SISTER WIVES Janelle’s money helped buy Robyn’s sprawling home

In the episode of Sister Wives airing tonight titled “The Knife in the Kidneys,” Janelle reveals some information about her financial situation in the family that great impacts her personal freedom and ability to divorce Kody if she wants to. Janelle owns no home of her own, yet she used her own money to help Robyn buy her $900,000 house.

This is a jaw dropping revelation as it reveals that Janelle has sacrificed more than realized for the sake of the family and has no safety net other than the Coyote Pass property. She vocalizes in the episode that she had not set herself up to be an independent woman.

While Christine was able to sell her house and keep the equity in exchange for the equity she had in Coyote Pass, Janelle doesn’t have that option. She currently doesn’t own any property that doesn’t have other people’s names attached.

Christine was able to legally remove Kody’s name from her house in late 2020, making it easy for her to sell her house in 2021 and keep the proceeds.

Kody has made a big deal about the fact that “family money” was used to help Christine make a down payment for her home in September 2018.

Kody has claimed on the show that he and Robyn helped pay for Christine’s house, but Janelle has clarified that “family money” supplied the down payment.

“Family money” comes from a separate account that everyone has paid into. In addition to that, all of the people in the marriages have their own separate bank accounts.

Not only was family money also used for the down payment of Robyn’s 4,400 sq ft home, but money from Janelle’s personal account was used for that purchase. Janelle says the money same from the sale of her Las Vegas, NV house.

Theoretically, Janelle should be entitled to equity in Robyn’s property if it sells, and at the very least, she deserves the money she put in back. However, Janelle made no mention of what she expects to happen financially if Robyn ever sells her house.

Instead, Janelle is interested in paying off Coyote Pass so they can realign the property lines and she can build there. “My eggs are all in this basket and I’m just moving forward,” she says during the episode.

Kody says that they currently don’t have the means to pay off the Coyote Pass property right now. He tried to get Christine to pay off the property with the money she made from sale of her house and then redistribute what she’s owed after everything’s settled.

Christine didn’t want to do that because the process was too complicated and she no longer wanted anything to do with Coyote Pass. Janelle didn’t see a problem with Christine’s decision, and has been the only sister wife to support her decision to leave and show sympathy for her point of view.

Janelle also revealed that Kody has been disinterested her housing situation since they first moved to Flagstaff.

“He was mad when I went from my first rental to my second rental, even though the second rental was much bigger,” Janelle says. “He was mad because it wasn’t as nice. But you know what? He has a house that he lives in up on a hill with Robyn and its really nice and I have nothing. So I’m trying hard to build myself something here.”

There are indicators that as of late 2022, Janelle may have already left Kody. If she has, hopefully she’s in a better situation than she was when this episode was filmed in summer 2021.