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‘Sister Wives’ Janelle Brown calls out Kody Brown for gaslighting

Janelle dished out some words that her then-husband desperately needed to hear.

Janelle Brown sits outdoors in folding chair
Image via TLC

The new season of Sister Wives has showcased the final year of Kody Brown’s marriage to Janelle Brown, and a new clip has shown that the fallout has reached a fever pitch.

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Kody and Janelle announced their separation in December 2022, and the upcoming episode of the reality series shows the former couple’s explosive argument over the holidays, which may have been the final fight the couple had and likely the straw that broke the camel’s back.

Kody and Janelle had been married since 1993, and the couple share six children. In an exclusive clip from E! News, the couple fought over Kody kicking out their two sons at Christmas due to the rules he set to prevent spreading COVID-19 during the family get-together.

In the previous episodes, Kody had fought with ex-wife Christine over plans to reunite as a family for the holidays. Kody stated that Christine’s plans to arrive after Christmas day would not work with his COVID-19 prevention rules. As a result, Christine spent Thanksgiving with Janelle and their children, which likely gave Janelle something to think about in the lead-up to Christmas.

In the clip, Janelle stood firm on the belief that a mother should always choose her children over her husband, taking the side of her sons after Kody had kicked them out. Janelle recalled that Kody had told her to choose her loyalties, “or you’re not gonna have a husband.”

Kody retorted that “parents are supposed to have a united front,” a moment that led Janelle in a confessional to say that Kody was doing to her what he did to ex-wife Christine and soon-to-be ex-wife Meri.

Then, Kody told Janelle that they knew his rules regarding the holidays, to which Janelle replied that he never gave out any rules to abide by. Then, Kody claimed he told her the rules “every day.”

At this point, Janelle had enough. “You are gaslighting me,” she said, adding, “All this ‘I feel so pressured’ bull****, this is you saying, ‘I don’t want to do it, but I’m going to make it your fault.'”

“I sat at home. I did what I was supposed to do, but it wasn’t ever good enough, you wanted me to kick the boys out.”

Kody tried to flip things around and accuse Janelle of gaslighting her, a tactic known as DARVO (deny, attack, reverse victim and offender). Janelle swiftly shut this down, pointing out that Kody had only given her CDC guidelines to follow and not told her about his own personal rules regarding isolation.

The big question left over from the fight was when Kody asked Janelle, “Do you want this relationship to work?” Janelle then responded, “I don’t know, do you?”