Janelle Briefly ‘Moved Out’ Years Before Split

History repeating itself? Sister Wife‘ Kody Brown and estranged husbands Janelle Brown had a struggle well before they confirmed the split in December.

“The family is in a bad place because Janelle moved,” Kody, 53, revealed in part 2 of Wives: One by one special, which aired on Sunday, January 1. “He’s done. He moved in with his mother.”

The patriarch explained that Janelle, 53, had problems with family dynamics while living in Wyoming in the early 2000s. At the time, the group consisted of Kody, Janelle, Meri Brown and Christine Brown. Not until 2010 Robyn Brown join a polygamous household. Robyn, 43, then legally married Kody in 2014 after legally divorcing Meri, 51, and adopted her fourth child from a previous marriage.

“I don’t feel like he left me, but he left him because I didn’t give him enough support,” Kody said on Sunday’s episode. “[Janelle] and I’m constantly working.”

The Wyoming native — who married Strive With co-founder Janelle in 1993 — claimed that Janelle “couldn’t stay with Christine and Meri anymore.”

She admitted: “It’s just too much of a burden in her life. She’ll talk to me about her and her mom’s comments about the ‘Meri and Christine Club’ because Janelle isn’t there. There’s just this place where Janelle doesn’t feel like she fits in.”

Kody remembers having a “pretty strong” rift in the family when Meri, Janelle and Christine all lived in different homes in Wyoming.

When the family began to get into the “groove,” the 18-year-old father threw Janelle for a loop when he told her that he “took up a job” in Utah and wanted to uproot everyone.

“He said, ‘I’m not moving with you. I’m finally living together here,'” he recalled. “It was a shock to me. That’s not healthy.”

Kody notes that Janelle “bounced back” when she got a house in 2003 in the Beehive State big enough to fit her three wives and children.

“He was like, ‘Get home.’ Because we can all get back together,” the reality star said of Janelle’s change of heart. “She’s looking for reconciliation.”

Janelle, for her part, sees the ups and downs of Wyoming a little differently. “I think Kody remembers in a way that he can use to remember. That’s not how I remember,” said the health coach during the speech. “I think he wants to be blamed – like [during] that [time] there is always conflict.”

He admitted: “Yes, there were conflicts, but there were also good times. I really wanted to stay in Wyoming. I really did. I had just started to develop a good life and I didn’t want to leave.

Janelle confirmed during the teaser for Wives: One by one specifically in December she and Kody had been “split up for months”. The split comes a month after Christine publicly announced in November 2021 that she had separated from her husband.

Meri, meanwhile, revealed during part 1 and part 2 of the tell-all that Kody “has decided” his fate when he claims that he no longer “thinks” the couple will get married. “We have a lot of history and I love him,” she said during Sunday’s episode. “And he has chosen not to love me and not want a relationship with me.”

Part 3 of Wives: One by one special airs on TLC Sunday, January 8, at 10 pm ET.