Sister Wives Recap: Janelle Talks Kody Money Issues, Family Finances

Janelle Brown revealed during the latest episode of Sister Wives that she’s done being blamed for the family’s money problems — especially by Kody Brown.

Janelle, 55, told Christine Brown during the Sunday, November 24, episode of the TLC series that after speaking with Meri Brown one episode prior she realized that Kody, 55, hasn’t had her back about the family finances.

“She basically implied that she was so surprised, like, somehow, she thought I’d been controlling the money,” Janelle said of Meri, 53. “I’m like, ‘Dude, man, if I controlled the money we would have paid off, built a house.’”

Janelle explained, “I don’t know what Kody’s been saying about, like, somehow, I’m controlling the money.”

Christine, 52, backed up Janelle saying, “If you controlled the money, I think things would look a lot different.” Janelle agreed, noting that when they were all married to Kody all she did was “record what was spent and sent it to the accountant.”

Kody, for his part, didn’t jump to Janelle’s defense in the episode. Instead, he implied that Meri’s assumptions about Janelle might be correct. “It’s funny, my other wives remember Janelle controlling the money,” Kody said in a confessional, claiming, “I sort of guided where the money went.”

He alleged, “We all had access to the account. Listen, we were a family working together and we did the best we could.”

Janelle’s statements came amid an ongoing feud with Kody over money and the ongoing attempt to pay off their Coyote Pass property. The family previously purchased a plot of land in Flagstaff, Arizona, where they were supposed to build houses for each wife.

When Christine left Kody in November 2021, she gave her share of the land back to Kody and his fourth wife, Robyn Brown, and kept the money she received from selling her Arizona house. Christine later moved to Utah and married David Woolley in October 2023.

While Janelle split from Kody in December 2022 and Meri announced her separation from him in January 2023, they kept their shares in the property. Janelle has since made it clear that she’s worried about paying it off, and even offered to have Kody buy her out so she could move out of state and wash her hands of the situation.

During Sunday’s episode, Janelle claimed that Kody’s choice to seemingly make her the “bad guy” is just what he does.

“This is Kody’s MO. He tends to attack somebody in an area that’s important to them,” she told the cameras, using Kody’s past comments about not being “sexually attracted” to Christine as an example, since that was a big dig for Christine.

When it comes to her own emotional pressure point, Janelle said money and being responsible with it is at the top of the list.

“For me, financial security and being smart financially is really, really important. So, he’s trying to pin everything on me,” Janelle alleged. “It makes me so mad because I didn’t know it. He was doing it behind my back. He kept telling everybody these stories and I’m like, ‘F—ing hell.’”

She then apologized for cursing, but noted how frustrating the situation has become. “I didn’t do anything except have to drink a glass of [a] whole freaking bottle of wine when I sat and recorded the transactions and sent them to the accountant,” Janelle said.

Meri, for her part, told the cameras that she doesn’t know who to believe. “Janelle says one thing and Kody and Robyn say another thing,” Meri said. “I don’t think either one of them are being 100 percent truthful.”

Janelle was adamant that when she spoke to Meri earlier in the season about the Coyote Pass payoff, she was “trying to protect everybody” and make sure they don’t lose the land and therefore their investment.

“When it comes down to controlling money, I just feel like we each knew what we were going to get out of the family money and then if there was anything extra, we would just have to talk to Kody,” Christine told Janelle. “But then he could spend whatever the hell he wanted.” Janelle agreed, claiming, “There was a lot of that.”

After meeting with Janelle, Christine told the cameras that she believes her sister wife. “All of our money got put into a big, huge fund and we got paid out of that fund. And I always talked to Kody about getting paid,” Christine explained. “He’s the one who always wrote the check if I needed anything. I told Kody. It was Kody who really had the control of the money.”

Sister Wives airs on TLC Sundays at 10 p.m. ET.