Sister Wives star Robyn Brown empathized with Christine Brown feeling distraught in a new sneak peek clip from the season 16 premiere.
“Christine is upset. I understand it,” she said in the dramatic teaser obtained by People on Wednesday, November 17, showing Robyn, 43, sighing while trying to fight back tears. “It’s scary, it’s been absolutely scary, what our family culture is looking like because we are not spending time together.”
During the tense scene, Kody Brown and his wives sat in a circle to discuss their delayed building plans on Coyote Pass and how the distance due to quarantining caused a strain between them amid the coronavirus pandemic.
“I don’t know that this is something that fixes itself right away so don’t be thinking it’s all gone, and it’s all put to bed or whatever,” Janelle Brown said to comfort Christine, 49. “I want to honor where you are.”
Kody, 52, then chimed in to point out they must get down to business, despite Christine’s desires to move back to Utah at the time. “We have to get all the property boundaries figured out, though, that we have to do because we have to be able to move on that,” he said. “We don’t want to wait any longer.”
In Touch has since confirmed that Christine relocated to the city of Murray, where she now resides in a duplex with the couple’s youngest daughter, Truely, in the wake of her split from Kody after 27 years of marriage.
Christine and Kody announced they were parting ways on November 2, a shocking shakeup in the polygamous Brown family. Prior to their separate statements, the TLC stars had been spiritually married since March 25, 1994, and they share six children together: Aspyn, Mykelti, Gwendlyn, Ysabel, Truely and Paedon.
While speaking out about her decision to leave Kody, Christine told fans via her LuLaRoe Facebook group that they could expect to see the moments leading up to their split, confirming “most of your questions will be answered.”
As for what caused her to take action, she said there were many reasons. “This whole thing is hard, it’s not just about moving back to Utah, it’s not just about that,” Christine tearfully shared in the season 16 sneak peek. “I’m not going to make any drastic decisions on what I’m going to do next today — I am hurt today.”
Christine opened up about never wanting the “kind of marriage” that she and Kody had during her confessional. “I never wanted to be so estranged and have extremely limited physical contact, not even hand-holding,” she admitted. “It’s sad, my marriage to Kody is sad.”
Season 16 of Sister Wives premieres on TLC on November 21 at 10 p.m. ET/PT.