“We were married for less than a year,” Janelle revealed

Before Janelle Brown was married to her now-ex Kody Brown and became a sister wife to Meri Brown, she and Meri shared another relationship — sisters-in-law.

In the Jan. 4 episode of Sister Wives, Janelle, 56, opened up about having known Meri, 54, before her marriage to Kody, because Janelle was married to Meri’s brother.

“Janelle and I were actually sisters-in-law before we were sister wives,” Meri shared, as the pair sat down for a chat at a coffee shop.

“She’d been married to my brother and she was actually at my wedding with him,” Meri continued. “And then they divorced after Kody and I got married.”

“I met Meri’s brother when I was a senior in high school and we got married about a year to a year and a half or so after I graduated,” Janelle said, sharing that the marriage was “very short.”

“We were married for less than a year,” she revealed.

Although Janelle felt that her brief marriage prior to meeting Kody “wasn’t really a thing,” Meri felt differently — considering she was the first to wed Kody in 1990.

“When the conversation about Janelle coming into our family started happening, it was really hard for me,” Meri shared on the episode.

“It was a tough thing to wrap my head around on multiple levels just because she had been married to my brother, you know?” she continued. “And so it was definitely a thing for me, for sure.”

On the other hand, Janelle shared that she felt her first marriage “didn’t really matter.”

“It was such a small period of time,” Janelle said.

Elsewhere in the episode, Janelle opened up about being granted a “release,” or divorce, from ex Kody, 56, by their church, the Apostolic United Brethren.

“I have it,” Janelle said, while holding up the release paper. “That was easy. I thought I was going to have to come back for a second meeting. I am free. I am free. I am free. I am free.”

After her meeting with church leaders, Janelle said she didn’t know “what I was worried about.”

“They were all very kind,” she said. “They’d granted me the release. So there was really kind of a shift in my energy, and I think maybe it must have really meant something deep down that I’m sort of not always paying attention to. So I’m glad I did this.”

Janelle and Kody split in 2022. He also separated from wives Christine Brown in 2021 as well as Meri in 2023. The former polygamist’s only remaining relationship is with wife Robyn Brown.

“You know, look, I don’t regret anything in the last 30 years,” Janelle said, who shares children Logan, Madison, Hunter, Gabriel, Savanah and late son Garrison with Kody. “I love the family that we have, and I would do it all again in order to get the family and the kids that we have. [It] just is sort of like that chapter has ended.”

Sister Wives airs Sundays at 10 p.m. ET on TLC.