TLC stars Meri, 51, and Kody, 53, originally married in April 1990, before legally divorcing in 2014 but remaining “spiritually” together. However, it was recently confirmed that their spiritual marriage is also over.
The couple, who are part of a plural marriage, got divorced to enable Kody to legally marry Robyn Brown and adopt her children from a previous marriage. Their sister wives Janelle Brown and Christine Brown “spiritually” married Kody in 1993 and 1994, respectively.
Meri, who shares one child with Kody, recently confirmed on television that her and Kody’s long-term relationship is over following several years of living as non-romantic partners.
On Monday, Meri took to Instagram to share a number of cryptic messages with her 806,000 followers.
In one story, the TLC star posted some words of wisdom over a plain white background. The text read: “I’ve learned that two people can look at the exact same thing and see something totally different.”
Later, in a separate but similar post, Meri wrote, “to judge others is human. To keep your opinions about others to yourself is having class,” over a picturesque shot of a frosty riverbank, with trees and sunrise in the background.
Replies to Meri’s Instagram stories are private, but fans have been showing the Sister Wives star support on some of her recent posts to her main feed.
Under a recent selfie, which Meri captioned with a lengthy statement saying “thank you to 2022,” fans rushed to wish her well and applaud her for branching out from her relationship with Kody.
“So glad you found your peace! You radiate happiness!” wrote one fan, while another said: “I’m so happy for you to start a new life and be happy. You deserve it! Happy new year!”
“You look amazing. I think clarity has given you peace and it shows all over you. The stress in your face is gone. May the Lord bless you and bring you an easy, happy path going forward,” gushed another of Meri’s followers.
News of Meri and Kody’s split, while somewhat anticipated by fans, was officially confirmed during the first of three tell-all specials that aired at the end of the most recent season, season 17, of Sister Wives.
The long-running series normally concludes with Kody and his wives sitting down together to go over the events of the season, but in recent years host Sukanya Krishnan has conducted individual interviews with the cast.
In her one-on-one with Krishnan, the first part of which aired on TLC on December 18, Meri was shown a clip of Kody saying he doesn’t consider himself married to her anymore.
“If she wanted to move on and marry another, she wouldn’t get an argument with me,” he told cameras in a confessional interview.
The admission seemed to come as a shock to Meri, who said: “I’ve never heard him say that to me,” before revealing that Kody had “led [her] to believe that he was trying” to work on the relationship.
Meri then said that she was extra surprised as she had previously suggested to Kody that they should officially split but he declined, saying he didn’t “want that judgment.”
Krishnan then asked Meri: “Where does that leave you? Are you still married to Kody? Or, do you get to decide?” to which she responded: “Well, he’s already made the decision. You just saw him say that.”
Meri is the third wife to end their relationship with Kody in the last 14 months, as Christine, 50, announced her split from Kody on Instagram in November 2021, and Janelle, 53, confirmed she had also left the plural marriage in the same tell-all episode as Meri’s break up news.
Kody remains married to his legal wife Robyn, who he shares five children with, two of which are from her first marriage. He has 13 other kids: one with Meri, six with Janelle, and six with Christine.
The final part of the Sister Wives Season 17 tell-all episode will air on TLC on January 8 at 10 p.m. ET. Previous seasons of Sister Wives are available to stream on discovery+.
