The fabric of the polygamous Brown family irrevocably changed in 2014 when Kody legally divorced his first wife Meri Brown to marry his fourth wife Robyn so he could legally adopt her children from her previous marriage.
At the time, they stated that the change of legal marriage meant nothing because they were all celestially married. It did mean something symbolically to Meri, however, who struggled with difficult feelings after the divorce and soon sought companionship outside the marriage with her catfishing scandal. To many fans of the show, it looked like maybe the legal marriage meant more to Robyn and Kody as well because they left on a romantic vacation to Hawaii soon after their legal nuptials. Many viewers of Sister Wives refer to this as Robyn’s “second honeymoon.”
This “second” honeymoon was not filmed for the show, but Robyn confirmed its experience during a 2015 Twitter Q&A. She insists, however, that the trip was a birthday present for herself that she paid for by saving up her “grocery money.” In fact, the trip actually took place in October, before her legal marriage to Kody.
In the Q&A, which is preserved by The Ashley’s Reality Roundup, Robyn pointed out that the other wives have gone on private trips with Kody that were not filmed for the show. “Well if we are going to be COMPLETELY fair…I never got to go to Mexico and neither did the kids,” Robyn said, referring to the trip Kody took with Meri for their 20th anniversary, which was shown on the very first season of Sister Wives, which aired in 2010.
Before Kody’s legal marriage to Robyn, which aired on Season 9 in 2015 and occurred in December 2014, Kody says he wanted the change of legal marriage to be nothing more than a “shuffle of legal documents” because he said the entire process was just about adopting the kids. Robyn and Kody still consider their anniversary date to be the date of their spiritual wedding, not their legal wedding.
Still, the family debated whether or not the entire family should attend or if they should throw a party. Meri even suggested that they hire a little person Elvis to marry them. Ultimately, Robyn and Kody decided to not invite anyone to their courthouse wedding and to make as small of a deal of it as possible.
Even though they made efforts to treat the divorce and marriage as only a list of tasks to check off for the ultimate goal of adopting Dayton, Aurora, and Breanna, after news of the divorce became public, Meri has said that she experienced a lot of unexpected feelings. Furthermore, the online positive sentiment towards her potentially leaving Kody swayed her to be open to the idea and to seek companionship outside of her family structure, which led to her being catfished.
Around the time she was talking romantically to the person who turned out to be a woman rather than a man, Meri asked Kody to stop coming around her house. As he joked in a recent Season 15 episode, he never really came back after that. Even though at times they have made gestures to work on their relationship, Kody has made it clear in the past few years that he is completely done with a relationship with Meri.
Meri, however, still wants to be a part of the family and holds out hope that Kody will rekindle his relationship with her. She also made waves in the Season 15 finale when she comforted Christine during a difficult time and gave her a pep talk to not leave despite the fact that Christine was in despair over her marriage to Kody, and it might be a better option for her to consider leaving.
Although this trip to Hawaii in 2014 was not an actual “honeymoon” to celebrate her legal marriage to Kody, Robyn’s honeymoon with Kody after their spiritual marriage in 2010 was an anomaly for the family, inspiring some questions and jealousy from the other wives. They traveled to San Diego, California, for 11 days, where they surfed, went on a safari, and did other fun things. It was filmed by TLC for the show, so it was probably funded from the show’s budget, but it definitely set Robyn apart from what the rest of the wives experienced in their marriages to Kody. The other wives went on short road trips with Kody to celebrate their new spiritual union.
