Season 18 of Sister Wives is in full bloom on TLC with new episodes dropping every Sunday at 10 p.m. ET and things are definitely a lot different this time around. The most recent episode (September 3) saw Janelle Brown and Kody Brown engage in an explosive fight that left their Christmas plans up in the air.
It was the type of fight most couples don’t come back from and that was certainly the case for Janelle and Kody, who announced their split shortly after. After spending Thanksgiving away from one another, Kody told Janelle it was best she didn’t spend Christmas at his house – putting an end to a 30-year tradition.
In a sneak peek for the September 10 episode, Janelle and four of her six children – Logan, Madison, Hunter, Garrison, Gabriel, and Savanah – spent Christmas away from Kody, who spent his Xmas with the last wife standing (Robyn Brown) and their five children – David, Aurora, Breanna, Solomon, and Ariella.
"I feel overwhelming relief, but there is a little bit of a sadness that Kody is not showing up for his kids – not Savanah,” Janelle Brown said in the sneak peek. "For the last 30 years, I've celebrated Christmas as a family. [I] miss the big Christmas. It was fun. But this feels good. This feels peaceful. This feels joyful."
She was forced to spend her Christmas in a vacation rental due to her ongoing separation from Kody – which wasn’t ideal for her and the kids, but they made the most out of it. It was certainly much different than the chaotic (in a good way) Christmas celebrations they’ve had in the past, but it was peaceful.
"I thought the Christmas we did with just mom and mom's kids was very quiet. But it was honestly, in my opinion, kind of pleasant. It was good,” said Savanah. Gabriel added, “I went into it thinking it would be a little bit hard to swallow that nobody was there," he said, "but I actually found myself enjoying it a lot."
Janelle Brown and Kody Brown announced their split in December 2022 during Season 17’s three-part ‘One-on-One’ reunion – which premiered one week before Christmas. Their split came just one year after Kody’s separation from Christine Brown and just a few weeks before his separation from Meri Brown.
Kody Brown Celebrates First Christmas Without Janelle Brown
While Janelle Brown and her children (whom she shares with Kody Brown) were in North Carolina to celebrate Christmas, Kody and Robyn Brown were with their own children in Flagstaff, Arizona. And while Kody and Robyn are apparently on good terms, she seemed a little annoyed at his present to the kids.
“Merry Christmas! The kids are up and we’re ready to start looking over – they’re going to go through their stockings,” he says at the start of the sneak peek. Robyn chimes in and reveals that Kody has a ‘crazy surprise’ for the kids this Christmas – a surprise that she’s hoping the kids lose interest in very quickly.
The surprise came in the form of scooters. “Motorized vehicles are not my thing. I’m not excited. I think they’re dangerous. I kind of wonder if Kody’s trying to compensate with these bikes – instead of the kids focusing on the fact that family isn’t all together, he’s going look, look at this,” Robyn said in the trailer.
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Robyn felt like he was compensating for what the family was missing. Of course, Kody was more than excited – alluding to the fact that they have a big property with a lot of land and he’s ready to have some fun. Don’t worry, he at least made sure the kids were equipped with helmets and goggles – safety first!
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