NEED TO KNOW
In a PEOPLE exclusive preview of the upcoming Jan. 4 episode of Sister Wives, Janelle is granted a spiritual “release,” or divorce, from ex Kody from their church, the Apostolic United Brethren
“As I was leaving, I just kind of felt free. I felt like a weight had lifted off me,” Janelle says in the clip, after her meeting with church leaders
Janelle split from Kody in 2022 after a 29-year spiritual marriage
Janelle Brown is stepping into a new chapter.
In a PEOPLE exclusive preview of the upcoming Sunday, Jan. 4, episode of Sister Wives, Janelle, 56, is granted a “release,” or divorce, from ex Kody Brown, also 56, by their church, the Apostolic United Brethren.
“I have it,” Janelle says in the clip, while holding up the release paper. “That was easy. I thought I was going to have to come back for a second meeting. I am free. I am free. I am free. I am free.”
After her meeting with church leaders, Janelle says she doesn’t know “what I was worried about.”
“They were all very kind,” she says. “They’d granted me the release. So there was really kind of a shift in my energy, and I think maybe it must have really meant something deep down that I’m sort of not always paying attention to. So I’m glad I did this.”
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Janelle, Christine, Kody, Meri and Robyn Brown in 2015
Janelle adds the church leaders told her they’d handle “calling Kody and telling him what had happened.”
“As I was leaving, I just kind of felt free,” she says. “I felt like a weight had lifted off me. So, somewhere in the back of my mind, this must have been more important than I realized to have this done.”
Reflecting on her relationship with Kody, whom she split from in 2022 after a 29-year spiritual marriage, Janelle says she was “married to him longer than I was single.”
“You know, look, I don’t regret anything in the last 30 years,” says Janelle, who shares children Logan, Madison, Hunter, Gabriel, Savanah and late son Garrison with Kody. “I love the family that we have, and I would do it all again in order to get the family and the kids that we have. [It] just is sort of like that chapter has ended.”
Since their split, Janelle and Kody have been estranged. Kody also split from ex Christine Brown in 2021 and ex Meri Brown in 2023. The former polygamist’s only remaining relationship is with wife Robyn Brown.
Janelle previously said in an April episode of Sister Wives that she had “never really thought about a spiritual divorce” from Kody until Meri had gotten one.
“It didn’t even occur to me because [I’m] really not part of that church anymore,” she said. “Then when Meri got one, I’m like, huh.”
Sister Wives airs Sundays at 10 p.m. ET on TLC.
Read the original article on People