Here’s Why ‘Sister Wives’ Star Kody Brown Is Glad He Didn’t Expand Family With Meri Brown

Despite being a father to multiple kids, polygamist Kody Brown is "glad" he didn't have more kids with now ex-wife Meri Brown. During Sister Wives: Look Back special on Sunday, December 24, 2023, the Brown family patriarch reflected on his challenges with Meri, including their marital and fertility issues. 

Unlike his marriages with other wives, Christine, Janelle, and Robyn, Kody had just one child, a 25-year-old son named Leon Brown, with Meri. The Look Back segment showed the 52-year-old going through medical treatments to have a second baby but failing to do so, per PEOPLE. 

In a clip from 2012, Meri was visibly frustrated with the idea of another round of IVF. "It just freaks me out to go through that again. I want to have another baby. I would love that," she said in the flashback, and her husband, Kody, nodded in affirmation, saying, "When we're dying, when we're 110, we'll look back, and we'll be glad we did the IVF."

However, now, Kody reminisced the time and expressed gratitude they didn't expand their family. He explained, "During that time, it was more realization that our marriage is not really healthy." He backed his statement with another reason, saying it more firmly this time, emphasizing he meant every word that has been said. 

"Retrospectively, I'm really glad we didn't have more children," Kody asserted. "It wouldn't have been good for the child because Meri and I weren't healthy then." Meanwhile, Meri reflected, "I really wanted to have more than just one." She also pointed out it took five years for her to conceive, "Kody and I were in a slightly tumultuous time."

Kody is the proud father of eighteen kids and six grandkids. With his first wife Christine, he gave birth to six children- five daughters named 27-year-old Aspyn, 26-year-old Mykelti, 21-year-old Gwendlyn, 19-year-old Ysabel, and a 24-year-old son Paedon.

He also has six kids with his second wife, Janelle- 28-year-old Logaan, 27-year-old Maddie, 25-year-old Hunter, 24-year-old Garrison and Gabriel and 18-year-old Savannah. Meanwhile, Kody and Robyn are parents to 6-year-old Ariella and 11-year-old Solomon, and the older three are his stepkids- 18-year-old Breanna, 20-year-old Aurora, and 22-year-old Dayton. 

But the Brown family had a fallout when Christine decided to exit the plural marriage, followed by Janelle and then Meri, who all claimed and blamed the fourth wife, Robyn, for their distance from Kody. They all have alleged after Robyn joined the family, the patriarch ignored the rest of them. 

Kody reflected on his failed marriages and said in a confessional, "We might have been more successful had we been in different homes with the kids growing up like they were cousins," per E! News. "What has happened with our family is very sad to me."