Her time as a “sister wife” may be over, but Christine Brown Woolley isn’t done sharing her story.
In her new memoir (out now from Simon & Schuster), the TLC show star shares an unfiltered look behind the scenes of the popular reality show “Sister Wives” and her relationship with Kody Brown. In its upcoming 20th season, the show will continue to follow the lives of the Browns, even now that the first three “Sister Wives” – Meri, Janelle and Christine – have left Kody.
Brown Woolley’s “Sister Wife” isn’t just a rehash of their joint 2012 memoir “Becoming Sister Wives.” Brown Woolley gives a candid look at how she left Kody, sharing lessons learned on toxic relationships, motherhood, religion, addiction and finding real love.
Christine Brown Woolley’s oxycodone addiction during ‘Sister Wives’
Among the book’s bombshell revelations was an addiction Brown Woolley writes she never shared with the cameras.
In 2016, after a surgery to repair a torn ACL and meniscus, Brown Woolley got addicted to oxycodone, she writes. Originally prescribed the pills for pain management, she soon found herself counting down the hours until she could take her next one. After a while, she realized she wasn’t taking it for her knee anymore. It was Janelle’s daughter Maddie who called her out and told her she needed to make a change. Brown Woolley’s daughter and mom helped her get rid of the rest of the pills. She says she was open with her kids about what happened.
“I was still so unbalanced for maybe six months after that,” Brown Woolley writes. “I didn’t feel like me, and all I wanted was oxycodone. I couldn’t get it, and that made me angry. I knew I would never feel that high again.”
Christine says Kody lovebombed and compared ‘Sister Wives’
Brown Woolley writes that she wanted to follow in her parents’ footsteps into a polygamous relationship since she was young. She specifically wanted to be a third wife because the “sister wives” dynamic would already be set.
Brown Woolley and Kody’s relationship strained over the years as his attention to her and their six kids waned, especially after he married his fourth wife, Robyn. She says she “never felt secure” in their relationship.
She also writes that Kody would withhold time with her until she could be “lovable,” comparing her behavior to the other sister wives and demanding full-body massages and perfected household tasks.
“I will treat you like you are lovable when you make an effort to be lovable,” he allegedly told Brown Woolley, she writes in the memoir.
When the sister wives pulled away from Kody, Brown Woolley writes that he’d reel them back in with “love bombing,” like a gift or big date.
“If I complained about our marriage on the show, Kody spent less time with me and my kids. If we didn’t do things his way, he’d punish us by withholding his attention … Husbands don’t go to the doghouse in polygamy. They go to the next wife in the chain,” Brown Woolley writes.
She also writes he was largely absent as a parent, telling her to lean on the other women for childcare instead of asking him for help. A breaking point in their relationship was when their daughter got spinal surgery and Kody refused to travel with them. In another, earlier instance, their 3-year-old daughter had kidney failure. Kody didn’t come to the hospital to help because he said he’d been “doing laundry” at Robyn’s, Brown Woolley writes.
David Woolley watched ‘Sister Wives’ before dating Christine
Brown Woolley met her current husband, David, on a dating website, and reveals in “Sister Wife” that he knew all about her previous relationship before they met. On the second date, when she told him about the sister wives, he shared that his sisters had also been in polygamous relationships and that he had watched “Sister Wives.” Brown Woolley was surprised, saying he “did not look like a typical ‘Sister Wives’ viewer.”
Most importantly? He didn’t like the way Kody treated Brown Woolley and the other women. Brown Woolley writes she felt relieved she didn’t have to explain her past.
“He says he realized that day that out of all the guys in the world, he might be the only one who could understand my experience because his sisters had lived polygamy, and he paid attention,” Brown Woolley writes. “They talked to him about their heartache, and he listened. I would be perfect for (Christine), he told me later that he’d been thinking.”
Finding closure after Garrison Brown’s death: ‘Our beautiful, insightful son’
In the final few chapters, Brown Woolley opens up about the death of Janelle’s son Garrison, who died by suicide at the age of 25 last year. Janelle has since opened up about how his substance abuse played a role in his death. In her memoir, Brown Woolley says that conversation led her to a more open and honest awareness about her own drinking habits and to “watch for signs in our other kids.”
“We all understood we might lose Garrison, but we thought he might overdo it one night. Or he would crash his car. We don’t talk about alcoholism in the young, or about death by suicide. He was so young,” Brown Woolley writes.
Closure, for Brown Woolley, is an ongoing process of remembering and grieving, she writes. She remembers him as “the cutest little kid, and the orneriest,” reminiscing about his proclivity for jump scares and the care and understanding he took with her youngest daughter, Truely. In a tribute post to Instagram in 2024, Brown Woolley posted a video of Garrison helping Truely build a flowerbed.
“Our beautiful, insightful son,” she writes in “Sister Wife.”
If you or someone you know may be struggling with suicidal thoughts, you can call or text 988 or chat online any time of day. The Crisis Text Line also provides free, 24/7, confidential support when you text 741741.
Clare Mulroy is USA TODAY’s Books Reporter, where she covers buzzy releases, chats with authors and dives into the culture of reading. Find her on Instagram, subscribe to our weekly Books newsletter or tell her what you’re reading at cmulroy@usatoday.com.