SISTER WIVES Did Robyn really pay for Christine’s house?

Last week on Sister Wives Kody Brown stated that the money for the down payment on Christine Brown’s former home in Flagstaff, Arizona came from money that belonged to Robyn and Kody. Did they really put money into Christine’s home, or was it family money?

During Season 17, Episode 7 Kody says “Here’s the thing with Christine and that house. Robyn and I gave her the down payment for that house. Christine couldn’t qualify for financing so I bought that house with her and it was my money that went into the house to buy the house. Yeah, she’s been making a mortgage payment, and we’ve all have been having to do that. But we had to come up with the money for the down payment. That money should go into Coyote Pass.”

Janelle has a different perspective on this. She explained in Episode 8 that “about the same amount” of “family money” was used to for the down payments of both Christine and Robyn’s houses when they relocated from Las Vegas, Nevada to Flagstaff, Arizona. Both Janelle and Meri have only rented properties since moving there.

Because of this, Janelle thinks that it’s fair for Christine to keep the equity from her house. In exchange for selling the house and keeping all of the money, Christine decided to just give Coyote Pass to the rest of the family.

Janelle says that this is a fair deal because her potential equity in Coytoe Pass at the time was about equal to her home’s equity. Kody wanted Christine to sell her house, them use the money to pay off what they still owe on Coyote Pass, and then they would redivide the proerpty and buy Christine’s portion from her. Christine didn’t want to get involved in this complicated transaction.

“This is easy,” Janelle said about Christine’s decisiont to sell her house and give them her portion of Coyote Pass. “This is a really clean transaction.” The way proposed by Kody would have been quite messy.

Janelle’s perspective makes sense, and pokes a hole in Kody’s claim that Christine used Robyn and Kody’s money to buy her house. The money technically belonged to all five of the adults involved in this marriage combined. In Episode 8 Kody even states that the “whole family came in to help her buy the house,” which contradicts his claims in Episode 7 that the money put into Christine’s house was only his and Robyn’s.

Kody did have his name on Christine’s house when they purchased it for $520,000 in 2018. In late 2020, before Christine told Kody she was divorcing him, Kody’s name was removed from the property.

Because he was not legally married to Christine and did not have his name on her house, Kody technically had no claim on the money she made from the sale of her home in September 2021.

What is family money?

Since the first few years of Kody, Meri and Janelle’s marriage each member of the Brown family has had their own separate bank account along with a bank account for “family money.”

It’s presumed that for most of their run on TLC’s Sister Wives the money they’re paid by the production company goes into the “family money,” but the money they earn on their own, like with Meri’s B&B and MLM Meri, Christine, and Janelle are involved in like Plexus and LulaRoe. Kody also makes his own money selling guns.