‘Sister Wives’ Star Meri Brown Stands Up for Janelle Brown Amid ‘Horrible’ Online Bullying
Meri Brown is standing up for her Sister Wives costar Janelle Brown.
On Saturday, the TLC personality revealed that Janelle has been on the receiving end of some “horrible” online bullying, and she called out fans who were behind the hostile messages and comments.
Meri Brown calls out ‘Sister Wives’ fans who’ve cast Janelle Brown as a ‘villain’
The nastiness toward Janelle seems to have intensified during the Sister Wives Season 20 tell-all, where both Meri and Janelle shared their take on the contentious sale of the Coyote Pass property. Janelle’s remarks have led some people to cast her as the new Sister Wives bad guy.
“It’s happening to Janelle and it’s absolutely ridiculous … I don’t understand why people just have to go crazy about somebody,” Meri said in the Instagram video she posted on October 7. “Like, why do people have to have a villain?”
Meri reminded her followers that what they are seeing on TV is just a highly edited sliver of her and Janelle’s lives.
“People are seeing little snippets, little bits, edited comments, edited little things,” she said. “And y’all are filling in the blanks. And you’re filling them in so wrong.”
Meri Brown recalls past online bullying
Kody Brown’s first wife felt a particular need to stand up for Janelle because she herself has been the target of online attacks over the years. A few years ago, she was receiving hate-filled messages and even death threats after she posted a cooking video that coincided with the premiere of fellow Sister Wives star Christine Brown’s TLC show Cooking With Just Christine. Rabid fans took it as a dig at Christine. In reality, Meri said she had no idea that Christine’s show was even airing. But the onslaught of messages was overwhelming and distressing, she said.
“The think I think people don’t understand is we are human … we still have feelings,” she said.
Meri admitted that she didn’t know how Janelle was feeling about the latest outcry among Sister Wives fans. But she didn’t approve of bullying and harassment, no matter what.
“I don’t know the feelings or emotions that Janelle is going through,” Meri said. “And that’s not my business, unless she wants to share it with me, OK? But what I do know is I have been in the same experience where I have been attacked, and I have had death threats, and I’ve had all the hate and it does not feel good, because we’re human. It messes with you. It does.”
“The thing is, whatever Kody said on the recent tell-alls, whatever Janelle said on the recent tell-alls, whatever I believe or don’t believe out of either of them is irrelevant to this conversation,” Meri added. “It is irrelevant to the conversation, it doesn’t matter. What matters is that people don’t need to hate on other people.”
For more news and exclusive interviews, follow Showbiz Cheat Sheet’s Instagram.
