Can Kody, Christine Brown Get a ‘Polygamous Divorce’? Expert Explains

Sister Wives star Christine Brown considers herself divorced from Kody Brown just after asserting their break up in November 2021, though they were being in no way lawfully married. On the other hand, Michael J. Higdon — Associate Dean for School Advancement and Professor of Legislation at University of Tennessee College or university of Law — describes that “there is no these thing as a polygamous divorce,” solely to In Contact. 

“A person can only have a person lawful spouse, and that is real in just about every point out,” Higdon, who has published especially about polygamous relationship and monogamous divorce, suggests. 

Kody, 53, began his polygamous journey when he spiritually and lawfully married initially spouse Meri Brown in 1990. Kody spiritually wed second spouse Janelle Brown in 1993, third spouse Christine in 1994 and fourth wife Robyn Brown spiritually in 2010. In 2014, Kody divorced Meri, 51, and lawfully married Robyn so he could adopt her a few small children from a past marriage. He remains spiritually married to Meri and Janelle following Christine, 49, remaining him in 2021. 

“Now, a particular person may well have numerous spiritual ceremonies with much more than a person person, but the regulation will only figure out that human being as having a single husband or wife at a time,” Higdon notes about Kody. “Thus, the only divorce that can consider area is amongst all those two lawful spouses. In addition, every single state acknowledges no-fault divorce, which means that if both of individuals two persons desires a divorce, they can get one particular.”

Sister Wives supporters might remember the Brown family members fled Utah back again in 2011 due to the state’s stringent rules versus polygamy, which led to their relocation to Las Vegas, Nevada. Kody and his wives, as properly as their respective young children, later moved to Flagstaff, Arizona, in 2018. Kody, Janelle, Meri and Robyn are all nonetheless centered in Flagstaff while Christine moved back to Utah with her little ones following her split from Kody.

Now that Christine and Kody are no longer alongside one another, fans have been curious about how they can uncouple immediately after becoming spiritually married for 27 a long time. Their son, Paedon, was earlier questioned about the very same issue in December 2021, just months following the previous pair verified her decision to leave. 

“Is there a divorce equivalent in polygamy for non secular marriages? Can you unmarry?” one particular social media user questioned the 23-year-outdated on the web. Paedon replied, “Yes, you marry through the church, and you can depart via the church as effectively.”  

Christine also drop gentle on the subject for the duration of the year 16 finale of Sister Wives, which aired on January 23, revealing she went by means of a divorce course of action that exists in the Apostolic United Brethren (AUB) church.

“You can go away a relationship in our church,” she reported. “If it is a relationship like mine and Kody experienced, the place it’s just a spiritual relationship, then they release you spiritually and you go as a result of them. As significantly as I’m anxious, that’s just between me and God.”

Higdon clarifies the legal facet of that to In Contact, noting, “If a person in a polygamous ‘marriage’ desires to depart the ‘marriage’ and still that individual is not identified as a lawful spouse, they could conceivably have some other solutions — for instance by a cohabitation deal or the putative partner doctrine, but there is no this kind of detail as a polygamous divorce.”