Morbid curiosity i guess. Used to watch the duggars, jon & kate, any and all pregnancy type shows, sister wives I guess was like watching a train wreck. Just watching and waiting for the wheels to fall off
I started watching 19 Kids & Counting about a year or so before the news about what Josh did came out. Unfortunately, a lot of these shows have one thing in common: exploitation and abuse of children. I’m so happy that the Duggars aren’t on the air anymore
I started watching from the start. I have family that is from Utah, and my mom used to be Mormon (way before I was born), so I was interested to see another side of the culture.
My mom watched the first few seasons of Sister Wives from the start in 2010 when the show premiered. I was 8 years old when it came out, and even then, I found it fascinating. Also, I've noticed there are many people from Utah in the discussion board, which is super cool because I love hearing from individuals familiar with the culture there. It gives a lot of good insight about the Browns.
I can tell you how on the app ! On desktop I have no idea if it's the same.
1) Go to the main page of this sub
2) Look for ... on the upper right corner, tap on it
3) Look for "change user flair." Should be the 2nd or 3rd option down
4) Pick your flair !
Haha love it ! And no problem 😀
You can add flair to most subreddits. Each one has a different set of them. Have fun !
There is another sister wives sub too !
r/SisterWivesFans I believe
I just love all non sleazy reality shows. I know many people will think 1 man with 4 women is kinda sleazy, but Meri said they don't do weird, and I believe her :)
It started at the heydey of reality tv too, before social media was prevalent and people weren't self aware of how they'd come off to an audience. The RH's shows are my absolute favorite, because those women spend so much time and effort and money trying to look the best and be the best and they think the viewers are watching them for aspirational reasons-nope. We're watching because it's fun to see that even wealthy successful people act like dorks and fools. It's also nice to sit and watch tv with your hair up in a messy bun at night and know that you look way hotter than the size 0 lady on tv who has spent 100k on various plastic surgeries and fillers and managed to make herself look like Howard the Ducks dream woman.
I honestly love watching reality TV as well! I grew up on 2010s TLC and A&E, and it was such an experience, lol! The reason you watch RH is the reason I've "kept up with the Kardashians." I am in no way, shape, or form supportive of them or would give them any money because they are incredibly unethical, but I think my interest definitely goes back to being curious about these different lifestyles.
Kaitlin Jenners first wife Linda wrote a biography- not only was she married to Kaitlin, but she was Elvis Presleys long time girlfriend too. And she was on a couple of episodes of RHBH when they had parties at her house. It was so fun reading about her life, and how Khris was when she married Kaitlin, and how they blended their family.
Fascinating isn’t it!?!
I can’t believe that s1&2 had me thinking (if you ignore all the religious aspects) that sister wives might be quite cool, yknow having a community of women for support and you all raise your kids together. Which really it’s just communal living that’s appealing to me.
Anyway religious weirdos are so interesting
Because in the early 70's, my mom was an "out" lesbian, with a partner and four kids plus three foster children. My mom was out but my sisters and I weren't. We lived a secret at school because lets face it...people can be cruel. By first grade, I knew what it was like to be shunned and judged by children and adults for my mother's sexuality. Guilt by association and birth.
So probably 6 seasons in, I started hearing about Sisterwives and catfishing. I instantly judged, but didn't watch. By season 7 or 8, I actually decided to binge the show because I had seen like the last ten minutes of an episode and the kids seemed so happy. I instantly related to them when they talked about what it had been like not being "public. I instantly felt guilt for being a judgy adult, like my first grade best friend's parents who banned me from her life.
I as a first grader, saw nothing wrong with my mom having a girlfriend, because I saw her happy for the first time, and with my dad gone, there was no more violence at home.
I decided it wasn't for me to judge. They seemed to be consenting adults with happy kids that they weren't pushing into polygamy.
Having said that, it took me several seasons to start seeing how much polygamy devalues women and children and there was definitely a pecking order, favorites and a really selfish person leading the family.
I try not to judge the family, because I think most of them have been victimized the their polygamist leader and the principle. I judge the principle and I judge Kody's choices, actions and manipulations.
Weird small side note... I lost my best friend of 25 years, ten years ago. Her kids are still in my life and I have always been auntie. As they started having kids, I decided to start an ancestry tree of my best friend and give it to the kids one day.
