Sister Wife #2 was married to wife #1s brother before she married the same guy

When the TLC reality show Sister Wives was introducing us to Kody Brown’s fourth wife, a 30 year-old single mother named Robyn, the fact that she was divorced was seen as somewhat scandalous in the untraditional family. Kody’s first wife, Meri, (who introduced him to Robyn) explained that “he’s kind of always had an aversion to marrying someone who had already been married before.” The show gave us no indication that any of Kody’s other wives had ever been married before, and in their official account of events they made it seem like Janelle was just a friend of Meri’s and that Meri introduced her to Kody. Star Magazine has unearthed a little more scandal in the Brown past. They report that Janelle used to be married to Meri’s brother back in 1988. Janelle was divorced from Meri’s brother for three years before she married Kody so it doesn’t sound like there’s much more than a failed marriage and a plural re-marriage there, but it’s still interesting:

Keeping up with the polygamist Brown family just got more complicated! It turns out the stars of TLC’s hit show Sister Wives have been hiding a secret about how wives Janelle and Meri first met.

In this week’s issue of Star, we reveal the shocking news that Kody Brown’s second wife Janelle was married to the brother of wife No. 1, Meri, before she joined their family. According to their marriage certificate, Janelle legally wed Adam Barber in Salt Lake City in December 1988. They divorced in 1990, three years before Janelle and Kody tied the knot in a nontraditional commitment ceremony.

As for Meri, “I know she was originally very upset over Janelle dumping her brother. I think there has been a lot of unspoken tension between her, Janelle and Kody all these years,” a family insider tells Star exclusively.

[From Star’s Website]

Two weeks ago Star had an exclusive interview with a woman who used to be one Kody’s brother many wives. (She left and was cut off from her kids for years. It was a heartbreaking story.) So I think they have a good source and that this information about Janelle’s first marriage is solid. However I think Star is so off the mark by claiming that there’s still tension between Janelle and Meri over the fact that Janelle was married to Meri’s brother over 20 years ago. Meri introduced Janelle to Kody so if she had an issue with her ex sister-in-law she never would have made her a “sister wife”. You wonder, though, why this little fact was kept secret from producers and the public. Janelle is my favorite on that show and I love her take on life and how logical and well spoken she is. She seems too good for this kind of situation, but if anything she makes polygamy look like a positive life choice rather than the oppressive trap it so often is for women.

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