She’s a free woman. Sister Wives star Janelle Brown has been granted a “release” from her marriage to ex Kody Brown by their former church, nearly four years after the pair separated.
In a clip from the upcoming January 4 episode of the hit TLC reality show shared by People, Janelle, 56, speaks to the camera after meeting with officials from the Apostolic United Brethren, the Mormon fundamentalist church the Brown family once belonged to.
“I have it,” said the mother of six, holding up a piece of paper. “That was easy. I thought I was gonna have to come back for a second meeting. I am free.”
Janelle and Kody, 56, entered into what they call a “spiritual marriage” in their church in 1993. They did not have a legal marriage, because Kody was already legally married to his first wife Meri Brown at the time. Christine Brown joined the polygamist family as Kody’s third wife in 1994, and fourth wife Robyn Brown joined in 2010.
In 2014, Kody and Meri, 54, got divorced so that he could legally marry Robyn, 47, in order to more easily adopt her three children from a previous marriage. They remained spiritually married at the time, but by 2021, the family truly began to break down. That year, Christine, 53, left her marriage to Kody, and by 2022, Janelle and Kody had separated as well. Meri left Kody in 2023, and soon after sought an official “release” from their former church.
At the time, Meri explained that the significance of the spiritual release was to dissolve the connection that they believed would tie them together even in the afterlife.
“When we marry it is for eternity,” she said. “Once I had that terminated, or released, that means it’s done. There’s no [bond] that keeps us together for eternity.”
While Christine has stated that she “didn’t feel the need to get a spiritual divorce,” Janelle’s interest was piqued by Meri’s decision. And in the clip from the upcoming episode, she affirms that it was the right path for her, saying, “So there was really kind of a shift in my energy [after getting the release]. And I think maybe it must have really meant something deep down that I’m sort of not always paying attention to. So I’m glad I did this.”