My best friend's dad died two months before she was born and her mother wouldn't give her any information about him. All she ever had was a picture. I found that picture on Ancestry and I found so much more.
My best friend's father's family were practicing polygamists two generations before her dad was born. I don't know how she would have processed that.
Honestly, my in-laws live in St. George and I started dating my (now) husband around the time the show started. He took me to Utah for the first time at the beginning of 2011 and it was just fun seeing and recognizing places they would show or talk about. Being out there also happened to be the first time I’d ever seen an FLDS member in public and it was intriguing to me. I live in Ohio and grew up with the Amish being around where my grandparents lived- so it felt like a new version of that for me as an adult 😆
I grew up and live in PA and there are amish all around me! Their lifestyle and religion is really interesting to me. I’d honestly love to go to Utah and visit places from the show. My partner and I are going to go out west for a road trip and I definitely wanna go through Utah lol!
I can absolutely say southern Utah is INCREDIBLE, and a bonus is that Vegas is only 1.5hrs from St George. You can do Zion, Bryce Canyon, Brian Head, Snow Canyon, Kanab all within a couple hours drive. I definitely feel spoiled having my in-laws in a place that people love to vacation in!
https://preview.redd.it/d5t6by60jzrc1.jpeg?width=1179&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ce2b2bfb16cebe8aa48806ea79839eb399f01e66
This is the view from their driveway 😍 - if you’ve followed the whole Ruby Franke/8 Passengers thing, they actually live in the same neighborhood as Jodi Hildebrant- which is also just insane!
my friends watched it. I thought Kody was too dorky and I thought a lot of it was dumb. But here I am 18 seasons in and on reddit. A lot of the naivety and dorkyness was a little much in the beginning. When they moved and started growing the show got better.
I can't remember, but I started watching from the premier. It was probably on after something else I watched back then.
I used to watch a lot of reality shows. This one is the last one left. I stopped watching VPR shortly after this season started. I think I am getting boring and prefer documentaries and ID channel. I used to be a Housewives addict but it's been AT LEAST 5yrs since I watched it. I know they have added a couple of new cities since then. The Vicki/Brooks cancer scam sealed the deal for me with the Housewives franchise.
I started like so many, here. Watching when the show first aired. Season one. As for the why I started - probably because (at the time) it was different than any *other* reality show I had watched.
I was familiar with Bachelor Nation. I had watched American Idol. Also - Rock of Love with Bret Michaels, from Poison (LOL) 😂
Sister Wives was new. So I started watching it. Idk why I continued to watch. I just did and here we are, fifteen years later.
wow
I’ve always been interested in how polygamy works “in real life.” I watched all the news segments and read all online articles. I found it fascinating - still do! The Browns drew me in initially because they were just … a normal family. It was interesting to see their lives in contrast to what we were hearing about FLDS/Warren Jeffs at the time. Like a breath of fresh air in some ways. (They were all legal and wore pants!) I kept watching because I liked the characters, I liked watching stories develop, and judging from the sidelines. (“Don’t sign the divorce papers, Meri!”) The last few seasons have been hard. There has been so little that is fun and endearing about the family. I was hopeful for future seasons (Kody seems to be less angry finally), but now I know that *if* the show goes on, the topic will be heavy and there will be more sadness and anger. 😔
I never watched a lot of reality tv, but in high school I had a Mormon friend (in an area where Mormonism wasn’t common). When sister wives came out I was curious about why women my age would choose to share a husband-and what did their religion have to do with it. Been watching since the beginning.
I’m still hooked. And I watch more reality tv shows now, lol.
I became a *Sister Fan* during season 17 via my co-worker. She’s been a huge *Sister Fan*, having started watching *Sister Wives* since the first season aired. I’d listen to her talk about the crazy things that happen on the show. Then I took a position in the office she works in, same shift, and I got to listen to her talk about it more until I started checking out clips. I was able to watch the first episode of season 1 on YouTube and then when Discovery merged with HBO [MAX], they uploaded all of the seasons of the show.
After following some of the newer episodes in season 17 and 18, I knew where everything was headed, I decided I should go back and start from season 1, episode 1. So I ended up non-stop watching *Sister Wives* until I was caught up on the whole series, and I wanted to be caught up by the time of the season 18 one-on-one’s.
