Meri Brown doesn't have a loving husband.
Nor does she have anything resemblign an active sex life.
But the veteran Sister Wives star does have one thing going for her these days:
A positive attitude.
Over the past several Sunday nights, TLC viewers have witnessed the total deterioation of Meri and Kody's marriage, with the former admitting a few weeks ago on air that she and Kody are just friends.
Things only got worse on this weekend's one-on-one tell-all special, where we discovered that the couple hadn't slept together in 10 years.
For real:
Kody and Meri haven't been intimate in 10 years, and Kody has no interest in touching his supposed spouse ever again.
“There’s just no chance that I ever want that again," Kody said on this special of reconciling in any romantic way with his first wife, focusing on Meri's 2015 catfishing scandal and adding:
“Meri had an affair. She was leaving my ass. She made it clear to everybody that she was getting out of there. She was done with us. She can’t admit it now."
He then emphasized that he doesn't want to get into bed with Meri again.
Not today. Not tomorrow. Not next month or year or decade...
"There’s a point where intimacy is just damage," Kody explained on this TLC special.
"It’s misleading to have intimacy in a relationship where there’s no real safety. I’m not going there. No, and I never will again.
"I will be her friend. I will do what I can to protect her. I’m never going to feel safe in an intimate place."
So... how is Meri responding to this ultimatum?
As well as one can, we suppose.
On February 1, two days after part one of the Season 16 reunion aired, Meri shared the following meme, which includes the following message:
"I am going to make a very beautiful life for myself no matter what it takes."
It's pretty clear Meri is referring to Kody here, isn't it?
While she sounds optimistic in this social media post, Meri confessed on air Sunday that she wishes things were different.
“That’s definitely something that I miss. I miss emotional intimacy with him. I miss conversations with him. I miss physical intimacy with him,” Meri admitted, telling viewers she had no plans to walk away from her spiritual union with Kody.
“I would love it if he would hold my hand. I have hope that he will [come back to full fellowship] and also, if he never does then I’m going to create my own peace and happiness within the family relationships that I do have.
"This is my family.”
Kody, for his selfish and awful part, wasn't particularly affected by this admission.
“I’m not ever going to be in a conjugal relationship with her because I’m not going to go through that emotional torture ever again,” he told the reunion host of Meri, who Kody marrried in 1994.
“I’m not trying to make Meri sound bad.
"It’s just a bad match.”
Why the heck is Meri still involved with Kody at this point?
“From where I am, it’s been 31 years now that we’ve been married [and] I’m still committed. I’ve made my choice. I’m still here," Meri concluded on Sunday, noting that she’s still invested because she loves Kody... for some reason.
"I do still have hope. I want there to be [a future in full fellowship].
“I just feel peace when I think about staying in the family because it’s what I want. It’s what I know is right for me.”
Sister Wives airs on TLC Sundays at 10/9c.
Part two of this revealing tell-all special airs on February 6, 2022.