For some, it’s enlightening, and for others, it’s pure joy and entertainment.
What has life been like for him since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic?
There were so many questions, so we asked them.
In an exclusive interview withThe List,Kody answered all of our questions and then some.
Well, boy, it’s been exhilarating, humbling, and humiliating.
I’m at a loss for words.
It’s been an experience.
I look at it in this way.
Very few people have an opportunity like this.
And so, you have to take it as a blessing.
Not necessarily in all of the good ways, but yet it’s extremely rewarding in cases.
On social media, we got a lot of kickback.
Honestly, they see us just raw.
We’ve taken a long time to let you, the viewer, closer and closer and closer.
I’m just being honest.
The experience has been a journey, so to speak.
We’re a plural family.
As a family, we just said, we have the chance to change the world.
Or at least a worldview.
I used to kind of kid around that I was a social justice warrior.
Anymore, I don’t feel like that.
I’m just a equal rights…
I just want everybody to enjoy…
But it’s been an exciting journey to be able to be part of opening people’s minds.
Once in a while, in a side business that I have, I go to trade shows.
I want to thank you for the sacrifice you’ve made.
I don’t care how hard it has been for you.
That was a while ago.
That was about three years, four years ago.
To be honest with you, it’s really a show I think that’s very woman-centric.
It’s very… women like the show.
They like the sister wives.
Well, it’s a mixed bag.
And yet, we’re not the world’s most functional family.
There are so many struggles to communicate that it almost gets embarrassing.
There’s five big personalities in this.
The tendency is for humankind to pick sides, to take sides.
That’s kind of a different world.
I believe in the phrase that what you think about me is none of my business.
I smile about it mostly.
I’m an optimist.
I just always have to say the good outweighs the bad.
What is it like for Kody Brown to watch himself back on Sister Wives?
Does it influence your approach to your marriages moving forward?
You’re supposed to be totally honest.
You say, “Of course.
You look so good, baby.”
To avoid lying, a man would say just, “Oh, you look so good, baby.
I like how you look.”
That kind of stuff.
Well, that camera’s on.
Or is it kind of curtailed in a way?
It’d be unfair and disingenuous to say it’s not a true glimpse into our lives.
And so, it’s real.
We don’t script.
All we do is make a plan as a family on what we’re going to do.
And sometimes we film the planning.
So it’s real, but it’s distilled.
That alcohol has gone from a mild barley drink right down to hardcore liquor.
It’s Jack Daniels now.
Instead of getting a 3 percent beer like you would in Utah, you get Jack Daniels.
I’ve never tasted Jack Daniels.
I’m not a big drinker.
I got to admit, I have a confession.
I sort of liked the taste of beer, but I’m not a big alcohol drinker.
Jack Daniels has never crossed my lips.
Man, I think COVID-19 and the lockdown has had an impact on us.
I think it’s been in some ways… Just like all of us.
Okay, so it’s unfair to say my challenge has been tougher.
“Why don’t you get a second opinion?”
This throw in of stuff.
I got a second opinion from a person who was basically my family physician before being in Arizona.
Basically, I’ve got two physicians' opinions, which are matching.
But they both went to the same school.
And so, it’s been a real struggle.
But for our family, it’s shown us our weaknesses.
Is there a differentiation between that, would you say?
So just COVID-19 has only revealed sort of our weaknesses as a family, I feel like.
But we’re at a point now where we’re not holding back.
My opinion of the situation is you’re getting it all.
You’re not getting in my bedroom, and that’s it.
You’re getting everything else.
You’re only seeing the experiences being filmed or shot, and you’re only seeing…
So there’s a whole variety of personal experiences that I’m having that are separate from the show.
But the personality of our family and stuff like that, I think still shows.
It’s not like we’re holding back.
It’s just, you might’t be here all the time.
That’d be just overkill anyway.
I think it’s just a matter of an emotional tolerance because I feel like I’m constantly being…
I don’t feel like there’s anything I’m holding back.
The only thing that I’m doing is I’m trying.
I take a stab at practice discretion, but it’s almost… there’s a nature there.
So every single year, I feel like I’m spilling my guts more and more and more.
When you’re being frank… how do I [say this]?
If you’re just really saying how it is, you’re not really censoring yourself.
I’m trying to make the words right.
I’m trying to make the words kind.
As a result, you get some opinions more than others.
This is the interesting thing.
There’s five of us and then our children, and we don’t all see eye to eye.
You have to be sensitive to how you are with each other, and it’s a challenge.
How do Kody Brown’s marriages impact each other?
In what ways would you say your marriages impact each other?
Not only your relationships specifically, but their relationships with each other?
That one’s an easy one to answer because we’ve been doing this for so long.
The closer we are together, the more interaction we have that way.
I’ll give you something really deep.
When I choose to marry…
Okay, so this has all been in the past.
The agreement that she has with the other wives is like 20 percent, 25 percent of that maybe.
This is at least the way I view it.
In a sense, the important relationship is the one between the husband and wife.
And yet, I think that that’s not a big enough commitment.
That 25 percent, that 20 percent commitment to the sister wife isn’t enough.
We’ve worked really hard to do that.
And so, it’s been a struggle.
I don’t want to call it a fan base.
Because all of the problems that we have in Flagstaff originated long before we ever got here.
[We’ve been] criticized for making a big mistake, moving to Arizona.
What is stopping us from being in one house?
Our relationship currently is the same.
Well, actually our relationship currently is actually better.
I believe that it’s better than it was when we were in Las Vegas.
I can only say it this way.
It’s not where Meri was hoping it would be.
I actually got to admit that I don’t believe anything’s going to change between me and Meri.
I think we’re going to continue on with an amicable relationship into the future.
There’s no spoiler in the idea that there’s nothing to be spoiled.
It’s a matter of just understanding.
Well, I’ll be honest with you.
They can be in it or out of it by choice.
That’s the only message.
It’s the same message we always had from the beginning.
We’re a fairly normal family with our normal struggles, and we just have multipliers.
Sister Wivesairs Sunday nights at 10 p.m. ET/PT on TLC.
