would be "best to terminate" their spiritual "covenant" with each other "because we're not moving forward with any marriage."
Meri and Kody tied the knot in 1990 but legally divorced in 2014 so that he could marry his fourth wife, Robyn, and officially adopt her children from her past marriage. In January 2023, the pair confirmed they would not be continuing their relationship in any capacity. However, according to their church, the Apostolic United Brethren, they are still spiritually married.
"I don't want to be, like, sealed to him for eternity if he doesn't want me," Meri said in a confessional. "I'm at a place that like, let's just separate this completely."
Kody shared his reaction to the news in his own confessional — and he was less enthusiastic about it.
"About eight weeks ago, Meri told me that she was going to go to Utah, meet with our church leaders and basically request a divorce," the Brown family patriarch explained. "It's called a release in our church."
- 'Sister Wives' Star Christine Brown Sues Estranged Ex Kody for Custody of Daughter Truely, 14, After Messy Split
- Robyn and Kody Brown 'Drifted Apart' After Christine, Janelle and Meri Left: They 'Argue About Small Things' and 'Butt Heads Often'
- 'Sister Wives' Star Meri Brown Jokes It 'Really Weirds People Out' Janelle Was Previously Married to Her Brother
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The 55-year-old admitted that "the damage was done so badly that we're not going to reconcile no matter what," but said he didn't want to be "accountable to this church and all their BS."
"I'm going to let Meri go and do her thing because if I'm angry at her, it becomes a fight," he added. "I needed her just to go away because it just took forever for her to finally realize it's been done and over for years."
As for Meri, she claimed she's "been living in limbo in this relationship for nearly a decade" and is "moving forward with this" so she no longer has to live that way.
As OK! previously reported, Meri announced her split from Kody on social media in January 2023.
"After more than a decade of working on our relationship in our own unique ways, we have made the decision to permanently terminate our marriage relationship," she wrote in a joint statement with the father-of-18.
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"During this process, we are committed to kindness and respect toward each other and to all members of our family, and we are also committed to the continued healing of any and all relationships with the family so that we can move forward with forgiveness, grace and love," the statement concluded.