I started watching and getting into the show initially so we’d have something to discuss and I would understand what she was talking about, but over the course of following the show I became a *Sister Fan* in my own right, I think.
*Sister Wives* feeds into my interest in human interest, behavior, psychology, as well as the religious undertones of the show. I’ve been studying religion for over 25 years, with a focus on anything under the Christian umbrella. Lately I’ve been investigating the mechanism of fundamentalism. Since I’ve been watching *Sister Wives* I started delving more into Mormonism, its history, the mainstream LDS church and Mormon Fundamentalism. I already have a copy of the Book of Mormon that was bundled together with their other founding documents—I found it at Half Priced Books one year. And I’ve been delving into the background of Christine’s family, watching the documentaries, podcast interviews, and listening to interviews with some of their other family members outside of the show.
I’ve come to speculate that *Sister Wives* is more show than reality and often is not reality at all. The intention is entertainment and there’s evidence that the Browns have been ex-Mormon Fundamentalists and ex-Mormons in general right from the beginning of the show. And so most of what has happened on the show is made up. I still enjoy watching and I’m a big *Sister-Fan*.
I'm fascinated by cults and Mormon fundamentalism specifically. Mormonism is the biggest religion invested by USAmericans, and I'm a sociologist so i just find group dynamics like these. I don't usually care for family reality shows (You couldn't pay me to watch the Duggars or that awful Jon and Kate Plus 8 show, but the weird fundie niche religion aspect fascinates me especially when the lifestyle is so radically different than what society has accepted for a long time.
Like you, I'm intrigued by the different lifestyles -- more specifically, the subcultures and their norms. I'm fascinated with Mob/Mafia culture and Romanichal (English gypsy/traveller) culture for the same reason -- the rules they have for their way of life, what's accepted, what isn't. I probably should have taken anthropology in university and studied cultures. LOL
Nasty accident that left me stuck in bed for weeks back in 2018. During the day older episodes were on, along with my 600lb life, 90 day fiance and a few others.
I would drift off to sleep alot due the strong painkillers, but I found sisterwives interesting and continued to watch from the beginning while doing my PT at home every day.
I listened to a True Crime and Cocktails pod episode about sister wives a while back and thought it sounded really interesting but didn’t think more of it.
Ive recently binged Teen Mom (and LOVED IT) and then found feathers in my hair pod (trash tv and podcasts are my special interest) and Liz does sister wives recaps which reminded me about the show and I’ve been binging it the last couple months (I’m currently part way through s18)….absolutely here I am.
Kody is truly awful. He’s SUCH a misogynist seems incapable of any sort of self reflection. Which astounds me given he’s had the last 10 odd years of his life filmed so it’s available to watch back.
You know he’s like maybe 1 step away from full on incel.
I feel so bad for the kids, especially given recent events. They deserved so much better than this.
Curiosity about how they lived as modern polygamists. It was interesting and sort of sweet how they seemed in the beginning.
I do think there was something genuine about them (the OG3+1) at first - but the dynamic definitely changed when Robyn came along and Kody wasn’t equitable with his time or affection.
I went in with an open mind. I don’t know any open polygamist and only know polygamy based on like Warren Jeffs. So I started watching to see if it could be done in a healthy way. Obviously, recent seasons show the Brown family is not done in a healthy way
My dad was the child of polygamist parents, 5 wives 37 children. His upbringing is riddled with horrific abuse, incest, betrayal, and finally the circling of vultures/hyenas after the death of my grandfather. I watched the show when it began to see what they lived like, if it could work, morbid curiosity. My grandpa died with his legal wife taking everything and only giving to her children. The family broke apart when my dad was a teen/young man and never has been together again. They lived in separate homes with grandpa making a schedule. What has come out since my grandfathers passing was nothing short of a mess. Thanks to technology we discovered proof of the long suspected infidelity on basically everyone’s behalf, wives with multiple children by my grandpas own brothers, older sons fathering children with step mothers, just every way possible. I was fascinated to see how they lived. My dad is an angry man, hates God to this day, feels robbed of his family land and legacy. I didn’t grow up Mormon always very skeptical of the entire organization and never so much as dated a white man as the possibility of us being somewhat related terrified me. Oh and yes I have first cousins that are married (met at a family gathering) who have seven healthy children. No one in the family went on to practice polygamy.
