Money talks—and so does Meri Brown. On Sister Wives‘ Jan 18. special, the TLC star explained why she’s still battling ex-husband Kody Brown and his current wife Robyn Brown over cash she loaned them.
Now that the Sister Wives cast has seen their money get multiplied, there have been some disagreements about how it should be divided.
Because, as it turns out, a large chunk of the wild drama surrounding the sale of the family’s Coyote Pass property in Flagstaff, Ariz., had to do with what happened in Vegas. And it certainly didn’t stay there.
When Meri Brown sold the five-bedroom home where she lived outside Sin City, “She wanted all the money from it,” her ex-husband Kody Brown told host Sukanya Krishnan in the second part of the TLC series’ One-on-One special Jan. 18. “That’s not how our divorce decree went. It was 50/50.”
Not that she had pocketed the proceeds. Rather, the mom to 30-year-old Leon had placed it all on black in Kody’s bank account to help him and Robyn Brown purchase the two-acre Arizona home they shared with kids Dayton, Aurora, Breanna, Solomon and Ariella.
“With my contribution, whatever words he wants to put to it,” Meri explained, referencing their disagreement over whether the money was a loan or a gift, “they bought the house that was for them and then, you know, it doubled in value when they sold it. Yay, them.”
After, Kody and Robyn—now monogamists since Kody ended his marriages to Meri, Janelle Brown and Christine Brown—used those profits to buy a new Arizona manse for $2.1 million in 2024, leading Meri and Janelle (who also contributed to the first Arizona purchase) to remind them the initial loan wasn’t exactly on the house.
Instagram/Meri BrownAnd that disagreement bled into the negotiations over the sale of the 14 acres they dubbed Coyote Pass.
“When we went to parceling out the property, there was agreements that hadn’t been settled,” Kody detailed. “Janelle and Meri had gifted money to me and Robyn to purchase Robyn’s house. Meri’s house, the proceeds from her house in Las Vegas, were half mine, OK? And so they wanted their 25 percent of Coyote Pass, but I had put extra money in it. And they wanted to be paid back for their gift for Robyn’s house, but I hadn’t been compensated. And we couldn’t negotiate.”
They were able to strike a deal with Janelle, Robyn noted. “She said 100 percent we were square with her, but Meri hadn’t.”
And while they hashed out the particulars, added the mom of five, “We talked about a non-disclosure because it was like, let’s not fight about finances publicly.”
To hear Meri tell it, though, she laid down her gloves rather early.
“I mean, sure, it would make sense that I would get it,” she said of the money from her Las Vegas home, “because, you know, I’m the only one who lived in it for the majority of the time that we owned it. And I’m the one who made all the payments. But you know what? Your name was on it. So you can have half of it. Like literally, that’s how I felt. I’m not going to fight that.”
What she was willing to battle over was signing any sort of confidentiality agreement.
“I was not OK with it,” Meri admitted, “until we went back and forth a few times on the specific verbiage.”
And though things got hairy, the family did eventually sell their Coyote Pass land, with everyone pocketing their share.
And Kody told host Sukanya that Meri will have another payday coming soon.
Though they’ve yet to negotiate the particulars, claimed the dad of 18, “I’ve just told Meri on the phone, ‘Hey, listen, we’re going to take care of this.’ We always intended to take care of it.”
As for Meri, she hadn’t intended to reveal her benefactor status when it came to Kody and Robyn’s home.
“This is something that I have consented to never talk about,” she shared on the Jan. 18 special, “but we’ll talk about it now.”
And that’s not the only revelation she has made on the TLC series’ 20th season. Keep reading to see all the hard truths the family has shared.
Meri Brown/InstagramMeri Brown and Janelle Brown Helped Pay for Robyn Brown’s House
Part of the reason the Coyote Pass sale got so hairy was that the family hadn’t taken care of what happened in Vegas.
When Meri sold her five-bedroom Sin City home, she handed over the profits so that Robyn could purchase her five-bedroom spread in Arizona, with Janelle chipping in as well.
From there, Meri detailed on the Jan. 18 One-on-One special, “They bought the house that was for them and then, you know, it doubled in value when they sold it. Yay, them.”
Which is when she and Janelle made clear that their loan wasn’t exactly on the house.
And so when it came time to sell their land in Arizona, “There was agreements that hadn’t been settled,” Kody detailed. “Janelle and Meri had gifted money to me and Robyn to purchase Robyn’s house. Meri’s house, the proceeds from her house in Las Vegas, were half mine, OK? And so they wanted their 25 percent of Coyote Pass, but I had put extra money in it. And they wanted to be paid back for their gift for Robyn’s house, but I hadn’t been compensated. And we couldn’t negotiate.”
They were able to strike a deal with Janelle, Robyn noted. “She said 100 percent we were square with her, but Meri hadn’t.”
Still, Kody insisted Meri’s payday was coming. “Meri will get paid,” he swore. “Everybody is going to have their money and I’m going to be bitter because they sat there and just s–t talked me the whole time.”
