Sister Wives Makes The Case Against Brother-Husbands

The four women on Sister Wives have certainly done a lot in terms of showing us how polygamous marriage works, at least as they practice it, and the difficulties inherent in it. They’ve also made some aspects of having sister-wives look quite appealing. Naturally, this has led to the question for many of us women who watch the show: what would it be like to have multiple husbands? In some ways, having a group of brother-husbands sounds fun, but, of course, it could also be a bit of a nightmare.

Kody Brown himself once joked that he’d ask Brad Pitt to be his brother-husband, but in this week’s episode the Browns talk about why, in reality, they don’t believe in brother-husbands. Janelle lays out the basics:

Religions have rules and beliefs, and it can even be simple as conduct in a marriage or foods that you can and can’t eat. Every religion has rules that they think bring them closer to God. That is how it is for us. We feel like living plural marriage is a commandment designed for our happiness.

Then Meri takes over to explain that plural marriage only runs one way:

The way that the plural marriage is for us…is one man and multiple wives. We just don’t do it the other way around. I would not ever choose to have more than one husband. From a religious standpoint, because I don’t believe that that’s right. And also from a personal standpoint, I need my ‘me’ time, and I wouldn’t get it if I had many guys around.

That may be, but what’s most bizarre, in this clip, is Kody’s reaction. He’s laughing at the beginning, and it’s like he finds the very concept of a brother-husband too ridiculous to even understand. But when Meri is talking about not wanting to share her time with other guys, he’s staring at the ground looking frighteningly serious—as if even hearing a theoretical discussion of his wives with other men is too upsetting for him to handle. It’s pretty interesting that a man who asks four women to share him on a daily basis can’t even stomach for a moment the abstract thought of sharing one of them with another man. I guess we won’t be seeing Brad Pitt on the show anytime soon!