Sister Wives Star Kody Brown Makes On-Air Plea to 'Estranged' Sons Gabe and Garrison

The polygamist patriarch's Covid protocols drove a wedge between him and most of his family this past season, as he isolated with wife Robyn and their children together while seeing less and less of his other kids or wives. Things got especially bad with son Gabe, who Kody essentially made choose between spending time with his girlfriend or the rest of the family. Gabriel even broke down in tears at one point as he detailed "the last time I ever talked to my dad."

The boys' mother Janelle was asked about the protocols during the reunion special -- during which the four wives and Kody were interviewed separately -- and said the "boys feel just as rejected" by the situation as the women did. After saying Kody gave the two sons an "ultimatum" to apologize to both him and Robyn, she said Kody himself has "not made any effort" to meet in the middle. "He still is acting like they need to come to him," she added.

Kody, in his own interview, stood by his stance.

"If one of my little children had to die because someone had to get his pencil wet, that made me so mad," he exclaimed. "Do you understand? If one of my children die, how hard it would be to ever forgive the guy who was bringing it home to us."

"Now with those two boys, I'm estranged from them, I can't even have conversations with them anymore. That's very sad," he continued, before delivering a message straight into camera. "Boys, I'm sorry. I was trying to protect my family. Next time, I'd manage it differently and I'm sorry."

Later in the hour, Kody was asked if he thought making amends with the boys would help him heal his fractured relationship with Janelle -- from whom he's "separated."

"Yeah, we could probably reconcile. But you have to understand, this is how plural marriage is a real struggle, if I have a relationship with a wife where I have deep trust and we get along really well, that's because that relationship communicated and worked on things and did the right things in the relationship," he answered.

"Robyn brought her kids who were in our home with two adults, ages of Garrison and Gabriel, into full compliance on our Covid agreement. And when they didn't, they got to be out of the home," Kody continued. "That right there is just an expression of how respect was given."