Sister Wives fans defend Christine Brown after Meri says she abandoned the family

Fans of TLC's Sister Wives have jumped to Christine Brown's defence after Meri accused her of having 'abandoned' the family when she broke up with husband Kody.

Polygamist Kody Brown now has just one wife, Robyn, after Christine, Meri, and his fourth wife, Janelle, all announced plans to leave the spiritual relationships they had with him.

The former wives have now all opened up on their relationships in a One-on-One special in which Meri threw shade at Christine, who decided to spiritually divorce Kody in 2021:

Christine acknowledged in the special that she and Meri haven't been friends for years, saying: "I ended the relationship. I did. I ended it. It wasn't safe for me anymore and I ended it. I just told her straight up, 'No, we're not going to be friends because I don't trust you. And I'm not going to do that to myself anymore.'"

Meanwhile, Meri said she felt 'betrayed' when Christine left, as if it wasn't just Kody she was breaking up with.

"I felt very betrayed by her and that she was leaving me too because she's always said, 'I didn't just want the man. I want the sister wives,'" Meri said.

"I know what kind of relationship she and I have had in the past. It's been fun. It's not been super, super deep, but it's been a lot of fun. And I've missed that for a lot of years with her."

Meri went on to claim she didn't know exactly why the relationship broke down, though acknowledged she had 'not always been the perfect person'.

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Her comments sparked backlash from fans of the show who stuck up for Christine following her departure from the family, with one viewer arguing it wasn't Christine who abandoned the family, but rather the other way around.

"The family abandoned her .. Meri and Robyn supported and encouraged Kody's toxic behaviour ... as a result Christine left clearly a toxic environment .. its [sic] a good decision," they wrote.

Another commented: "Good for Christine. She values herself and wanting to find that happiness. She understands that she doesn't need all that stress."

Robyn opened up about the impacts of Christine's departure from the family in an earlier episode of Sister Wives, saying: "There's this heavy weight between us because we know that our family is just getting messed with like crazy. It's so crazy to just sit there and watch this big bomb going off in my family."

The three former wives have long considered Robyn to be Kody's 'favourite', though Robyn admitted to feeling as though her former sister wives 'handed him to [her]' and said 'We don't want to spend time with him' basically'.