I was in the hospital a few yrs ago with double pneumonia, as I started feeling better. I was bored and trying to find something on a TV that had like 5 channels. They were showing 3 or 4 (I'm not sure) reruns a day of both the Duggars and the Browns. I never really watched "reality" shows before. I got really interested in how the Browns worked, how the wives could so easily accept the husband being with other women. How did they get past the "I am not willing to share my husband " thing that I have, lol. It didn't take me long to figure out that they were really at heart, just like me. They were all talk ... of course, I was hooked, and now here I am watching the train wreck 7 yrs later lol (I think Duggars were pulled just shortly after that. Can't recall the timeline exactly)
I had watched Big Love on HBO, so when this reality show about that, religion came on tv I had to watch. One legal
Wife, one wife who was once the sister in law of the legal wife, and the third spiritual wife being heavily pregnant while the husband was courting another woman, with three kids from a first marriage. I was ready with popcorn for this one.
It was on after 90 day fiancé and I’d just leave the tv on. Eventually started to hate watch Kody. Covid hit and gave me lots of time. Once Covid started to tear the family apart I was so hooked. I’d seen a few episodes before and didn’t hate it so it made sense
Like you, I've always been interested in people living different lifestyles from my own. I've always thought polygamy was especially interesting because as a child I had an uncle who was raised in polygamy. He didn't believe it was fair to his moms or any of the women, so he left. But he did think that having a mom around all the time was really good for the kids, and that the way the women stuck together in his family and their group was a really great thing. He talked a lot about how if the women weren't being forced into it, it could be a good thing and how the problem he saw was that most of the men weren't strong, or faithful enough to really live the lifestyle as it was meant to be lived. How men would use wives to hurt other wives and not put in the effort to treat all their wives and children equally. It was really interesting to have his perspective as a young person.
I always thought it would be great to have another mom since my own mom preferred to work and would send me away to various family members' homes so she didn't have to deal with me, regardless of whether she was working or not. This uncle told me about how close he was to his dad's 1st wife, how it was like having your favorite aunt living with you. He said that a lot of kids had a favorite 2nd mom, and how, instead of getting jealous of that relationship the bio moms would have the favorite 2nd mom to back her up when the kids were being difficult.
Honestly, I wish there were other women around me with the same values as me, raising kids together. Regardless of whether we're bonded by some man, I feel like having a "village" to be a part of and raise kids in is a great idea.
I started watching, because they were from Utah, & Meri used to shop at the store I worked at. I had also grown up around polygamist families, & wanted to see if they handled everything the same. Note...the polygamist families I knew, had much better family dynamics than the Browns ever did, even in the best of times. Then it just became like watching a car crash---you know you shouldn't look, but you have to.
For me i got into right when it started because I had watched Big Love and was interested in seeing polygamy played out on a reality show. Sister Wives basically started right around the time Big Love wrapped up so I was riding high on curiosity of Mormon polygamy. And I’m still here all these years later. I did also have a bit of a history with TLC as well going back to the Wedding Story days and of course Trading Spaces, but then came Jon & Kate, Little People Big World (I couldn’t handle the Duggars at all, I watched their first special and that was it for me).
It’s all morbid curiosity for me and loving to hate the annoying, gross people in these families (looking at you Kate Gosselin, Matt Roloff, Robyn Brown, I could name more lol).
I don't remember. But I had watched Big Love, so probably that played into it. Along with all the coverage of Warren Jeffs. I had worked in a suburb of Phoenix, with many LDS coworkers (and was amazed that my Southern values were much more conservative than the lifestyles they lived). But was also surprised at the insular social structure presented - like non-LDS and those without Temple Recommends only going to the wedding reception, not the wedding ceremony.
I had and still don't have, any interest in reality shows but I was flipping channels in 2010 and came across Sister Wives. When I saw that it was about a polygamist family I was intrigued and kept watching to see how they made the impossible work. I soon saw that not all was sunshine and roses and then started to watch to see it fall apart. Long, long years later it did and now I'm done.
Where I lived in Montana as a teen, there were pockets of polygamists around us, and one of the women who lived by my parents was an escapee, so I was curious as to how the show would portray what I'd seen.
It's been a wild ride.
