‘Sister Wives’ Shocker: Janelle Brown Says She’s ‘Leaving the Show’
Janelle Brown is moving on.
Over the weekend, the Sister Wives star stunned fans when she quietly announced that she was exiting the long-running TLC reality series.
“I used to think I’d ‘broken’ at certain points in my life,” Janelle shared on Instagram. “Leaving the show… leaving a marriage… starting over at an age where everyone expects you to have it all figured out. I kept looking at the pieces and thinking something must be wrong with me.”
Janelle has starred in Sister Wives since 2010, alongside her now ex-husband Kody Brown, former sister wives Christine Brown, Meri Brown, and Robyn Brown, and the family’s many children. The show’s 20th season is currently airing on TLC. The network has not confirmed if it will return for season 21.
Janelle Brown is ‘shedding’ what no longer serves her
Janelle, 56, has experienced some major changes in her life in recent years. In December 2022, she revealed she was leaving Kody after nearly 30 years of marriage. In early 2024, she left Flagstaff, Arizona, for a new life in North Carolina. Soon after, she had to navigate an unimaginable loss when her son, Garrison Brown, died unexpectedly.
All that left Janelle reevaluating where things stood and crafting a new vision for the the future. While she initially saw those various upheavals as “breaking points,” she now looks at things differently.
“They were shedding points. Old expectations. Old versions of myself. Old identities that were never really mine,” she wrote.
“Shedding feels painful while you’re in it, but on the other side you realize you didn’t lose yourself… you uncovered her,” Janelle continued.
The reality TV star concluded with some words of wisdom for other people who were in a challenging “season.”
“If everything feels like it’s falling apart… just hold on,” she wrote. “Most of the time, it’s actually falling away.”
Janelle felt she had to ‘catch up to’ the version of herself on ‘Sister Wives’
While many of Janelle’s followers cheered her positive outlook on life, others admitted they were disappointed that she was leaving Sister Wives.
“Leaving the show? Noooooooooooooooo, you’re the good, kind part,” one commented.
“I hope you get your own show!!! You deserve to have your own life to yourself so I shouldn’t complain,” another wrote.
“I will miss you on the show, for as long as it survives but proud of the decision you’re making for yourself,” another fan chimed in. “You’ve always been the one with brains AND beauty.”
Janelle’s announcement about her post-Sister Wives future came a few days after she opened up about feeling that the show never really represented her true self.
“I was thinking about this earlier today, just doing normal life stuff, and it hit me again how strange it is to have people ‘know’ your story without ever really knowing you,” she wrote on Instagram.
“For so long I felt like I was running to catch up with the version of me the world created… the strong one, the steady one, the one who didn’t bend even when things were heavy,” she continued. “But there were so many pieces of me that never made it onto a screen and now, in this quieter chapter, I’m realizing how good it feels to finally share from my heart instead of a storyline.”
Sister Wives airs Sundays at 10 p.m. ET/PT on TLC. Episodes also stream on HBO Max and discovery+.
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