There’s even more trouble brewing in Sister Wives paradise as things between Kody Brown and his adult son, Gabriel Brown, finally come to a head.
Things between Kody and his plural family have been tense since COVID began, but things have arguably been the most heated between Kody and his wife Janelle Brown‘s adult sons, Gabriel and Garrison.
In previews for this Sunday’s episode, it is revealed that a face-off almost a year in the making is finally happening. The clip reveals Kody stating his regret at not taking, as he puts it, a firmer “patriarchal hand” with his family around COVID restrictions. He adds this was most especially true with his and Janelle’s adult sons, who were still residing in Janelle’s home against Kody’s wishes.
The clip goes on to show Kody explaining to an emotional Gabriel that it all came down to Gabriel having to choose between seeing his girlfriend or seeing his father. In the clip, Gabriel angrily responds by asking why he was asked to make that decision. Things certainly seem heated between the once very close father and son.
All of the current turmoil stems from the several months leading up to the big blowout around Kody’s COVID restrictions. With the onset of the pandemic, the plural family struggled to come up with safety protocols to manage four separate households, two of which included high-risk children with pre-existing medical conditions.
However, Kody’s rules initially seemed both restrictive and amorphous to the family as they felt one set of rules seemed acceptable for one household but not for another. Kody asked his and Janelle’s adult sons, Gabriel and Garrison, to stop going out socially and for Gabriel to stop seeing his girlfriend. If not, he said the boys would need to move out. Janelle rebutted Kody by explaining that Garrison was just a few short months away from having enough for a downpayment on his home and that Gabriel was in school. Gabriel and Garrison openly expressed their discomfort over the rules and their anger toward their father, who they felt only made the rules to prevent the family from seeing each other.
Gabriel balked that he and his brother were not able to live at home and see their significant others but that Kody’s fourth wife, Robyn Brown, was allowed to have an unrelated nanny coming into their home. Since Robyn’s addition to the family, it has often been felt by fans and family members that Kody favored his outspoken youngest wife. The tension around this issue finally exploded as the pandemic hit and Kody stopped splitting his time between his other wives’ homes, as was his custom pre-COVID, and began spending the majority of his time at Robyn’s home. While Robyn admitted that was the perceived dream of plural marriage, she revealed that it was actually negatively affecting her and Kody’s relationship.
When finally pushed for the reasoning behind his spending so much time with Robyn, Kody had explained that Robyn and her home were the only ones following his restrictions. Kody then provided the family a typed-out list of the protocols he and Robyn’s home followed. He explained that for the family to get together for the upcoming holidays, all members of the home would have to follow them.
Gabriel and Garrison’s mother Janelle was shocked by the stringent guidelines, which she felt were overly restrictive. Both Janelle and her sister-wife, Christine Brown, admitted their homes would not be able to follow them. Last week’s episode revealed that the Brown family split for Thanksgiving as Christine and her family went off to visit one of her adult children, Janelle and her family stayed home alone, and Meri joined Kody and Robyn at their home for Thanksgiving.
It was certainly a far cry from the old days when the family would have up to 80 people total for Thanksgiving dinner and festivities. This sad scene of the family all in different places for Thanksgiving made the fans and family alike wonder if the Browns will make it to another holiday as a family. Or, will this be the breaking point between Kody and his sons and the Brown family as a whole? Judging from the clip for the upcoming episode, it is certainly up in the air for America’s favorite plural family.