Kody Brown has said that two of his adult children, Garrison and Gabriel, whom he shares with his ex-wife Janelle Brown, have refused to talk to him despite him reaching out.
The Sister Wives star has 18 children from his relationships with Janelle, Christine, Meri, and Robyn Brown, but the family has faced a rough patch over the past year or so. Christine, Janelle, and Meri have all left the plural marriage, leaving only Robyn, and Kody’s relationship with his kids has taken a significant hit.
“I’ve reached out to Garrison and Gabriel,” Kody says in a clip from the October 15 episode of the TLC reality series, posted by EOnline. “I reached out to them just before Christmas, and I reached out to them after. No, they’re blocking me. They’re not interested in talking to me.”
Tensions arose between Kody and his two adult sons over the Brown family patriarch’s COVID-19 safety protocols, which included wearing masks in public, sanitizing and washing hands, and disinfecting groceries and other items.
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Janelle previously talked about the tension, saying, “I had to choose between having my boys in my house or having Kody there. So when Kody would come, the boys would have to be out of the house. I’d have to spray everything down with Lysol and stuff because he was very afraid of getting the virus from them.”
“So yeah, it became really stressful,” she added. “And then, it slowly evolved as they started to get angrier and angrier with each other.”
In the teaser for the upcoming episode, Garrison shares his perspective on the relationship with his dad. “Since I last talked to Dad, I bought a house, I’ve gotten into school, and I got the car that I wanted, that he told me I should never get,” he tells Christine, adding that Kody “doesn’t care to” know anything.
Janelle also shared her thoughts, saying that Kody “seems to have trouble relating to his older children” and found it easier to be a father when the kids were young “because he was still kind of this important [to them].”
“His opinion mattered to them, his guidance mattered to them and now, because they question a little bit, I think it might be harder for Kody to feel like he’s respected,” she continued.
Sister Wives, Season 18, Sundays, 10 pm et, TLC