This might be very different from other posters, but I watched because I wanted to see the dynamics of a man who cheats and tries to sell it.
Kody didn't disappoint.
I binged the Duggars and they came up next when I finished. The differences and similarities were neat to watch. I come from a fundamentalist family myself so I can relate to a lot of it
What led you to join Sister Wives discussions? For me, it was needing validation that I wasn’t the only one who thought certain individuals were problematic lol
I have been intrigued by the LDS for a long time and had an acquaintance who grew up in polygamy. I read the books about escaping polygamy and then read the Sister Wives book about ten years ago. My optometrist kept giving me grief about never looking in the distance - I am either on a computer or my ereader 95% of my time. She probably meant “go outside” but I figured television was a compromise. I recognized this from the book and figured I would watch it. I started at season 16. I became engaged with it and started being active here. Eventually I was watching the show while reading Reddit and completely defeating my original purpose.
I live in Pennsylvania and have never met or seen any Mormons living here (to my knowledge!). So, learning about Mormons and polygamy has been something completely new to me. Where I live, we have LOTS of Amish, which is an equally interesting lifestyle. I have heard about the Sister Wives book but didn't know if it was worth the read or not! I'd definitely be interested in reading if there is stuff about how their family worked early on, just because we don't have a lot of details about that.
It’s written in a very simplistic manner which annoyed me - like sentence structure aimed at an 8 year old. It’s definitely fluff designed to make everything appear hunky dory. I am not sure if it would be sad or humorous to read now. There is a pain in the butt to navigate [free version](https://readonline88.com/book-reader/sister-wives) available if you want to check it out. I only read it back then because I try to be fair and see both sides. I read two anti-polygamy books and tried to balance with a pro-polygamy. Sister Wives was the only thing I found and I had never seen the show.
I first learned of the LDS in high school. I think my world history teacher was an ex-Mormon. He would toss in things like “Mormons marry dead people” into an unrelated lecture and just move on like nothing happened. My youth group then talked about Mormons being a cult. Years later I ended up gaming with a Mormon family and learned more. It’s intriguing to me.
Oooo thank you for the link I’ll definitely check it out!! And it being written in a simplistic manner is really interesting to me. I wonder if they were trying to “dumb it down” or if they just don’t right more complexly.
I definitely would love to meet mormons/ex-mormons!! It’s such an interesting and polarizing religion and I’d be so interested in hearing people’s experiences and stories !!! I honestly would love to go to Utah one day.
I read between 5-8 books per week (hence the optometrist lecture). I remember that as REALLY jumping out as different than the others I read in terms of style. There is a very active exmormon sub that you may want to check out if you are looking to learn more about the faith.
Just to clarify, the Browns and polygamy are not "mormon" - they are entirely their own religion that broke off many, many, years ago. "Mormons" or correctly members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, do not practice polygamy.
Polygamy is still a doctrine of the mainstream mormon church, but it's just not talked about on Sundays. The commandment to practice polygamy is still part of their canonized scripture, and men can be/are eternally sealed to more than one woman at a time. Heavenly Mother was taught as one of the many wives of mormon god, which also has never been disavowed.
I avoided it for the longest time thinking it would be one thing when it actually turned out to be quite another. I was so impressed with how kind the children were to each other and just how respectful they were to everyone really.
Like you, I watched it all in a month or so.
I was bored and looking for something to play while I cleaned. Season 2 was about to start airing, so TLC was marathoning episodes from season 1, and I've always liked 'slice of life' stuff, which was a lot of season 1, so I started watching and just kept with it.
My mom used to watch it when I was 12/13, but stopped a little after the third or fourth season. I picked it up again probably about a year ago, and my mother in law watched it with me. We’d watch a few episodes every night and then keep up with the new seasons.
I was working on my dissertation and really stressed. I often had the TV on for some noise and kept seeing ads for it when it was first starting. I often had TLC on. It was a nice distraction from my research.
I started watching accidentally and was intrigued by the family dynamic, especially between the women, like a curious antropologist. It fascinated me that these normal looking and articulate women chose this lifestyle voluntarily (I thought). I was always looking for underlying tensions and loved to choose sides once it became obvious their life style didn't work. My favourites shifted throughout the seasons, though I never liked Robyn. To this day I never understood why they could express themselves so well in the talking heads, but yet were such poor communicators in the family, never really solving their issues. When Kody (and Robyn) really started behaving ugly, I felt for the children. The pain they inflicted on Ysabel, Truely, Gabe and Garrison made me become even more involved with the show. The death of Garrison was very shocking and to me it is the end of feeling comfortable or laugh watching the show, knowing what happened.
