Kody Brown’s Daughter Says Family Was ‘Very Poor’ Before Sister Wives

Sister Wives star Maddie Brown opened up about what her family life was like before they started appearing on the TLC series.

“Before the show, we were very poor,” Maddie, 29, recalled on the Monday, December 9, episode of her “The Authentic Society” podcast. “I think my dad makes a decent amount of money, but he has 15 kids. Like, a lot of kids.”

The reality star explained that it took some work to sort out her feelings about money when she got married Caleb’s brush in 2016.

“I think we inherit a lot of our thinking about money from our parents,” she said. “Dad always chose the get-rich-quick scheme, almost always. It was an unfamiliar thought to Caleb. And I remember explaining some ideas to him, and he was like, ‘No, no.’

Since getting married, Maddie and Caleb, 37, have been trying to “build stability” with their finances.

“We did a lot of work on that together, because [the] “Poverty is an interesting thing, especially when it comes to money,” he said. “Because when we got tax papers when we were young, my parents just used them for something. Caleb’s family was both educated but not educated. They keep it. They kept all the money they got. I mean. they had no money, they loved debt, they did everything they could. It was very different [from] my parents, so it was really hard to deal with that.”

At some point, Maddie realized that her father’s financial approach was not going to work for her.

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Kody Brown and Janelle Brown were very much in love before their split in 2022 – including raising their six children. The Sister Wives’ spiritual wedding of 1993 marked the beginning of their extended family. Kody was officially married to Meri Brown when he welcomed Janelle into his life. He went on to marry spiritually […]

“I remember saying to Caleb seven years ago, ‘You know what’s weird? It is clear that there is none [getting] get rich quick,’” he recalls. “And I knew it, but I think saying it out loud, was a weird idea.”

Maddie is the eldest daughter of Is Brown and his second wife, Janelle Brown. Kody and Janelle, both 55 years old, also have sons Logan, 30, Hunter, 27, and Gabriel, 23, and daughter Savanah, 20. Their son Garrison died by suicide in March at the age of 27. (Kody and Janelle split in 2022 almost after suicide. 30 years of marriage.)

Kody also has one child with his first wife Mary Brownsix children and a third wife Christine Brown with five children and a fourth wife Robyn Brown. Christine, 52, split from Kody in 2021, while Meri, 53, confirmed her split from Kody in early 2023.

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After Kody and Janelle broke up, Maddie admitted that she is “out of touch” with other members of her family, including Kody.

“It’s because of the things that happened,” he said on the November episode of his podcast. He also said that his father “doesn’t respect boundaries, and you have to play by his rules, and I don’t mind doing that.”