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Sister Wives son, Paedon Brown, accused step-mom Meri Brown of child abuse. For many years Kody Brown and his four wives — Meri Brown, Janelle Brown, Christine Brown, and Robyn Brown — gave viewers an insight into what the American polygamous setting looks like on the popular TLC series Sister Wives. The show premiered on September 26, 2010. As polygamous marriages are not legal in America, Kody was only legally married to Meri while a “spiritual union” existed between him and his other wives. However, Meri agreed to divorce Kody as a mere formality to allow him legally tie the knot with his fourth wife, Robyn, in 2014.
Despite being together since 1990, Kody’s marriage to Meri was the rockiest of all. Their marital issues have mostly played out for public viewing, but both parties avoid speaking about it. However, Kody opened up about his relationship with Meri during the Sister Wives reunion Tell-All. The patriarch described his marriage with his first wife as “hard” from the beginning. He shocked fans when he revealed he married his second wife, Janelle, to “dilute” his problems with Meri. Kody explained their problems multiplied when he moved Janelle into Meri’s house. However, things got better as all three wives began having children.
Kody shares 18 children with his three wives. However, the constant strains finally got the better of his polygamous family. First, Christine announced the dissolution of their 27-year union in November 2021. A year later, Janelle broke the news of her separation from Kody after 28 years together. And following months of speculation, Meri and Kody took to social media to jointly announce their split on January 10. It seems Meri and Kody’s divorce finally tipped things over for the family, as some of the kids have leveled accusations of abuse against the former.
Paedon Brown Accused Meri of Being Mean to the Kids
(Updated on September 30, 2024 – updated links and format)
Barely a month after reports emerged that Meri Brown and Kody had ended their marriage after 32 years, the latter has had to face new claims of child abuse by some of the kids. One of the features of their polygamous marriage was that all three wives saw themselves as mothers to all of Kody’s 18 children. Therefore, they were all involved in raising the kids. However, recent allegations seem to point to Meri taking things a bit too far. On January 11, 2023, during an appearance on YouTube Live with John Yates, Christine’s son Paedon Brown described Meri as an “abrasive” parent while reflecting on his childhood.
Paedon was careful not to say Meri abused him and his siblings explicitly. However, he called her out for being “mean” to the children. The 24-year-old further claimed it was difficult to find the words to qualify Meri’s terrible behavior toward the children. When asked if Meri was physically abusive to the children, Paedon was a bit coy with his response. In his words:
“Oh, it moves so far past verbal. Verbal basically stopped existing.”
Paedon also credited his father’s fourth wife, Robyn, because she “opened several eyes” to Meri’s abusive behavior. He revealed that Robyn’s extremely abusive relationship with her ex helped her identify the negative situation happening in their family.
Madie Brown Called Meri a Monster
During Paedon’s explosive YouTube interview, he clarified a controversial tweet made by his stepsister Maddie Brown — the 27-year-old daughter of Janelle. In the now-deleted 2019 tweet, Maddie suggested Meri was “abusive” and a “monster.” Even though she never mentioned any names in the tweet, many believed she was referring to her stepmother. Paedon put all doubts to rest during his interview when he confirmed his stepsister was certainly referring to Meri in her scandalous tweet.
Maddie’s tweet was in response to an initial social media post by Meri, where she accused her stepdaughter of not performing optimally when she worked for Meri’s “LuLaRoe” business. The resulting social media feud led to Maddie deleting her Twitter account. However, discussions around the matter didn’t occur until Paedon opened the can of worms during his interview. The storm has been brewing for the Brown family, and certainly, Sister Wives fans can expect to hear more about these weighty allegations very soon.