A household divided. Janelle Brown detailed husband Kody Brown‘s “very strained” relationship with his children during part 2 of the season 16 Sister Wives tell-all special on Sunday, February 6.
“Several of his children are at odds with him because of the ways his [COVID-19] rules went down,” Janelle, 52, who shares kids Logan, Caleb, Madison “Maddie”, Hunter, Robert “Garrison”, Gabriel “Gabe” and Savanah, with Kody, 53, explained.
The father of 18, who also shares children with wives Robyn Brown and Meri Brown, as well as ex-wife Christine Brown, went on to say that his relationships with Gabriel, 32, and Garrison, 23, are “not good.” Although they occasionally “touch base,” they are “not talking.”
Ultimately, Kody hopes they will consider family therapy. “I’m so angry about what happened, and I think they are, too,” the TLC personality said.
Audiences saw the tension between Kody and his sons build throughout season 16 of Sister Wives, namely over their opposing views on rules and guidelines during the coronavirus pandemic.
“I feel like everyone in my family is so focused on being right or doing right that nobody is willing to kind of take a step back and say this is ruining our family,” Gabe explained in a confessional during the January 16 episode.
“So, while I’m talking to Gabriel here, I’m not laying down the law because I can’t get the support of Janelle to lay down the law,” Kody expressed in his own confessional. “It’s weird. In the time that COVID-19 has been going on, I felt more and more and more like that was Janelle’s house and it wasn’t my house. And the irony of this situation — which is not good for relationships — is that Robyn’s house, as I’ve been there more, made me feel like that’s my house and my rules and my family. It makes me mad at myself all these years that I haven’t been what I would call ‘more patriarchal,’ more in charge.”
Kody was insistent that all of his children put a pause on their social lives amid the pandemic, while Janelle was more lenient. “This has all been very hard for them that he’s being dictatorial about his rules,” the mother of six admitted during the episode.
Things came to a head between Kody and Gabe after the Lovell, Wyoming, native denied allowing Gabe to see his girlfriend, Peyton.
“I can’t take Peyton out of the equation,” Gabe told his father, to which Kody replied, “OK, I understand that, Gabe. I mean, Gabriel, the real issue here is you had to choose between me coming over or seeing your girlfriend.”