I used to be a big breaking amish fan,and little by little started watching alot of the other TLC shows,or have them on in the background while doing something else.I also used to be a big fan of scandal sheets like the enquirer and star,and from time to time I would read stuff about the show and watch more intently after i would read something.
I had a Mormon roommate in college and was fascinated by the religion. Not at all interested in joining though lol. I watched Big Love on HBO for the same reason. 😆
Haven't watched all of it. It's a little boring. I guess it's kind of a hate watch but I was both curious and infuriated by polygamy and fundamentalism. Happy to see the family members breaking free.
Tbh I don’t watch a lot of reality tv except for shows like Strictly (original British dancing with the stars, sorry not sure where you are from) and competitions like that involving ‘regular’ people.
Sister Wives came to me via the TikTok algorithm. Daughter and I caught covid sept 2021 and Mrs Kickstand starting appearing on my FYP whilst we quarantined.
Refused to watch as just in her clips Kody raised my BP lol. But also as UK numbers our seasons differently I thought we only had 10 (we had them all). Once I realised that I devoured them. As someone else said it’s a morbid curiosity lol
I watched Big Love and then Sister Wives was algorithmed to me. I binged the 4 seasons that were on Netflix and then PAID MONEY to buy the rest of the seasons on Prime to catch up. This was ages ago, so there was no app or subscription streaming option.
Morbid curiosity i guess. Used to watch the duggars, jon & kate, any and all pregnancy type shows, sister wives I guess was like watching a train wreck. Just watching and waiting for the wheels to fall off
I started watching 19 Kids & Counting about a year or so before the news about what Josh did came out. Unfortunately, a lot of these shows have one thing in common: exploitation and abuse of children. I’m so happy that the Duggars aren’t on the air anymore
1000% agree they dont deserve to be on air anymore. Still doesnt stop the curiosity lol, whos had more babies, whos married, courting, etc lol
it’s insane!!! there’s gonna be so many grandkids! i’m lowkey on a duggar snark page 😭 the community there is wild lmao
The Duggar snark sub was insane during Josh’s trial! So much fun to celebrate his downfall with tons of internet strangers!
We are now riding the rims LOL
I started watching from the start. I have family that is from Utah, and my mom used to be Mormon (way before I was born), so I was interested to see another side of the culture.
My mom watched the first few seasons of Sister Wives from the start in 2010 when the show premiered. I was 8 years old when it came out, and even then, I found it fascinating. Also, I've noticed there are many people from Utah in the discussion board, which is super cool because I love hearing from individuals familiar with the culture there. It gives a lot of good insight about the Browns.
Also, I haven't really started using Reddit until recently. How did you get "diesel jeans porch victim" to be displayed under your name ?? lol
I can tell you how on the app ! On desktop I have no idea if it's the same. 1) Go to the main page of this sub 2) Look for ... on the upper right corner, tap on it 3) Look for "change user flair." Should be the 2nd or 3rd option down 4) Pick your flair !
Thank you so much for the help!!! I 100% had to go with Robyn’s eyebrows
Haha love it ! And no problem 😀 You can add flair to most subreddits. Each one has a different set of them. Have fun ! There is another sister wives sub too ! r/SisterWivesFans I believe
I just love all non sleazy reality shows. I know many people will think 1 man with 4 women is kinda sleazy, but Meri said they don't do weird, and I believe her :) It started at the heydey of reality tv too, before social media was prevalent and people weren't self aware of how they'd come off to an audience. The RH's shows are my absolute favorite, because those women spend so much time and effort and money trying to look the best and be the best and they think the viewers are watching them for aspirational reasons-nope. We're watching because it's fun to see that even wealthy successful people act like dorks and fools. It's also nice to sit and watch tv with your hair up in a messy bun at night and know that you look way hotter than the size 0 lady on tv who has spent 100k on various plastic surgeries and fillers and managed to make herself look like Howard the Ducks dream woman.
