Jill Duggar has been open about the fact that she and her 18 siblings weren’t paid to appear on 19 Kids & Counting and Counting On, and now, another TLC star is speaking out. In a new interview with Teen Vogue, Gwendlyn Brown revealed that she and her siblings weren’t paid for appearing on Sister Wives – at least, not until her mom Christine decided to take matters into her own hands.
According to Gwendlyn, none of the Brown kids were paid directly for their time on the show.
As part of a feature on the children of reality stars that was published this week, Gwendlyn told Teen Vogue that though the adults in her family were paid for appearing on Sister Wives, none of the children received checks.
“The network only paid the parents,” she said. “I’m not sure if they did or didn’t expect the parents to pay us kids, but we weren’t paid.”
Later, Christine decided to dole out the money her kids had earned.
Gwendlyn went on to say that in later years of the show, her mom started paying her kids “a certain amount per day or half-day of camera time,” though it wasn’t what she believed would have been their “fair share” of the money.
Christine confirmed to Teen Vogue that during the time the kids weren’t paid, the family put aside money for their future college funds and for their first cars.
TLC has responded to Gwendlyn’s claims.
In a statement to Teen Vogue, the network shared that “compensation is handled in accordance with contractual commitments and applicable labor laws and regulations.”
The way Gwendlyn said her family was paid for Sister Wives lines up with what Jill Duggar has said about her own family in the past: Her parents were paid, and money never funneled down to their children.
Still, Gwendlyn said she and her siblings did benefit from the family’s extra cash thanks to the show.
Before Sister Wives, the Browns were living in what Gwendlyn called “a poverty situation,” but money from their reality show changed all that.
“We just got thrown into fame and thrown into money,” she told the magazine. “And I stopped wanting and needing things. Life is a lot easier for a kid that’s not going hungry. It was quite a blessing initially.”
