For what feels like years now, Sister Wives fans have been hoping and wishing and praying that Meri Brown would just leave the family and go off to do her own thing.
And it feels like it’s been happening for years because, well, it’s been happening for years.
At least four of them — Meri revealed that she’d been having an emotional affair with someone who turned out to be a catfish all the way back in 2015.
That’s certainly not the first time she seemed unhappy though.
Remember when Kody asked her for a divorce so he could marry Robyn instead? That clearly hurt her, no matter how much logistical sense it made.
Some might argue that Meri seemed unhappy all the way back in the first season when her storylines were about not being able to have more children and dealing with the anxiety of adding a fourth wife to the family.
But it really doesn’t matter when this unhappiness started — what matters is that she is clearly having a very bad time right now.
She wasn’t excited about the family’s move from Las Vegas to Arizona, to say the least, and she’s been getting into little fights with her sister wives here and there.
When she opened her bed and breakfast in Utah, they thought it meant she was pulling away from them, and it really seems like that was what she was doing.
She’s been traveling on her own, going on cruises and putting a lot of work into her Lularoe stuff.
It really does look like she’s living her life on her own without any real attachment to Kody or the other wives at all.
And with this new selfie she shared on Instagram, she may have confirmed that.
In the caption of the photo, she wrote "They say if you do what you love, you’ll never work a day in your life."
"Never in a million years did I think I would have a ‘job’ where I’d be traveling all over the place, catching flights, hanging out with friends, meeting new people and creating lifelong friendships literally all across the country."
"Sitting on another plan today," she finished, "I feel blessed."
And that’s all lovely, it really is, but notice that she’s holding her left hand up to her face here.
See what’s missing?
Yep, she’s not wearing her wedding ring.
In the comments, lots of people asked her about this.
"Are you single?" one of her followers questioned.
Another asked "Why won’t you address the question if you are still with the family or not?"
"So she isn’t with that pain in the ass guy anymore?" someone else commented.
And really, it’s all very complicated.
Some people have said that the image is flipped, so what looks like her left hand is actually her right hand.
Others are speculating that she really has left Kody, but she can’t say anything about it until it’s revealed on the show.
So, OK, let’s review the facts.
One, Meri is barely following anyone from the family anymore on Instagram — she’s following her own daughter and a few of the other kids, but none of her sister wives.
Interestingly, all the other sister wives all follow each other. None of them follow Meri, either.
Two, if you look back at her older photos, you’ll see that she has a habit of posing for photos with her left hand on her hip, so you can check out the ring action.
After looking through those photos, you can see that the last time she wore her wedding band was last November.
Three, she hasn’t posted a photo with Kody since January, which is just fun to note.
Four, it’s not like she doesn’t like wearing rings.
She actually usually wears at least two.
Janelle has said that she doesn’t wear her wedding band because she’s simply not fond of wearing rings in general, and that definitely isn’t the case with Meri.
In fact, if you look back at old Sister Wives footage, she regularly wears a simple gold band on her ring finger.
Even in the tell-all special for last season, she was wearing it.
So putting everything together, can we definitively say that Meri is done with Kody? Is she done being a Sister Wife?
Unfortunately, no.
But we can’t say that she’s not gearing up to leave, either.
The pile of evidence that she wants out gets bigger and bigger every day, but for now, nothing is official.
Still, hopefully this is a step in the right, Kody-free direction!