The melodramatic saga of Garrick and Dannielle Merrifield and their sister wife Roberta Rodrigues ended in tears. The Merrifields had returned from a trip to Roberta’s home in Brazil, where they tried to persuade her to come back with them to the United States. After they returned home, they said Roberta asked for almost $10,000. They sent the money and as soon as it cleared in the bank Roberta sent them a breakup text.
The season 4 finale of Seeking Sister Wife (episode 14) starts off with footage Dannielle recorded of herself weeping uncontrollably after she found out Roberta wasn’t coming to the United States.
“She lied,” Danielle says between sobs. “How could she? I don’t understand! She said she was my sister!”
Danielle repeats that Roberta “never loved” her as she wails and heaves. “I knew it, I knew it,” she continues.
“She doesn’t care about the princes,” she says referring to her sons with Garrick.
We then hear that at least one of the princes, Geremiah, is there with her during this breakdown and offers her some water.
“And then she asks you for more money?” Dannielle chokes out.
Why did Roberta break up with the Merrifields?
While more composed, Garrick and Dannielle sit down on their couch for an interview and Dannielle reads out a text Roberta sent her after she asked her not to leave them. In the text she says she couldn’t get over finding out that Garrick had kissed Lea, who the Merrifields had briefly dated earlier in the season.
“I promised that I would get there, even after everything on the trip. I tried. I tried a lot,” Roberta wrote them. “But I can’t feel the same as before. Everything that took me by surprise. I was left feeling excluded, feeling like nothing. It was so humiliating for me all asking how I was feeling, finding out that Garrick and Lea went beyond just conversation and dinner.”
“After that day,” Roberta continued. “I kept thinking that everything we had that was most beautiful, special, and pure has broken a piece and is hurting too much Sister. Maybe for you it may seem like something easy to go through, but here we have another culture. I’m going to pray, shower, try to get some sleep. My head is hurting a lot since yesterday. I’m sorry we’re all sad.”
Garrick is finding it hard to cope with this new turn of events. “I guess I don’t believe it,” he says. Garrick considered himself to be married to Roberta, so this breakup text has to signify a spiritual divorce for him.
Before their recent trip to Brazil, Garrick had been planning to have a child with Roberta even if she was going to stay in Brazil.
Once they met up with Roberta in person for the first time in over a year, Roberta immediately said that they should wait on having children. Later, she confronted Dannielle about whether or not she really wanted to have sister wives, and told her she wouldn’t move forward if it was hurting Dannielle.
In a later scene, Dannielle and Garrick are taking Dannielle’s stuff out of the special “Sister Room” she and Roberta were going to share.
“I got divorced for her and she won’t even come here?” Dannielle says to producers while crying again. “She won’t even face us after three-and-a-half years.”
Later, they invite their family members over to debrief them on the situation. During their talks, they share the story with their family that Roberta asked for a large amount of money from them and broke up with them for good after the money is cleared.
Dannielle claims during a sit-down interview that they have given her money every month for a while to the tune of thousands and thousands of dollars. Dannielle says that looking back they see a lot of red flags and she now suspects that Roberta was using them for money the whole time.
Dannielle’s mom said, “She scammed you guys.” Her brother Sam, who was 70-80% sure that Roberta was never coming to the United States agreed. “You’re the type of people scammers look for. People that care and want to help people and stuff,” Sam says.
Dannielle’s sister-in-law asked Garrick and Dannielle if they no longer wanted to live this lifestyle, and they immediately answered “no,” that they are not ready to give it up.
The end of the season card revealed that Garrick and Dannielle haven’t spoken with Roberta since the breakup texts, but this experience hasn’t deterred them for seeking another sister wife. They are currently talking to a new lady who lives in Brazil.
The title card says they will meet up with her in Mexico, but according to their social media they have already this Mexico trip in June 2022. At the time, we speculated that they were possibly seeing Roberta during this trip, but it must have been the new woman.
Roberta is not following the Merrifields on Twitter, but she is following an interesting account: @escapingpolygamy.
On a happier note, the other story in this episode was about Danielle’s wedding ceremony to the Davis family.
