Meri Brown is not having a good time.
But then again, none of the Sister Wives are.
The Browns have been in the public eye for over ten years now — their show debuted in 2010 — and ever since then, they’ve struggled with one thing or another.
In the beginning, it seemed like the family’s biggest problem was jealousy between the wives over Kody and his time, but back then, they didn’t treat that jealousy like a huge deal and accepted it as a part of their chosen lifestyle.
But then they had to flee their home in Utah for fear of being arrested for polygamy, and then Meri got into an emotional affair with that catfish, and then they had another big move from their neighboring homes in Las Vegas to separate houses spread across Flagstaff, Arizona …
It’s been a lot.
By watching the show, it feels like all of these relationships have been slowly falling apart for years now, and in the new season, which was filmed last year, they’re all starting to fully realize it.
There’s Janelle, who seems perfectly content being buddies with Kody and living her best life on her own.
There’s Christine, who, at the end of the last season, declared that she couldn’t "do marriage" with Kody anymore because he stopped taking her thoughts and feelings into consideration.
(She recently announced that she’d left him, so she really wasn’t kidding!)
There’s Robyn, who is kind of the only person who Kody does consider when making decisions for the family — a lot of fans think she wants to be his only wife and manipulates him into ignoring the other wives.
Finally, of course, there’s Meri, Kody’s first wife.
And boy, what a disaster her marriage with Kody has been.
Their issues, as we’ve said, have existed for years, even before the catfish scandal.
It’s been a few years now since we saw Meri tell their therapist that their marriage was "dead" and "over," but still, unlike Christine, she’s stayed with the family.
In the most recent episode, we saw him visit her for the first time in months, and it was officially revealed that they don’t have a romantic relationship anymore at all, that they’re just friends.
She said that she believed that God wanted her to stay in the marriage, which is really very sad.
Especially because, as Meri continually posts on social media, love is extremely important to her.
On Sunday, the same day that episode aired, she shared a quote in her story that read "Unconditional love is so rare in life that it is identity changing when somebody keeps showing up even when you reject them."
To be clear, she didn’t specify why she shared the quote or if it made her think of anyone in particular, but she’s been posting these kinds of cryptic quotes for years now, and with how heavily they’ve always been speculated on, she has to know that they will get attention.
That’s why we have to assume that she’s trying to send a message when she shares things like this — otherwise why would she feed into it so often?
With that in mind, there could be a few ways to read this.
One, which seems to be the most obvious, she’s talking about Kody and how hurt she’s been that he refuses to have a romantic relationship with her anymore.
She’s repeatedly tried to tell him that she wants that kind of marriage with him again, and he’s repeatedly shut it down — maybe she’s dreaming of having this unconditional love with him.
Or two, maybe she’s applauding herself for loving him so unconditionally and for hanging around even though he’s rejected her.
Could it be a dig at Christine for leaving the family? Maybe!
Probably not, but hey, anything is possible.
That means that there’s also a possibility that Meri wasn’t thinking of her personal life at all when she shared this, that maybe she just thought it was a nice sentiment.
What do you think Meri is trying to communicate here?