#SisterWives All About Meri Brown! Five Must-Knows About Wife #1

Meri Brown has landed in our Sister Wives spotlight, after taking shelter in her wet bar for a few weeks. It’s time to take a closer look at our white-stitched matriarch, and get to know her a little better. I actually blew $4,  and bought a used copy of “Becoming Sister Wives,” a questionable investment, but a plethora of info. 

Meri Barber Brown was born on January 16, 1971, to William and Bonnie Barber. She married Kody Brown at the age of 19, becoming his first, and longtime legal wife. The couple shares one child, a college aged daughter, named Mariah. Let’s look back, and relive a little of the love story that started it all.  This video was posted four years ago…what a difference a few years make! 

5 Must-Knows for Meri Brown Champions

1. Meri comes from a polygamist home. When Meri was five, her father took his second wife, at the urging of Meri’s mother.  The first attempt was a woman who only lasted two years, and produced no children. When Meri was ten, her father married another woman, and eventually three more, which produced a total of twenty eight kids. Meri was painfully shy as a child, and credits Kody for coaxing her out of her nerdy shell. She describes their courtship and early marriage as a ride straight from the dreamiest of romantic movies. Kody was the first guy who ever noticed that she was alive, which further explains why Mare was such tasty bait, to an internet batfish.

2. Meri was so chomping at the bit for a sister-wife, that she and Kody “entered into a courtship” with a hot prospect, during their first year of marriage. The girl wised up and bailed, which made Meri feel personally betrayed. Two years later, Janelle joined the duo, but the road was rough, right from the start. The first sign of trouble was when Janelle and Kody planned their wedding on Meri’s birthday! During their first year of  togetherness, Janelle was introduced in public as Kody’s sister, not his wife. It was only a little white fib, because by this time, Janelle’s mom had “married” Kody’s father.

3. Janelle and Christine both got pregnant before Kody and Meri managed to conceive, five years into their marriage. Mare became pregnant with Mariah when Christine was four months pregnant with her first child. Meri considered Mariah a miracle baby, and expressed a weak concern that her marvel may steal Christine’s knocked-up thunder. Mare was never able to have more children, and struggled with being the obvious problem, since little Kodys were popping up all over the place.

4. Meri encouraged a courtship with Robyn, during the weakest point of her and Kody’s marriage. She described their relationship as a “vicious cycle,” which forced them to deal with “hurt, rejection, anger and sadness.” Meri credits marriage counseling between her and Kody, her and Robyn, her, Kody and Robyn, and Robyn by herself, for landing them in the state of bliss that they share today…or rather 2012, when this book was published.

5. We all know what happened next. Meri and Kodes legally split, Robyn grabbed the brass fertility ring, and Mare fell for a manly woman in Oklahoma. Mare’s whining voice, faded denim poses, and mouthy closeups humiliated her in front of America. Polygamy was exposed as a bust, but TLC renewed the series anyway. Thanks Sam!

This first clip gives us a plucky look at Meri’s sister-wife obsession.

I couldn’t resist taking a look back at a date night, when Kody styled his hair like Mare’s crush, Keith Urban.

Take a look back at where it all began.

A recently seen one, but a goodie, and a great shot of Mare’s fugly cry.

Mare’s fashion has always jumped around, creating layering madness, and more recently, spicy dotted denim.  Enjoy the fashion slide show of Mare’s most memorable style statements!      

What are your favorite and most horrifying Wife #1 memories?   

 

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