14 DAY TRIAL // Meri Brown, one of Kody Brown’s 4 wives made famous on the TLC reality show Sister Wives, is finally opening up on the hurtful and quite terrifying experience of getting catfished online earlier this year.
News of her experience broke earlier this month, with one report in particular saying that she hadn’t been catfished as she claimed: she actually got caught cheating on her husband. With the Browns, while he is allowed to take on as many wives as he sees fit, the women are not allowed to take another man than Kody.
Meri gets candid with People mag
Since the “scandal,” Meri has not spoken to the press about it, save for the statement in which she said she’d become a catfish victim: i.e. she thought she was talking with a new online buddy, a businessman from Chicago, but had actually been duped by a woman posing as a man.
She also said that she had turned for emotional comfort online after Kody asked her for a divorce so he could legally marry the youngest of the Sister Wives and could adopt her children. That was wrong, but she was hurt and confused, emotional and feeling alone.
Speaking to People magazine for the first time since this transpired in the press, Meri sticks to the same tune: there was nothing wrong about the relationship she thought she started, but in retrospect, she would have been better off if she looked for comfort and counseling with her own family, not strangers.
“I didn't know how to get out of the situation without putting myself, family, and friends at greater risk. It was a very difficult time. I had a lot of anxiety,” she says. “My family was very concerned for our safety and angry that we had been targeted. They were relieved once I told them what was really going on and saddened that I had been so afraid of involving them that I didn't go to them sooner.”
Today, the family is stronger than ever, Meri adds. Kody and the other Sister Wives stand by her, offering her support through this difficult time.
This was no regular emotional affair
In admitting that she got catfished, Meri admits to having an emotional affair online, but there are reports that this was a little bit more than that.
For starters, it is said, the Chicago man actually exists and she did have an affair with him - and not just emotional either. The recording below is said to be a voicemail Meri left on his phone and, if so, it confirms that the relationship was more serious than she’s letting on.
Kody Brown is a relatively controversial figure for his out of the ordinary lifestyle, which made him just perfect for a TLC reality show: he has 4 wives (though only one can call herself that legally) and 17 children with them.
