After nearly 30 years of marriage, 16 years on television, and six children together, Janelle Brown found out her ex-husband was leaving Sister Wives the same way most of us learn about a schedule change at work: by email.
No phone call. No sit-down. No goodbye. Just a message in her inbox saying Kody Brown and his wife Robyn Brown would not be coming back. And when PEOPLE asked Janelle what she did with that email, she delivered four words that instantly became the most quoted line of Season 21: “I might have. I didn’t care.”
The Email That Ended an Era
Janelle revealed the story in a PEOPLE interview published November 2, four days after the Season 21 premiere. “I actually got an email that they weren’t coming back, and I’m like, ‘Oh, wow. Okay,’” she said. “I haven’t talked to them since, well, since we were all together after we sold the property [in season 20], and I don’t know anything about what’s going on in their lives.”
TLC had already announced in September that Kody and Robyn would not return for Season 21. But for Janelle, the news arrived not as a headline — as an inbox notification. On camera in the premiere, her shock was real: “I was flabbergasted, really, when I got the news.”
“I Might Have. I Didn’t Care.”
Asked directly whether she deleted the email, Janelle didn’t hesitate: “I might have. I didn’t care.”
It is the kind of line that only lands after years of history. Janelle split from Kody in December 2022 after nearly 30 years together. She has since built a new house on 156 acres in North Carolina and launched the Taeda Farms flower business with her daughter Maddie and son-in-law Caleb. The email, in that light, wasn’t a bombshell. It was paperwork.
YOU MAY LIKEMykelti’s Truth Bomb: Are You Watching Sister Wives for the Moms — or to Yell at Kody?“It felt like the end of an era, but also too, I feel like going forward now, there’s so many beautiful things happening for all of us,” Janelle said.
The Kids Were Surprised — But Not Heartbroken
Janelle told her six children — Logan, Madison, Hunter, Gabe, Savanah, and the late Garrison — before anyone else. “They really were surprised,” she said. “But again, most of my children don’t really have a relationship with their father, so it was kind of just news really.”
That sentence lands harder than the email itself. Janelle also caught herself using the past tense about Kody as a father: “He was a really good dad.” Her children, she said, were relieved when she finally left: “They could see that it wasn’t a great relationship and they were like, ‘Okay, Mom, finally.’”
Life After the Email: Flowers, Pete, and a New Era
If the email closed a door, Janelle has spent the months since building an entirely new life behind it: a new house on 156 acres in North Carolina, and the Taeda Farms flower business with Maddie and Caleb.
And then there’s Pete. Janelle hard-launched her new boyfriend in August with a selfie and a caption that broke the internet: “I wasn’t looking. I certainly wasn’t expecting you.” The two met on a truly blind date — she didn’t even know what he looked like — and at dinner, when Pete asked how she and Christine knew each other, Christine answered, “We were married to the same man.” Janelle leaned in: “At the same time.”
Asked whether Kody and Robyn might pop back up this season, her answer was final: “No, no, no. I think we’re sort of done with that era.” An email ended it. A flower farm, a blind date, and a woman who finally stopped caring replaced it. So here’s the question splitting the fandom: after nearly 30 years together, was an email a fittingly cold end — or did Janelle deserve at least a phone call? And be honest: would you have deleted the email too?
