Kody Brown’s role in the Brown family’s money woes has finally been exposed on Sister Wives. As the series hits the midway point of season 19, Janelle and Christine Brown finally blow the whistle on Kody’s alleged mismanagement of family funds. After peeling the lid back on his misdeeds, Kody’s reported money grab left three of his four wives at a distinct disadvantage.
Kody Brown reportedly paid his wives like employees and kept the excess
In the newest episode of TLC’s Sister Wives, titled “The Eleventh Hour,” lingering questions about how equally the Brown family finances were divided were finally answered. Meri, Janelle, Christine, and Kody Brown addressed the inequality of the division of assets.
In a confessional, Christine revealed, “All of our money got put into a big, huge fund and we got paid out of that fund. And I always talked to Kody about getting paid.”
She continued, “He’s the one who always wrote the check if I needed anything. I told Kody. It was Kody who really had the control of the money.”
Christine and Janelle agreed, “When it comes down to controlling money, I just feel like we each knew what we were going to get out of the family money and then if there was anything extra, we would just have to talk to Kody.”
“But then he could spend whatever the hell he wanted,” Christine concluded. Janelle agreed, “There was a lot of that.”
Janelle Brown is Kody Brown’s scapegoat for mismanagement of family funds
In an earlier Sister Wives episode, Kody Brown and Janelle Brown butted heads over the family’s plot of land, Coyote Pass. Janelle claims her percentage of the land is her only asset. She’s eager to pay it off, sell the property, and get the money owed to her.
However, Janelle doesn’t trust Kody’s promises about paying off the land and being fair about the division of assets. She spoke to Meri Brown, who is also financially tied to the property and was met with Meri’s trust in Kody’s abilities to do the right thing.
Janelle said in a confessional, “For me, financial security and being smart financially is really important. So, he’s trying to pin everything on me.”
“It makes me so mad because I didn’t know it. He was doing it behind my back. He kept telling everybody these stories and I’m like, ‘F***ing hell.’”
Apparently, Kody blamed the clan’s financial insecurity on Janelle’s alleged mismanagement of the family funds. When, in fact, Kody was freely spending and keeping his wives on an allowance.
Robyn Brown, who lived with Kody Brown as his legal wife, benefitted from that freewheeling spending. She and her children always received the lion’s share of the finances while the other women worked and had to ask Kody for extra money.
Fans react to claims of Kody Brown’s abuse of family finances
After years of financial inequality between Meri, Janelle, Christine, Robyn, and Kody Brown, fans were happy the touchy topic was finally addressed on Sister Wives. They shared their point of view on how Janelle, Meri, and Christine’s statements differed from Kody’s assessment of the family finances.
“How is there such a conflicted understanding between Meri, Janelle, and Christine on who controlled the money? Either someone wasn’t paying any attention or someone’s straight-up lying,” one fan wrote.
“Finally, they are being honest about how the finances were handled and who controlled the pot,” penned a second viewer. “This is all about money for Kody. He’s trying to keep her on the hook, a third Sister Wives watcher deduced.
Sister Wives also released the series mid-season trailer. In the clip, Christine plans her wedding to David Wooley. Janelle and Meri work together on how to best handle their equity in Coyote Pass. Robyn falls off an ATV.
Sister Wives airs Sundays at 10 p.m. ET on TLC.
