"I Won't Talk About Her" — Inside Kody Brown and His Daughter Madison's Tense Relationship

Content Warning: This article mentions suicide.

Viewers of Sister Wives have witnessed how much the family has changed since we met them in the TLC reality show's debut season. The most significant change is that Kody Brown is now divorced from three of his four wives: Janelle Brown, Christine Brown, and Meri Brown. The splits resulted in Kody being in a monogamous marriage with his fourth wife, Robyn Brown, and have affected every aspect of the Brown family's life.

In addition to the Brown patriarch struggling with losing his once solid plural family, Season 19 of Sister Wives shows that his relationships with some of his children have also suffered. During the season premiere, we learned Kody is estranged from one of his and Janelle's daughters, Madison "Maddie" Brush (née Brown).

In the Season 19 premiere of Sister Wives, Christine and her and Kody's daughter, Mykelti Brown, traveled to Madison's home in Salt Lake City, Utah for Mykelti's baby sprinkle. When they arrived, Madison and Mykelti laughed at the fact that they were pregnant simultaneously. During a confessional interview, Janelle shared that Madison and Kody have been estranged, and their daughter also hadn't spoken to Robyn since Janelle left their plural marriage.

"I know that Maddie has not had any conversations with her dad," Janelle said. "He’s not called; she’s not called him. She doesn’t have any relationship with Robyn."

"She’s pretty much written them both off," she added. "She doesn’t really want him to have any contact unless he can commit to a consistent presence."

Meanwhile, Kody confessed that he was not interested in publicly discussing his and Madison's issues. When the Sister Wives' director asked him to "talk about Maddie," he flat-out refused and proceeded to move on to the next question.

"I won't talk about her," Kody declared.

Robyn also shared her thoughts on the father and daughter's strained relationship and said she wanted him to speak to her and some of the other children who have distanced themselves from him amid the divorces.

"I don’t understand why Kody’s not reaching out to Madison or some of the other kids," she said. "I know he’s in a very angry and hurt place, but he should just be putting in the effort. But I think the kids should be doing the same thing too."

In Episode 2, Janelle said that Kody was the one to cut off communication with Maddie, and that as a result, Maddie has kept her kids from seeing him. "Maddie is mama bear to an extreme," Janelle said. "She has felt like until [Kody] can be consistent and show up and not be dramatic, that she feels like it’s probably better if [her kids] don’t know about him, and Maddie and Caleb really don’t have much relationship with him because he doesn’t call them."

As for the reason Kody pulled back? He says that Maddie was just fishing for gossip. "Every time I talked to her, it was a fish for gossip. And I got tired of it," he said.

The Sister Wives Season 19 premiere also revealed Janelle pondering a decision to further distance herself from Kody and Robyn. During another scene in the episode, Madison tells some of the older kids that she and her husband Caleb are considering moving to Montana.

“We’re just going to look at property in Montana,” she explained. "Property to build on.”

While Madison didn't confirm the move would happen, Janelle's BFF and forever sister wife, Christine, was delighted to hear the news. In a confessional, she confirmed that she knew Janelle's daughter was going to go forward with the move and was taking Janelle with her.

"I know that’s the secret,” Christine shared. “And what’s more, Janelle’s talking about possibly moving with them.”

Janelle didn't say she was moving for sure, but admitted she wanted to get away from Flagstaff, AZ., where Kody and Robyn live.

"Flagstaff no longer feels permanent, and if I had another option, I would probably take it," she confessed.

Kody and Janelle separated in 2022. She became his second wife in 1993, and together they had six children. In March 2024, the couple's son, Garrison, died by a self-inflicted gunshot wound, which the show addressed in the opening scene.

Catch new episodes of Sister Wives on TLC on Sundays at 10 p.m. EST.