‘Sister Wives’: Robyn says Kody tries to sabotage their relationship 'all the time'

As he adjusts to a life of monogamy following three failed marriages, Kody Brown admitted that he’s tried to sabotage his one remaining relationship — with Robyn Brown — in a new “Sister Wives: One on One” special, which aired Dec. 10.

The topic was initially broached in an interview between host Sukanya Krishnan and Robyn Brown, who said that her husband has had a hard time coping with the dissolution of their plural family.

“So what he’s doing is he’s self-sabotaging. He’s angry,” she said.

“So you see him imploding,” Krishnan said.

“He tries to,” Robyn Brown said.

Krishnan wondered what could be motivating Kody Brown’s behavior.

“Is he sabotaging your relationship?” she asked.

“He tries to. I have to stop him all the time,” Robyn Brown replied.

The mother of five explained that Kody Brown “picks fights” with her over “dumb things.”

“We’re in different places about the bomb that went off on our family. I’m in a major place of mourning and he’s angry,'” she said.

The scene then shifted to Kody Brown’s interview with Krishnan.

“I might have been sabotaging myself a little bit before that, just out of the frustration and anger,” he said.

“But were you sabotaging your relationship with Robyn?” Krishnan asked.

“Yeah, I was. I was, definitely,” he said.

“Why? You love her,” she responded.

“Yeah. But I wanted to punish myself,” he said. “I thought of myself leaving Robyn and having another lover and looking (at) this lover and going, 'I don’t love you. I’m in love with another woman. I’m in love with a woman that I left because I was too much a piece of s--- to manage the relationship.’”

The father of 18 attributed these feelings to his anger and said that he’s “embarrassed.”

“So you get embarrassed and then you get self-deprecating, you know? It's like just bad behavior. A lot of people might go through this. These are my demons and that’s like doing something that destroys myself," he said.

Kody Brown said he experienced anger and “temptation (that) would be destructive of my relationship with Robyn.” In return, his one remaining wife would “get frustrated.”

“My anger was a turn-off. It was scary,” he said. “And the dumb thing is, because I’m so honest, I just, I share everything with her. So I shared stuff with her that was heartbreaking. I was like, ‘I’ve been thinking like this.’ You can only imagine how terrible that was. You know, there’s some things in a man’s mind that should never be expressed,” he said.

Kody Brown's third wife, Christine Brown, announced their split in November 2021, and has since remarried. Janelle Brown, his second wife, followed in December 2022. Meri Brown, his first wife, said they had "permanently terminated" their marriage in January 2023, and explained the lead-up to the announcement in a recent "One on One" special.

Janelle and Christine Brown are still close and consider each other sister wives. Meri Brown said she has no sister wives in the wake of her divorce.

This article was originally published on TODAY.com