Sister Wives is in its 10th season, and the show’s patriarch Kody Brown has some lessons he hopes viewers will learn.
Kody and his wives Meri, Janelle, Christine, and Robyn, have shared excerpts of their family’s life with audiences for over a decade. The initial intent of their show was to educate viewers about polygamy.
Fans of the show have seen how their plural family operates, along with all the obstacles that arise within a family with one husband, four wives, and 18 children.
Kody gave an exclusive interview to The List and named some important takeaways he hopes viewers will take with them.
Kody wants viewers to know that the show only portrays a small portion of his life
He told the reporter, “There’s so much limitation on what you’re able to see because my life is 365 days a year, and you get to see 12 one-hour episodes. You’re only seeing the experiences being filmed or shot.”
He explained there are limits to how much of their lives can be featured on the show, and it can’t include all his experiences. Although viewers get a big picture of how the family operates, many of their personal experiences happen off-camera.
“The personality of our family and stuff like that, I think, still shows. It’s not like we’re holding back. It’s just; you can’t be here all the time,” he said. “That’d be just overkill anyway.”
Kody admitted to disagreements as well as freedom within the family
Kody explained many different personalities exist within his large family. He revealed that TLC’s cameras would continue to show the Browns’ clashes in opinions, good or bad.
He said, “You get some opinions more than others, and this is the interesting thing. There’s five of us and then our children, and we don’t all see eye-to-eye. We’re trying to be united as a family, but there’s a lot of liberty in this family, a lot of freedom.”
Kody hopes viewers know that he and his four wives are in their marriage by choice
Kody continued, “These are relationships, and so you have to be sensitive to how you are with each other. It’s a challenge.
“Everybody is in this relationship by choice. They can be in it or out of it by choice. That’s the only message. It’s the same message we always had from the beginning.”
Kody believes his family is like most others
Kody drove home the point that whether in a monogamous or polygamous relationship, people’s lives aren’t that much different, just at differing degrees.
“We’re a fairly normal family with our normal struggles, and we just have multipliers.”
Kody seems to be aware that he’ll always be scrutinized in the public eye. Still, he firmly believes that they’ve effectively shown that polygamy doesn’t necessarily have to align with its stigmas.
“[People will] have criticism for what I do, for my behavior, maybe. But they won’t be able to criticize the lifestyle regarding it being a prison or an oppressing society of sorts.”
Sister Wives airs on Sundays at 10/9c on TLC.