‘Sister Wives’: Meri Brown Overcomes Yet Another Hurdle [Video]

It has not been the best year for Sister Wives reality TV star Meri Brown. Once the matriarch of a large family encompassing one husband, four sister wives, and countless children, it seems Meri has been relegated to the sidelines recently. Her only child left home for college, she traded a legal marriage for a spiritual one to benefit one of the other sister wives, and now an embarrassing mistake she made is making headlines.

The more anger towards the past you carry in your heart, the less capable you are of loving in the present.

— Quotes Village (@QuotesVilllage) September 22, 2015

Meri Brown was the only one of the sister wives legally married to husband Kody, as she was his first wife. Subsequent sister wives Janelle, Christine, and Robyn are involved in a spiritual marriage with Kody. While he has the freedom to float between the bedrooms of his four wives, they have each pledged to be faithful to their husband.

According to the Day Herald, it was originally Meri’s idea to divorce Kody so he could legally marry fourth and youngest sister wife, Robyn, who was involved in an intense custody battle over her three children from a previous marriage. Meri expected her sacrifice to benefit Robyn’s children, giving her the legal marriage she needed to win the custody battle. Apparently Meri did not realize how emotional the transition from legal wife to spiritual wife would be. She had been married to Kody for 25 years when the decision was made to divorce.

Meri Brown has always been my favorite of the Sister Wives crew. I admire her positive spirit in the midst of heartbreak, and the way she supports all her sister wives and their children. Meri herself has only one child, Mariah, with husband Kody. Though the couple tried over the years for more children, they were blessed only with Mariah. While Brown wished for more children, she was watching the other sister wives give birth over and over again. Though it must have been heartbreaking for her, she nevertheless supported each of the wives and babies, and loved them all as her own.

It’s all about the kids. Not sure how that can’t be understood. They are what’s important.

— Meri Brown (@MeriBrown1) September 21, 2015

When Mariah returned to Utah to go to college, Meri was left with an empty nest. She considered trying infertility treatments but ultimately decided not to go through with it. She took to Twitter to address several issues, one being negative comments that Kody would not allow her to try infertility treatments to conceive another child, reports the International Business Times.

“I CHOOSE not to try to have another child. If my body really could do it, it probably would have done it many times over by now anyway. My not having more than one child has NOTHING to do with Kody saying no.”

My recent thoughts… (3 of 3) pic.twitter.com/LCPcD8Ol2g

— Meri Brown (@MeriBrown1) September 6, 2015

After dealing with her daughter growing up and moving from home, a divorce after 25 years of marriage, and the stress of trying to conceive the past two decades, it is quite easy to understand why this Sister Wives star found herself involved in an “emotional affair” with someone online. Unfortunately for Meri, the person she believed to be a gentle and upstanding man turned out to be a woman.

To top off everything else, the fact that she was catfished by a woman must be humiliation piled on top of hurt. My heart goes out to her.

And really, calling the incident an affair is a bit harsh. The Sister Wives star never met her online paramour. Perhaps she just needed someone to listen.

What do you think about this Sister Wives scandal? Did Meri Brown have an affair?

[Image credit: Ethan Miller/Getty Images]