Credit: Instagram
Janelle Brown announced her new boyfriend, four years after telling the world that she was leaving her husband Kody Brown. Janelle and Kody, who share six children, have starred on TLC’s Sister Wives since 2010.
Janelle had a spiritual marriage with Kody in 1993, as he was still legally and spiritually married to his first wife, Meri Brown. In 2021, Kody’s third wife, Christine Brown, left him, and then Janelle left him a year later. After Meri ended her own marriage with him the next year, Robyn Brown became his only remaining wife.
In an August 18 Instagram post, Janelle introduced the world to her new boyfriend.
“Some chapters are meant to unfold quietly before they’re shared,” she wrote in the caption of a photo of herself embracing Pete near a creek. “I wasn’t looking. I certainly wasn’t expecting you. And somehow, you turned out to be exactly what I didn’t know I needed. And it has been pretty wonderful.”
“Everyone please meet Pete,” she ended the announcement. Her post received over half a million likes.
In a reunion episode in 2023, Janelle shared her feelings about leaving Kody.
“I deeply believe in my faith,” Janelle expressed. “I have been so much at peace that I don’t know how to reconcile that. So that’s where my debate with myself is all the time because I know I’m happy. I don’t want him to come back, but my faith requires that we are married eternally.”
A year later, she told PEOPLE, “Because we never were legally married, I can’t really say I’m divorced. I just say ‘I’m no longer with’ [him] when I explain it to outside people. I’m like, ‘I’m no longer with my partner.’”
Last year, Janelle said she wasn’t interested in dating.
“My marriage is over. I don’t know what I’m gonna do,” she stated on Sibling Revelry. “I’m not really interested in getting married again or even really dating at this stage. So I’m not even thinking about, like, ‘Oh, what do I need to do?’ Because I’m just like, I am over [it].”
On the latest season of the show, Janelle shared that her church granted her a “spiritual release” from her marriage to Kody.
“I have it,” said the star at the time as she held up the release document. “That was easy. I thought I was going to have to come back for a second meeting. I am free. I am free. I am free. I am free.”