Sister Wives: Kody Brown’s Spiritual Union With His Wives

Any viewer of Sister Wives will have wondered at some point how a polygamous arrangement can be legal. To explain, it is not. Polygamy is illegal in all 50 states of the United States. The question then arises, why is the Brown family allowed to do this? And the answer lies in Kody Brown’s spiritual beliefs. Aside from the internal conflicts and drama the family faces from time to time, this time they may have run into a serious problem.

This plural family could be facing legal charges for the polygamous arrangement they live in. The legality of their family arrangement has come under the radar before. But this time they could all end up in court.

In 2014, Meri divorced Brown from Kody so that she could marry Robyn and have him join her family. It was then that they finally legalised their plural marriage. But the show had been on air since 2010. At the time, Kody and Meri Brown were living with their sister-in-law in Utah. Utah police kept an eye on the family because bigamy was illegal in that state.

Due to constant interrogations and investigations, the family finally decided to leave Utah and move to Las Vegas. Later, CNN reported that Kody sued the Utah County Prosecutor’s Office over the threats and the bigamy law. And so, the attorney dissolved the cohabitation, living without marriage, but still maintained the bigamy ban.

The Browns then went to the Supreme Court in 2016 to claim their right to polygamy. But the court rejected their appeal. The family considered this a gross injustice to people like them.

Sister Wives: Kody Brown’s Spiritual Union With His Wives

The answer to how Kody Brown has managed to marry three different women despite one legal marriage is a spiritual belief. This means that only Robyn is Kody’s legal wife. And Meri Brown, Janelle Brown and Christine Brown are his spiritual wives. The man believes in the fundamentalist Mormon principles that preach polygamy to men.

The family also believes that God wants men to be polygamous and to marry more than one woman, but not otherwise. As well as that women must be compulsorily monogamous.

They also tend to believe that their founder Joseph Smith also had a plural family. Under this arrangement, a man is allowed to marry more than one wife. But a woman is not allowed to have another husband. This is also why Meri won’t leave Kody after all the troubles she faces.