14 DAY TRIAL // After the “John and Kate Plus 8” and other similar experiments, TLC is bringing into the spotlight another type of extended family: “Sister Wives” documents the story of polygamous Kody Brown.
Mr. Brown has 3 wives (and is about to marry a fourth), 13 children and 3 stepchildren. Because of the success of the show, he and his spouses are being investigated for bigamy, which is illegal in Utah.
Contacted by the media about the ongoing police investigation, the Browns say that they knew the risk they were running before they even started doing the show.
In other words, they knew media attention meant they could lose their freedom for breaking the law. With all that, they decided it was a risk worth taking, TMZ informs.
“We are disappointed in the announcement of an investigation, but when we decided to do this show, we knew there would be risks,” the Browns say in the statement.
“But for the sake of our family, and most importantly, our kids, we felt it was a risk worth taking,” they add in the same statement.
According to Mr. Brown (as CBS News informs), the TLC reality show on his life is not really that much different from the fictional HBO series “Big Love,” which also focused on a family of Mormons.
In the first episode of the reality series, which attracted record ratings (2.3 million viewers), Brown says bigamy is not something he deliberately set out to achieve.
“I just fell in love, and then I feel in love again, and I fell in love again,” he says. Judging by the ratings, audiences too love seeing how he juggles so many women (and children) in his life.
However, his lifestyle is not necessarily something that he would recommend others, he says. Moreover, his religion should protect him from being charged for bigamy.
“We’re not trying to promote this lifestyle, this is kind of the thing that I would actually say, ‘Hey buddies, don’t try this at home’,” Brown says.
Utah authorities, on the other hand, see the matter in a different light: the law prohibits anyone from having two wives and he has 3 (soon to become 4) and he even flaunts this lifestyle on TV for the entire world to see.