How Kody, Meri & Christine Brown Worked The System?

Christine Brown has openly admitted Truely’s kidney problems as a toddler left her in an exorbitant amount of debt. Getting insurance, in a plural family, is not the easiest thing and it is seemingly left up to the mother. For Ysabel’s scoliosis surgery, Christine commented she was waiting for the insurance to kick in. Sister Wives fans were taken aback that the kids might not have coverage or that they would have to worry. The wives may be much more stable now, enough to leave Kody if they want, it was not always that way. There was a point in time when they heavily relied on each other. In fact, the family was in such bad shape financially, they were doing and saying whatever they could to get by.

Christine Brown Runs The Household, Kody And Meri Go Broke?

One of the best things Christine brought to the family was her homemaker side. She kept the home and tended to the children. As for the other two original wives, Meri had a part-time job while Janelle was admittedly a workhorse. Kody was always into something though no one was really ever certain what it was. He was all about making babies and moving. They had a well-oiled machine and never had to worry about subjecting their children to any scrutiny. The Brown babies either went to polygamist schools or were homeschooled. Then, in 2005, Kody and Meri realized their lifestyle was too much to handle. So, they filed for bankruptcy.

Janelle had just given birth to Savanah a few months prior. In the documents, obtained by RadarOnline, the couple owed creditors $229,873.49 with around half of that in mortgages. There was approximately 40K in credit card debt and 7K in car loans. They also amassed close to 3K at Sears and 8K at The Home Depot. Allegedly, Kody and Meri had ten dollars in cash and five dollars in their joint account. As for work, Kody was working as a salesman for a Montana sign shop making 4K/month. Meri was making $625/month working for engravers. Yet the mortgage was on a Wyoming home.

Ultimately, over two years later, they were ordered to pay $187,885.74 in fees and such. To add to all of this, Kody and Meri allegedly claimed Janelle’s six children in their bankruptcy. This made it appear as though they had six children, not just one. It was not fair to Janelle who was always consistently financially contributing to the family. Sadly, their troubles were not over and this time, it was going to involve the other two wives.

Wait…There’s More

Speaking of Janelle, she filed for bankruptcy in 1997, just four years after joining the family. Not much is known about her status however Christine Brown was also not exempt from the Brown Bankruptcy Curse. She actually filed in 2010, the same year Sister Wives premiered, according to The Hollywood Gossip. Though she had a “companion” listed who contributed $1200/month, she filed as single. In the end, she was forgiven of roughly 25K in debt. No one knew she was actually married in a sense and her TLC income may have been listed under Kody’s name.

Due to always appearing “single,” Janelle and Christine were afforded more than they may have deserved. As for Meri, she and Kody seemed to owe less to the government. Did claiming an extra six children help? Maybe. Though it appeared they had everything made when the series premiered, it was not the case behind closed doors. Meri had just been laid off from her job leaving Janelle and Kody as the sole providers.

They were about to invite a fourth wife into the home who was said to have her own debt. Furthermore, all the wives were or had been on food stamps and government assistance. Now, Meri is treating Christine horribly since she left the family, publicly mocking her cooking show. There was virtually no relationship between Janelle and Meri by the time the pandemic hit. After all they had been through and survived, it’s a shame to see it collapse like this.

Are you surprised they were in such financial ruins prior to starting the show? Was it right to act like life was perfect when they were filing for bankruptcy and on assistance?

Amanda has been a professional freelance writer for over a decade. She holds a BA in politics and an MA in Communications. Her passions include music, animals, Disney, iced coffee, summer, and bad reality TV, especially Housewives and Vanderpump Rules.

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