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Kody Brown’s 18 Children: Everything We Know About Who Still Talks to Their Dad — and Who Doesn’t

Kody Brown’s 18 Children: Everything We Know About Who Still Talks to Their Dad — and Who Doesn’t

Kody Brown with Gabriel and Garrison in happier times — before the rift that Janelle now puts at “90 to 95 percent.” (ScreenRant / TLC)

“Alienated from 90 to 95 percent.” That is Janelle Brown’s estimate of how many of Kody Brown’s 18 children no longer have a real relationship with their father — a number she gave PEOPLE on November 2. Her own six were surprised by the news that Kody and Robyn were leaving the show, she said, but only mildly: “most of my children don’t really have a relationship with their father, so it was kind of just news really.”

That number — her assessment, not a verified count — has become the frame for everything since. Janelle learned by email that Kody and Robyn were quitting the show, and her children’s shrug said more than any statement. A percentage hides 18 separate stories — here they are, mother by mother.

Janelle’s Six: The Sons Who Drew the Line

Hunter Brown and Janelle Brown smiling cheek to cheek in a selfie
Hunter Brown and Janelle Brown — Hunter is the one son visibly walking back toward the family. (Monsters & Critics / TLC)

The sharpest line came from Gabriel. He clashed with Kody over his strict COVID rules, and the distance never closed. “He kept phrasing it like I owed him an apology,” Gabriel told Janelle in an October 2024 episode. When Kody texted back “I forgive you. Please forgive me,” Gabriel’s answer was blunt: “Forgive me for what?” Then the ultimatum: “I told Dad that if he doesn’t change and he can’t take accountability, then I just won’t ever see him again.”

Garrison, Gabriel’s closest ally in the rift, died in March 2024 at 25 — and a confrontation clip of the two brothers telling Kody they had gone eight months without seeing him made the rounds again this month. Hunter is the exception here: the son who said yes to the RV trip to Moab with Christine and David, and who joins them on Sunday’s camping episode. Madison says she is “open to reconciliation,” but only with “a pattern of consistency.”

Christine’s Six: The Daughters Who Spoke Up

Christine Brown laughing with daughters Mykelti, Aspyn and Ysabel in a kitchen
Christine Brown with Mykelti, Aspyn and Ysabel — her daughters have spoken up about their father in their own words. (TV Shows Ace / TLC)

Mykelti was the family’s peacekeeper for years — one of the few Brown kids close to both Robyn and Kody and to Christine and Janelle. That role is over. In an October 2024 fan Q&A she said that if Kody “took more accountability in any of his actions, his kids — maybe not all of them, but at least some of them — would reach out,” adding that as a parent she would “sit outside that door, knock, apologize and ask, and ask, and ask.”

Ysabel put it plainly in a November 2025 episode: “My dad and I aren’t like, close, close, close, close, close, close.” Kody refused to fly cross-country for her back surgery during the pandemic. “He’s still my dad,” she insisted, “and I love him.” Paedon described an hour-long call in January 2023 that left him thinking, “OK, I might be getting my father back” — then found out Kody had pressed producers to silence the children. Christine refused: “You have to earn their love back.” Gwendlyn admitted, “It hurts so much to see him be a good father to others when I didn’t really get that much.”

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Meri’s One: Leon’s Two Sentences That Said Everything

Leon, Meri’s only child, broke a long silence in November 2025 to answer Kody’s claim that he had reached out to all of his children “multiple times.” “There’s a ridiculous video of my father circulating where he says he reaches out to his children,” Leon wrote. “There’s no missed calls on their cell.” They added that they had not heard from Kody since Garrison’s death in March 2024 — and that “kody blatantly blew me off at garrison’s funeral. he is a liar. he is a joke of a father.”

Robyn’s Five: The Only Kids Still Under His Roof

That leaves five children whose relationship with Kody is not estranged at all — because they still live with him. Dayton, Aurora and Breanna, and Solomon and Ariella, are, according to reports, still living in Flagstaff with Kody and Robyn in the $2.1 million house the couple bought in October 2024. Five kids in one house; 13 others scattered across the country, most of them not picking up the phone.

So the “90 to 95 percent” is Janelle’s estimate, not a headcount — but the stories behind it are on the record. Which of Kody’s children said the words that hit you hardest — Gabriel’s ultimatum, Leon’s two sentences, or Madison’s demand for a pattern, not a promise?

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