The exes open up about their legal divorce, Robyn denies "planting" the idea Kody should legally marry her instead – before Meri's catfishing scandal comes up ... again!
When it comes to what led to then end of their marriage, Meri and Kody Brown have different takes.
On Sunday's all-new Sister Wives, the exes looked back on their legal divorce, and how the dynamic of their relationship changed after Meri cleared the way for Kody to marry fourth wife, Robyn Brown, and adopt her children.
"When Kody and I got the legal divorce, it was something that we had talked about together for years," Meri explained in a confessional. "But at the time that it actually happened, I was the one who made that move and went to go talk to the lawyer first because I was just in a place of let's just do it, let's just rip the Band-Aid off, let's just get it done."
Meri said she initially thought that if they were able to wait until her relationship with Kody was stronger, she'd feel more confident about legally divorcing the Brown family patriarch -- but saw soon after he married Robyn that things began to change.
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View Story"I kept thinking, if we can wait until our relationship is stronger, then I'll feel better about doing it and I'll feel more confident and I'll feel more secure in our relationship," she shared. "But that was never going to happen, obviously. It was within six months that he quit coming around the full thing there too."
Kody, meanwhile, looked at it more from the legal angle, telling viewers it was Meri who came to him and encouraged him to sign the paperwork and marry Robyn.
"Meri came to me saying we need to just do this divorce on paper so that you can adopt Robin's kids. In my mind, we were just shuffling a legal paperwork," Kody said in a confessional. "Meri and I, after that divorce, left Robyn and went to dinner together. I gave her a special ring and we probably went home and made love."
He continued, "I mean, I'm just like going, 'We're not breaking this up.'"
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View StoryHearing about Kody's version of events, Meri called it "disgusting" that her ex would bring up a "potentially intimate moment" like that between them on television.
"I think it's kind of disgusting that he would bring up a potentially intimate moment with somebody that he's divorced from, because I can guaran-damn-tee you that he would never talk about those moments in this setting with his wife," Meri said, referencing the different way he treats his relationship with Robyn.
Meri did note, however, that she and Kody were not in that "kind of relationship" at that time where they would be getting intimate anyway.
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View Story"I never felt like that legal divorce did anything to us," Kody remarked.
"Meri volunteered it, but for some reason it still had an emotional impact on her because shortly after was when she went through the catfish experience," he added, referencing a 2015 incident in which Meri was duped by someone she was chatting to online.
"By the time the catfishing situation happened, mine and Kody's relationship was really almost non existent," Meri explained, attempting to set the record straight. "I remember after the legal divorce thinking, 'Oh, he's nice. This was the thing that I needed to do.' He was really kind and he was present in our relationship for a month or so, and then you just can't keep up a facade for too long."
"The catfishing situation didn't even begin for maybe 8 months after the legal divorce," she added.
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View StoryAs for Kody's other sister wives, they all expressed concerns about Meri divorcing Kody and Robyn entering the fold, with Janelle Brown telling viewers she was speechless over the move.
"I was actually sort of speechless when she told us that she was actually doing it, because I thought, 'Meri would never do this,'" Janelle said in a confessional. "I already had started to see that there was a little bit of favoritism for Robyn from Kody at that point, and I did worry."
Christine Brown, meanwhile, said she believes Robyn "planted" the idea of Meri divorcing Kody so that Kody could adopt her kids early on after meeting the Brown clan.
"So when Robyn first came into the family, she started talking to us about these other families where the first wife divorced the husband so he could marry the second wife legally and legally adopt the kids," Christine began. "And I remember thinking, 'Yeah, that's a plant.' And she mentioned that several times through the years, like she was putting that in there because she would have loved that to happen."
"I don't think Meri felt like it was planted. I think Meri felt like it was her own idea," she added.
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View StoryRobyn, meanwhile, shut that theory down, telling viewers the idea that she "planted" anything in Meri's head "an absolute lie."
"I don't even know anyone who divorced their first wife so that the second wife could adopt kids," Robyn added. "I've never even heard of that before."
She continued, "Meri told me when she made the offer that when we were getting to know each other, she had had the idea in her head to offer to give me the legal marriage so that Kody could adopt my kids. I never even wanted to be legally married to Kody. I was actually really grateful that I wasn't going to be legally married to Kody because I'd gone through so much trauma with my legal divorce in my last marriage."
"I was very happy and content with my spiritual marriage," she added. "I didn't need anything else."
"Meri's attitude changed, where I didn't feel like mine did," Kody shared, with Meri explaining that once they were legally divorced, intimacy did fall off for the couple, contributing to the demise of their three-decade union.
See the former spouses continue to share their side of the story on Sister Wives, airing Sundays at 10:00 p.m. ET on TLC.