Sister Wives’ star Christine Brown recently revealed that she shares a distant familial connection with her former husband.
Reality television is often filled with unexpected twists, and the TLC series Sister Wives is no exception.
For those unfamiliar with the show, it premiered in 2010 and chronicles the life of a polygamist family led by Kody Brown.
At the start of the series, Kody was legally wed to Meri Barber and had ‘spiritual marriages’ with Christine Allred and Janelle Schriever. In 2009, Robyn Sullivan joined the family as his fourth wife. Together, Kody and his partners have 18 children.
However, Christine, Meri, and Janelle have since separated from Kody, leaving Robyn as his only remaining partner.
In the latest episode aired on Sunday (December 28), Christine disclosed to her current husband, David Woolley, that she and Kody are distantly related.
She explained, “I knew growing up that I would have to marry a convert because I was literally related to everybody in the church.
“I did marry a convert, but I was still related to him too. Yeah, I’m related to Kody.”
Woolley was taken aback by this revelation, responding only with ‘wow’, prompting Christine to clarify: “Third cousins once removed is fully legal. Fully. Polygamy is not legal. I’m third cousins once removed from Kody.”
Janelle mentioned that there had always been a joke about Christine and Kody being cousins before their marriage. In her confessional, she said: “There was always this joke about [how] they were cousins, but they are so distantly related it’s ridiculous.
“I think in polygamist families, this kind of stuff happens all the time.
“It wasn’t the kind of relationship where, like, you saw each other at the family reunion — like, it was a very distant relationship.
“But they would always joke about being cousins. It just is a small community.”
This isn’t the first instance of close family ties, as Janelle shared that her mother wed Kody’s father three months prior to her own marriage to Kody.
Janelle explained that she was first introduced to the concept of polygamy during high school, and when she shared her intentions with her mother before marrying Kody, her mother was initially opposed.
“I was starting to talk to Kody, and I met the family and was really intrigued. My mom’s like, ‘Oh, heck no, heck no, heck no, heck no.’ My mom came to save me and ended up marrying Kody’s dad.” Janelle recounted.
“When they decided to get married, I was like, ‘That’s gonna be a little hard to explain, but alright,” she added, noting that although she found it ‘a little weird at first’, she eventually came to terms with the arrangement.