For most of her adult life, Meri Brown’s story was written around someone else: Kody Brown’s first wife, the woman who held a plural family together. Then, in January 2023, she and Kody announced they had permanently ended their marriage after more than 32 years together. What followed was quieter, and more convincing: a series of moves adding up to a woman living on her own terms. Here are five of them.
1. She Faced the Fear That Once Kept Her Home
In October 2026, Meri told Utah’s KSL News about a struggle viewers never saw: a period of self-diagnosed agoraphobia that left her, in her words, “too scared” to leave her house. Much of the anxiety came from fear of being seen online. She faced it head-on, showing her face online while selling clothes, then launching Worthy Up, her confidence and community brand, in May 2024. “I’ve really done a lot of work on myself to come out of that,” she said.
2. She Reclaimed Her Family Home, On Her Own Terms
In 2023, Meri left Flagstaff and moved full-time into the Parowan, Utah, home she bought in December 2017: the 1870 house built by her great-great-grandparents, once run as Lizzie’s Heritage Inn with her late mother, Bonnie. She bought it alone, and is renovating it to reopen as an event venue, not a bed-and-breakfast. Parowan may not be forever, she admits. “I don’t know where I’m going to land permanently,” she told KSL, “but right now, I’m just enjoying being here.”
3. She Built a Circle That Is Not the Brown Family
Season 21 shows Meri leaning on friends who tell her the truth, not friends who keep the peace. Best friend Jenn Sullivan has stood by her through the split, from their “Fridays With Friends” livestreams to a New York trip. In the October 18 episode, Meri hosted friends for her birthday, showed off the Parowan renovations, and said she wants a partner who celebrates her properly. She has even sat down with Christine to work through years of awkwardness, instead of pretending it away.
4. She Started Traveling for Herself, Not for the Family
Meri once said she did not think it was okay to travel alone. Her first solo trip lasted one night. The Meri of Season 21 wants to stay a week at a time in different places, and says she wants to travel to find where she feels at home. Her New York trip with Jenn, full of laughing and dancing, showed a woman traveling for fun, not duty. Now it helps her learn who she is when nobody is watching.
5. She Is Dating Slowly, and Refusing to Rush
After a brief relationship with Amos Andrews in late 2023 and early 2024, Meri met Ron at a televised speed-dating event. A year on, she is clear on pace: she will not jump in fast and risk another heartbreak, and she and Ron are happy letting things play out, even as friends. “I jumped into my relationship with Kody really fast,” she said. “I just think that moving slow can be wise.” A religious release from Kody and the Coyote Pass sale, which according to reports closed for around $1.5 million in 2025, are behind her. Meri is not waiting to be chosen. She is choosing.
YOU MAY LIKEMykelti’s Truth Bomb: Are You Watching Sister Wives for the Moms — or to Yell at Kody?Christine has found a new marriage. Janelle has found fierce independence. But Meri’s thriving looks different: slower, quieter, built house by house and friend by friend. So tell us: is Meri the ex-wife thriving the most right now, or is another ex-wife still ahead of her?
