‘Cooking With Just Christine’ Season Opener Highlights the Difference in Christine’s Mood Since Moving Away From Kody Brown

The season 17 premiere of Sister Wives had a much different feel than the premiere of season 2 of Christine Brown’s solo cooking show, Cooking with Just Christine. Fans quickly noticed that Christine appears to be thriving in her solo endeavor, while her demeanor in season 17 of her family’s reality TV show is far more stoic and seemingly anguished. It seems like a change of scenery gave the mother of six a world of good. 

Christine Brown laughs and smiles in the season opener of ‘Cooking with Just Christine’ 

Cooking with Just Christine served as a great palate cleanser for Christine Brown fans who suffered through Kody Brown and Christine Brown’s divorce discussions in the season 17 opener of Sister Wives. The season 2 premiere of Christine’s cooking show had a decidedly different feel. 

In the first episode back, Christine spent time in the kitchen with one of her older children, making brownies. Christine later topped the fudgy concoction with chocolate frosting. While the brownies looked plenty sweet, watching Christine smile and joke around was far sweeter for fans of the series. The mother of six seemed to struggle with her decision to leave her husband behind. She certainly seems happier for it now, though. In fact, it looks like Christine is truly thriving. Fans can find Christine’s ooey-gooey brownie recipe on TLC.com. 

Christine Brown appears pained and largely bothered in the early episodes of ‘Sister Wives’ season 17

While Sister Wives fans are thrilled to see Christine happy and thriving in her solo life, they have noticed just how stark the difference in her mood is between season 17 of Sister Wives and her new cooking show. In the premiere of the family’s reality TV show, Christine and Kody Brown battled it out over her desire to end their decades-long spiritual marriage and her plans to move out of Flagstaff, Utah. 

The premiere was among the tensest episodes fans have seen thus far. Still, there seem to be more unnerving moments to come. At least that’s what to TLC teaser for the current season leads fans to believe. In the teaser, released weeks before the show premiered on September 11, Kody yells at his wives and appears at odds with Christine and his second wife, Janelle Brown. 

When did TLC film the two shows? 

Fans can chalk up the marked difference in Christine’s demeanor between the two shows to the period in which TLC filmed each series. Season 17 of Sister Wives picked up in early 2021 before Christine sold her home and moved to Utah. While it’s still unclear what period the season will cover, we are guessing that the series will end with the sale of Christine’s home in the early fall of 2021. 

Cooking with Just Christine, on the other hand, appears to have been filmed far more recently. Christine was already settled into her home in Utah and living comfortably around family in the show’s first season. The opening episode of season 2, which featured Mykelti Padron, was filmed after Mykelti found out she was pregnant with twins. Mykelti and her husband, Tony Padron, announced their surprise pregnancy via People in June 2022. The couple’s are expecting their twins to arrive in December.