Christine Brown’s husband, David Woolley, gets real about the issues he sees with polygamy on Sister Wives after watching it ruin his sister.
“I always look[ed] down on it,” David, 61, says of the religion in Us Weekly’s exclusive sneak peek at the Sunday, November 9, episode of the TLC series.
David, who married former polygamist Christine, 53, in October 2023, notes that his own siblings’ choice to live that lifestyle opened his eyes.
“My oldest sister was mentally damaged from it, from that kind of crap that her husband pulled on her,” David claims, referring to one of his two sisters that lived polygamy.
Christine, who split from Kody Brown in November 2021 after more than 20 years in a spiritual marriage, has been vocal about her own ups and downs with polygamy. However, during the upcoming episode, David is the one who expresses frustration over the practice and how men allegedly treat their wives.
“So you think with polygamy, a big flaw would be the man?” Christine asks David in the clip, to which he responds, “Yeah. Major flaw right there.”
Christine recalls David telling her before that the men in polygamy “liked the attention” and “liked” when their spouses would “fight over them.”
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“Oh, they love the fighting. They love the competition between the women,” David says, claiming that the “majority” of the men he’s been around are the same way.
David then slams the polygamist patriarchs, alleging, “They use it to control the women in that part. ‘If you’re not obeying me, I’m punishing you and I’m going to go to the other one.’ And then I was like, sure, ‘I’ll take you right in.’”
He further claims that polygamy is used to “control women,” telling Christine, “It’s not a right thing to do.”
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Janelle Brown, however, reveals during the preview that she finds it problematic to make assumptions about the entire religion. (Janelle, 56, was one of Christine’s sister wives before they both left Kody, 56. Janelle announced her split from him in December 2022, followed by Meri Brown, who confirmed her separation from Kody in January 2023.)
“There are a lot of tragic stories in polygamy, but there are in monogamy as well,” Janelle points out in the sneak peek. “And I think it’s really dangerous to paint a whole group of people with a broad brush based on one observed experience.”
Janelle, who is close with Christine and David, admits that the “secrecy and lack of empowerment for women” in polygamy has “sort of allowed some of those things to flourish.”
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She explains, “That was one of the reasons we went public. We wanted to sort of end that.”
When Sister Wives premiered in 2010, Kody had three wives, Meri, 54, Janelle and Christine, and was courting Robyn Brown. During season 1, Kody and Robyn, 47, spiritually wed. Four years later, Kody legally divorced first wife Meri so he could legally marry Robyn and adopt her three kids from a prior marriage.
After Kody’s first three marriages came to an end, he and Robyn have decided to live a monogamous lifestyle.
Sister Wives airs on TLC Sundays at 10 p.m. ET.