Kody and Robyn Brown have come under a lot of fire for hiring a nanny, mostly from Christine Brown.
Sister Wives viewers have also expressed outrage at the fact that Kody hired a paid employee to help Robyn tend to her children.
That’s because in the early years of their polygamous marriage, Kody’s other three wives, Meri, Janelle, and Christine, raised their collective 13 children without the help of a nanny, splitting their outside work and parenting duties between themselves.
During a 2021 episode of Sister Wives, Kody confessed, “Robyn and I have an employee. We call her a ‘nanny.’ She comes over, she helps with caring for the kids, and she helps with schooling the kids.”
Kody’s admission sparked Christine’s most iconic line in Sister Wives history: “What. Does. The. Nanny. Do?”
Well, we’ve often wondered the same, so we’ve done some digging to find out everything we can about Mindy Carol Jessop, the woman who considers herself Robyn’s “step-niece.”
Here’s everything we know about Kody and Robyn Brown’s nanny, Mindy Jessop
Mindy, who is currently 39, has appeared in older episodes of Sister Wives. She explained, “[Robyn] is my mom’s sister, from a different mother,” making Robyn her aunt. Mindy also comes from a plural family upbringing like the Browns.
Mindy, who calls Las Vegas home, also happens to be related to Robyn’s ex-husband, David Preston Jessop, as she’s his second cousin. Mindy’s mother is a daughter of Robyn’s stepfather, hence the term “step-niece.”
Although Kody didn’t mention having a nanny until 2021, Mindy has worked for him and Robyn for many years.
On Twitter, Mindy has several photos of herself pictured with Solomon and Ariella, Kody and Robyn’s two biological children, and the two youngest Brown children. Mindy shares a birthday, October 27, with Solomon and has noted how much she “digs” being his nanny.
In the photo below, Mindy posed with Ariella on her second birthday and captioned it, “2 going on 13. Gosh I love this human being.”
Mindy has appeared on Christine and Robyn Brown’s social media pages
At one point, Mindy also owned and operated her own tanning salon. Mindy posed with Christine in an Instagram post dated November 2018, seen below, which Christine captioned, “Hanging out with my lovely Mindy @shadestanningmindy #businesswoman #businessmanager #treatyoself.”
Robyn also advertised Mindy’s business, Shades Tanning Boutique, in Las Vegas, Nevada, which has since seemingly gone out of business.
In an Instagram post also dated November 2018, Robyn uploaded photos of Mindy’s salon and, in the caption, referred to Mindy as a “dear friend” of hers.
Sister Wives viewers continue to ask, ‘What does the nanny do?’
Kody and Robyn have faced their fair share of scrutiny for employing Mindy, especially during the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic when Kody was strongly enforcing his ridiculous COVID-19 rules.
While Kody forbade his children (who lived in different households) to visit each other, he allowed Mindy to come in and out of his home on a daily basis. Ironically, it was Mindy who brought COVID-19 into Kody and Robyn’s home after contracting the virus from her husband.
This season on Sister Wives, during the October 1 episode, Christine said that Kody and Robyn hiring a nanny was a “line in the sand.”
While Christine, Janelle, and Meri were raising their kids — long before Robyn came into the picture — they never employed any outside help raising their 13 children.
“To me, being a sister wife means someone that is there to help you with your kids,” Christine confessed.
So when Christine learned that Robyn had childcare help, it rubbed her the wrong way.
“When she decided to get a nanny, it really was a line,” Christine admitted during a confessional. “It really was a line in the sand.”
Christine has taken some major digs at Kody and Robyn for hiring a nanny too. In July 2023, while promoting her Plexus business, Christine threw some major shade when she wore a t-shirt reading, “What. Does. The. Nanny. Do?”
Christine and Kody’s son, Paedon Brown, also took a jab at his father when he sported the same t-shirt during a TikTok video.
Is Mindy still employed by Kody and Robyn?
It looked as though Kody and Robyn had fired Mindy, possibly for infecting the family with COVID-19, but it appears she’s working for them once again.
Mindy was spotted with Kody and Robyn as recently as March 2023. A Sister Wives viewer uploaded a candid shot to Reddit, depicting Mindy with Kody, Robyn, Solomon, and Ariella as they enjoyed a day of shopping.
But now that Solomon is 11 and Ariella is 7, Sister Wives fans continue to question why Robyn needs a nanny’s help, especially if she doesn’t work outside the home. So the question still remains: What does the nanny do?
Sister Wives airs on Sundays at 10/9c on TLC.