Sister Wives star Meri Brown came in on the ground floor with Kody Brown when building the polygamous family featured on the TLC series. She was there from day one as potential wives came into their scope.

When Janelle Brown became the first wife added to their marriage, she took them from monogamy to polygamy overnight. But Meri reveals Janelle did something to rub her the wrong way from the get-go, which might help to explain their cordial at best relationship on the show.

Sister Wives: Meri Brown Reveals She Couldn’t Handle a Gushing Wife

Meri Brown knew Janelle Brown as her sister-in-law, married to her brother before divorcing him. Then Janelle married Kody and joined what would become the Sister Wives family. Janelle surprised Meri when she approached Kody about joining the family as his second wife.

Janelle and Kody already shared a friendship at that time. So, Meri describes how they built their relationship on a cerebral level instead of romance. And… this became a bonus for Meri.

At the time, Kody and Meri were extremely romantic with each other, so Meri didn’t know how she could handle sharing him with a new wife.

Because the new wife was more like a buddy to Kody Brown, this made things easier. Meri didn’t have to look at a newly-wed wife gushing over her new husband. But then Kody and Janelle did something that crushed Meri Brown.

Kody Brown was Oblivious to Meri’s Pain…

The five spouses from the Sister Wives series wrote a book about how they all came together to make the family we see on the screen. In this book, Meri Brown points out that Kody Brown and his new wife, Janelle Brown, planned their wedding day on her birthday.

Many people wouldn’t care about this, but birthdays are a big deal for the Sister Wives matriarch. So, she felt hurt. Then Kody’s mother intervened and they changed the date. But the damage was done for Meri, who couldn’t get over how uncaring this move was, coming from her soon-to-be-sister-wife.

Sure, she became peeved at Kody, but it sounded as if the brunt of her angst went toward her new sister wife.

Sister Wives: Money the Answer to a Wife in Despair?

This wasn’t the end of it for Meri Brown. Another incident she recalls is the despair she felt as Kody Brown left on his honeymoon. This became one of the first times Kody and Meri were away from each other for any length of time.

Kody made a move before he left. He attempted to soothe the sadness in his first wife as he departed for a honeymoon with his second wife. He pulled her aside and handed her money.

Meri writes that he called this “mad money”. Then he insisted she have fun with the money and buy herself something. While endearing as the first wife made this out to be, her mood remained low while they were gone. So, there you have it, Kody Brown’s answer to appeasing one wife while honeymooning with another wife, mad money. And this went on long before they created the TLC series.