What to Know
If you’re a fan of Sister Wives on TLC, you’ve probably heard that the world of Mormon polygamists the Brown family comes from is pretty small — everyone seemed to know everyone. And apparently, everyone is also related to everyone, too.
On a new episode of the show, Christine revealed that she’s actually related to ex-husband Kody Brown by blood, something that was pretty alarming to her new husband, David Woolley. But apparently, it’s no big deal (at least, not to Christine, anyway).
Christine and Kody are technically cousins.
On the December 28 episode of Sister Wives, Christine admitted that since her family, the Allreds, made up such a large part of the Utah polygamy community, she assumed she’d have to marry someone who wasn’t born into the religion.
“I knew growing up that I would have to marry a convert because I was literally related to everybody in the church,” she said. “I did marry a convert, but I was still related to him too. Yeah, I’m related to Kody.”
When David appeared taken aback by that statement, Christine reassured him, “Third cousins once removed is fully legal. Fully. Polygamy is not legal. I’m third cousins once removed from Kody.”
The fact that they’re related was never a secret.
Janelle said in a confessional interview that the fact that Christine and Kody are cousins is something they’d joked about through the years, knowing that their blood connection wasn’t close enough to matter.
“There was always this joke about they were cousins, but they are so distantly related it’s ridiculous,” she said. “I think in polygamist families, this kind of stuff happens all the time. It wasn’t the kind of relationship where, like, you saw each other at the family reunion — like, it was a very distant relationship. But they would always joke about being cousins. It just is a small community.”
Theirs isn’t the only family tie that runs through the Brown clan.
Fans on Reddit have made the connection between Christine and Kody before. But as a descendant of the Allreds, Kody is also technically related to Robyn’s ex-husband, David Jessop, who she divorced before joining the Brown family. It really is a small world after all!
Then, there’s also the fact that Janelle’s mom married Kody’s dad after they first met and hit it off when their kids started dating, so there’s also that…
