Remember when the biggest Sister Wives stories were about real estate and the eternal question of whether or not Kody Brown would take a fifth wife?
Man, those were the days.
Things are quite a bit more intense now that Kody is destroying so many of his relationships -- relationships with his wives, relationships with his children, relationships with the small handful of Sister Wives fans who could actually stand him in the first place.
As time has gone on, and especially with the added stress from the pandemic, it seems like Kody has gotten more angry, more petty, and more heartless in dealing with family members.
And that's essentially why Christine, his third wife, decided she'd had enough.
We've been seeing their marriage break down for a while now, and this season in particular they've been really distant with each other.
Last week, we saw him tell her that he didn't want an intimate relationship with her anymore, and in response to that, she packed up his belongings and placed them in her garage.
Of course, the footage we're seeing now was filmed over a year ago, so we know that things didn't get better.
Back in November, Christine released an official statement in which she wrote "After more than 25 years together, Kody and I have grown apart and I have made the difficult decision to leave."
"We will continue to be a strong presence in each other's lives as we parent our beautiful children and support our wonderful family."
In Kody's own statement on the matter, he said that Christine's decision "comes with a great deal of sadness," and he confirmed that "we will always remain committed parents."
But even after those statements, fans still had questions -- namely, what does a divorce look like in a family like the Browns?
After all, Kody is just legally married to Robyn, but because of their religion, he has spiritual marriages with all four wives.
It's all kind of complicated and the Browns have never been all that open about their specific religious beliefs, but essentially in a spiritual marriage a husband and wife are sealed together for all eternity.
That means that to get a spiritual divorce, that couple would have to be unsealed, which sounds like a fairly difficult process.
So ... what's going on with that?
Well, according to a source who spoke with Us Weekly, not a lot.
"Kody wouldn't go through with a 'spiritual divorce' from Christine," the source claims. "He left her on her own to make peace with the separation -- it was her and God, not her and Kody."
To be clear, the source says that Kody and Christine have not had "a formal ceremony at a church" that would end their spiritual marriage.
This is partly because Kody isn't exactly in a "polygamy headspace" these days, but it's also because, as this insider tells it, "He wouldn't give Christine -- or any of his wives, for that matter -- the courtesy of going along with [a formal ceremony] since he feels betrayed."
The source also adds that Kody has been "more angry and bitter" lately, which is sort of a terrifying thought.
As always, you have to take reports like these with a grain of salt, but this one is definitely not too difficult to believe.
Kody has seen himself as a victim in basically every situation we've ever seen him in, so it makes sense that he'd see himself as a victim here too.
In fact, the line about the separation not even having anything to do with Kody makes us wonder if this information didn't come from the man himself.
So really, there are two ways this could go.
One, Kody refuses to do the ceremony to make their split official in the eyes of their religion and Christine, in their belief, is tied to him for the rest of all time, which would clearly be a jerk move.
Or two, either Christine or Kody, or both of them, just don't believe any of this anymore, so it's just a regular old breakup and nothing else needs to be done.
Wonder what will happen next?
