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Janelle and Kody Brown have been separated for more than two years now. As Sister Wives fans watch them hash out the end of their marriage on television, more details about the final years of the plural family are being made known. In the latest episode of the TLC show, Janelle opened up about the family’s finances, but of course, Kody didn’t see things the same way.
Janelle Says Kody Brown Took ‘Lots’ of Family Money
Janelle and Christine Brown sat down to have a conversation during the Sunday, January 26, episode of Sister Wives. They were discussing the family’s finances over the last several years. Janelle said, “I never felt like I had much control over my own money because everybody was pulling from the same [account].”
At one time, Janelle admitted that the financial situation was “great” when they all lived together and managed the money together. Eventually, money became an issue for everyone in the plural family.
“We set our family up that way. But, like, toward the end, it was just really hard,” Janelle told Christine. “When we all first started, there was kind of like this thing [where] we weighed in on what bills should be paid, how we were going to pay, who got priority.”
She went on to tell Christine that Kody Brown had also been spending a lot in recent years. “Kody would just take out funds, and I don’t know what for. And the money was just being spent—and lots of it,” she said.
In true fashion, Kody denied the accusations that he was doing anything shady with the money. During a confessional, he said, “I was a father to 18 and a husband to more than just Janelle. So we had a lot of places that money needed to go that weren’t always Janelle’s business.”
Now Janelle Just Wants Out
As long-time fans know, Janelle Brown was in charge of the family finances for a long time. She did all of the “bookkeeping.” Kody says that this means she saw transactions come through but didn’t have any reasoning behind why the money was being spent. In contrast, Janelle says that she didn’t have as much control over the money as Kody makes it seem.
“He loves this mantra that somehow I was [the] all powerful one with all the financial control,” Janelle responded to Kody’s claims. “I really was just the person who recorded the transactions and sent them to the CPA.”
This has been an overarching theme throughout the series. Anytime anything went wrong with the finances, it was Janelle’s fault. After all, she oversaw everything in that corner of their lives. At one point, he told Meri Brown that Janelle controlled all of the finances. He even told cameras that all of his former wives remembered that Janelle managed the money.
Now, as things come to a close with his various relationships, Meri Brown and Janelle Brown are lawyering up. “I feel like Kody and Robyn probably have some plan of what they want to do and how they want to handle it. I think that Janelle has some sort of plan, and I know that I do as well,” Meri said during a confessional. “And none of us are talking to each other because none of us trust each other.”
Janelle simply wants things to be over so that she can finally completely cut ties with Robyn and Kody Brown.
Sister Wives airs on Sundays at 10 p.m. EST on TLC.
