A tough time. For the last two seasons of Sister Wives, Kody Brown‘s marriage struggles with Meri Brown have been in the spotlight — and they’re finally coming to a head.
During the Sunday, February 28, episode, the pair reveal that although they’re going to therapy, their relationship is not at all where it should be.
“My relationship with Meri is — at best — just distant and amicable,” Kody, 52, says in Us Weekly‘s exclusive sneak peek. In a flashback to a therapy session two months prior, Meri, 50, tells the doctor, “The relationship between he and I, it’s gone. It’s dead. It’s over.”
While Kody admits that he could “be tough” about the entire thing, he’s “not interested” in doing that.
“For all my marriage with Meri, I felt like she unloads her emotions into a burden that I’m supposed to carry,” he explains. “I’m not carrying this burden, because there’s no reason that I should. I haven’t put effort into that relationship specifically because I have three other relationships that are rewarding and wholesome with children that need me [and] need to see me.”
Kody, who shares a total of 18 children with wives Meri, Christine, Janelle and Robyn Brown, however, will need to make a move in order for Meri to make any changes.
“I’m really careful about pushing Kody, because I don’t want him to feel like I’m being demanding or pushy or anything like that,” she shares in the clip. “I feel like I’ve made it known to him enough where I want the relationship to go, as far as just moving forward. It’s best to leave the ball in his court.”
Despite being married since 1990, Kody says that it’s clear both are checked out.
“Neither of us see real value in the relationship because if Meri and really wanted to be together, we would,” he notes.
On Friday, February 26, Kody opened up to Us about where he stands with Meri and their rocky relationship through the years.
“Meri and I have been in a very dark place for a very long time. It’s been more about trying to get ourselves out of this hole that we dug ourselves into,” he shared. “I hope time heals things. I hope that some communication heals things. It’s been a long time and it’s been very difficult.”
That said, Kody notes he doesn’t feel that he has “the right” to say the relationship is over, since they’re in a plural marriage.
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“I have dominion over my own body and where I’m at but I’m not in a place where, like, I can say, ‘Hey, I’m divorcing you.’ I can’t do that. However, any one of them, I feel like, can,” he explained to Us. “I feel like they need to understand that — that they can leave. If it’s not working for them, they can leave. Nobody’s going to be a prisoner here. … On its face, plural marriage is a double standard in some senses. There’s other double standards that we have in the family that we sort of tolerate. And that other double standard is I don’t get to leave, but they can.”
Sister Wives airs on TLC Sundays at 10 p.m. ET.
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