For years, Kody Brown's first three wives have suggested that he has a favorite — fourth wife Robyn Brown.
In a new "Sister Wives: One on One" special, Janelle, Christine and Meri Brown open up about whether Robyn Brown can "speak Kody" and understand him better than they do.
Meri Brown sets the stage in an exclusive clip shared with TODAY.com, telling host Sukanya Krishnan about a scenario where she asked Robyn Brown to be present while she conducted a difficult conversation with Kody Brown.
“Wow. Why did you ask her?” Krishnan asks.
"Because she speaks Kody," Meri Brown replies.
The scene then shifts to a conversation between Robyn Brown and Krishnan, who asks for her take on the matter.
"Do you think you’d speak Kody? Do you think you get Kody?" she asks.
"I think I get Kody pretty well. I feel like I understand him, yeah," Robyn Brown replies.
The host is curious to know if Robyn Brown thinks Kody Brown’s three ex-wives understand him in the same way.
“I think they have the capacity to. I think sometimes he could be misunderstood very easily because he says everything that’s in his head. Most people filter it. He doesn’t. But I think that it’s hard for other people to understand," Robyn Brown said.
Christine Brown, who was married to Kody Brown for 26 years before calling it quits in 2021, has a different take, saying she understands her ex-husband just as well as any other sister wife.
"Robyn says that she can speak Kody, and I’m like, 'Bull----," Christine Brown says, before reigning it in and saying, "OK, sorry. I’m gonna be nice."
Then, she changes her mind. "No, I’m not. I have known Kody for, I met him when I was 18. What, 32 years ago? I’ve known Kody for a long time, and I can actually read Kody pretty well. And I can speak Kody well, too," the mother of six says.
Christine Brown, who recently remarried, says Robyn Brown often tried to intervene in Kody Brown's other marriages.
"Robyn convinced all of us that she could speak Kody and that she would mediate our relationships. I even asked her one time to mediate our relationship. And I remember going (to myself), 'No, no, no, no, girl, you know him. You can talk to him yourself. You’re just fine,'" she explains. "She convinced all of us that she needed to be there in the relationship, that she can speak Kody, and we can’t."
Janelle Brown, Kody Brown's second wife who announced their split in December 2022, laughs when asked about Robyn Brown's ability to "speak Kody."
Janelle Brown says she never appreciated Robyn Brown's attempts to mediate when issues arose.
"I’m like, 'Well, I don’t know if I really need someone to translate for me. We’ve been married a long time. We did OK without you,'" she says. "I think I speak Kody."
She also says that Robyn Brown has tried to intervene in Kody Brown's relationships with his children.
"She likes to position herself as like, ‘I speak Kody.’ She says that to my children. (In the past) she said, 'Why don’t you have a conversation with your dad? I’ll be there because, you know, I speak Kody.' And my kids are like, 'It’s our dad. We don’t really need you to speak Kody,'" she says.
Janelle Brown says Robyn Brown's tendency to interfere has always "bugged" her.
"That does bug me. That one does bug me. 'I speak Kody.' Well, Kody can speak for himself. He’s a grown a-- man," she says.
Janelle, Meri and Christine Brown ended their marriages to Kody Brown between 2021 and 2022, leaving Robyn Brown his sole remaining wife.
Earlier in the special, Kody Brown said Robyn Brown was the only wife he had fallen "in love" with. He thinks that dynamic led to the family's "unraveling."