‘Sister Wives’ star Christine reveals drug addiction, Kody’s ‘love bombing,’ grief
Her time as a “sister wife” may be over, but Christine Brown Woolley isn’t done sharing her story.
In her new memoir (out now from Simon & Schuster), the TLC show star shares an unfiltered look behind the scenes of the popular reality show “Sister Wives” and her relationship with Kody Brown. In its upcoming 20th season, the show will continue to follow the lives of the Browns, even now that the first three “Sister Wives” – Meri, Janelle and Christine – have left Kody.
Brown Woolley’s “Sister Wife” isn’t just a rehash of their joint 2012 memoir “Becoming Sister Wives.” Brown Woolley gives a candid look at how she left Kody, sharing lessons learned on toxic relationships, motherhood, religion, addiction and finding real love.
Christine Brown Woolley’s oxycodone addiction during ‘Sister Wives’
“Sister Wife: A Memoir of Faith, Family, and Finding Freedom” by Christine Brown Woolley is out now.
Among the book’s bombshell revelations was an addiction Brown Woolley writes she never shared with the cameras.
In 2016, after a surgery to repair a torn ACL and meniscus, Brown Woolley became addicted to oxycodone, she writes. Originally prescribed the pills for pain management, she soon found herself counting down the hours until she could take her next one. After a while, she realized she wasn’t taking it for her knee anymore. It was Janelle’s daughter Maddie who called her out and told her she needed to make a change. Brown Woolley’s daughter and mother helped her get rid of the rest of the pills. She says she was open with her kids about what happened.
“I was still so unbalanced for maybe six months after that,” Brown Woolley writes. “I didn’t feel like me, and all I wanted was oxycodone. I couldn’t get it, and that made me angry. I knew I would never feel that high again.”
Christine says Kody love-bombed and compared ‘Sister Wives’
Brown Woolley writes that she wanted to follow in her parents’ footsteps into a polygamous relationship since she was young. She specifically wanted to be a third wife because the “sister wives” dynamic would already be set.
Brown Woolley and Kody’s relationship strained over the years as his attention to her and their six kids waned, especially after he married his fourth wife, Robyn. She says she “never felt secure” in their relationship.
She also writes that Kody would withhold time with her until she could be “lovable,” comparing her behavior to that of the other sister wives and demanding full-body massages and perfected household tasks.
“I will treat you like you are lovable when you make an effort to be lovable,” he told Brown Woolley, she writes in the memoir.