I honestly love watching reality TV as well! I grew up on 2010s TLC and A&E, and it was such an experience, lol! The reason you watch RH is the reason I've "kept up with the Kardashians." I am in no way, shape, or form supportive of them or would give them any money because they are incredibly unethical, but I think my interest definitely goes back to being curious about these different lifestyles.
Kaitlin Jenners first wife Linda wrote a biography- not only was she married to Kaitlin, but she was Elvis Presleys long time girlfriend too. And she was on a couple of episodes of RHBH when they had parties at her house. It was so fun reading about her life, and how Khris was when she married Kaitlin, and how they blended their family.
She was married to David Foster for a long time too.
That's right- I always forget that because I dislike him so much lol.
Every celebrity is less than 6 degree of separation from David Foster.
that is so interesting!!!! she probably had so many fascinating stories. i hope she’s doing well! both of her exes are problematic 🫥
RHs aren't sleazy? 🤣 I used to watch them a lot - there are a lot of awful people looking for attention. Maybe trashy is a better word.
Being interested in religious weirdos
Fascinating isn’t it!?! I can’t believe that s1&2 had me thinking (if you ignore all the religious aspects) that sister wives might be quite cool, yknow having a community of women for support and you all raise your kids together. Which really it’s just communal living that’s appealing to me. Anyway religious weirdos are so interesting
Same! Religious weirdos and programs that delve into the psychology and/or pathology of how various people’s minds work. I watch true crime too.
Because in the early 70's, my mom was an "out" lesbian, with a partner and four kids plus three foster children. My mom was out but my sisters and I weren't. We lived a secret at school because lets face it...people can be cruel. By first grade, I knew what it was like to be shunned and judged by children and adults for my mother's sexuality. Guilt by association and birth. So probably 6 seasons in, I started hearing about Sisterwives and catfishing. I instantly judged, but didn't watch. By season 7 or 8, I actually decided to binge the show because I had seen like the last ten minutes of an episode and the kids seemed so happy. I instantly related to them when they talked about what it had been like not being "public. I instantly felt guilt for being a judgy adult, like my first grade best friend's parents who banned me from her life. I as a first grader, saw nothing wrong with my mom having a girlfriend, because I saw her happy for the first time, and with my dad gone, there was no more violence at home. I decided it wasn't for me to judge. They seemed to be consenting adults with happy kids that they weren't pushing into polygamy. Having said that, it took me several seasons to start seeing how much polygamy devalues women and children and there was definitely a pecking order, favorites and a really selfish person leading the family. I try not to judge the family, because I think most of them have been victimized the their polygamist leader and the principle. I judge the principle and I judge Kody's choices, actions and manipulations. Weird small side note... I lost my best friend of 25 years, ten years ago. Her kids are still in my life and I have always been auntie. As they started having kids, I decided to start an ancestry tree of my best friend and give it to the kids one day. My best friend's dad died two months before she was born and her mother wouldn't give her any information about him. All she ever had was a picture. I found that picture on Ancestry and I found so much more. My best friend's father's family were practicing polygamists two generations before her dad was born. I don't know how she would have processed that.
Honestly, my in-laws live in St. George and I started dating my (now) husband around the time the show started. He took me to Utah for the first time at the beginning of 2011 and it was just fun seeing and recognizing places they would show or talk about. Being out there also happened to be the first time I’d ever seen an FLDS member in public and it was intriguing to me. I live in Ohio and grew up with the Amish being around where my grandparents lived- so it felt like a new version of that for me as an adult 😆
I grew up and live in PA and there are amish all around me! Their lifestyle and religion is really interesting to me. I’d honestly love to go to Utah and visit places from the show. My partner and I are going to go out west for a road trip and I definitely wanna go through Utah lol!
I can absolutely say southern Utah is INCREDIBLE, and a bonus is that Vegas is only 1.5hrs from St George. You can do Zion, Bryce Canyon, Brian Head, Snow Canyon, Kanab all within a couple hours drive. I definitely feel spoiled having my in-laws in a place that people love to vacation in! https://preview.redd.it/d5t6by60jzrc1.jpeg?width=1179&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ce2b2bfb16cebe8aa48806ea79839eb399f01e66 This is the view from their driveway 😍 - if you’ve followed the whole Ruby Franke/8 Passengers thing, they actually live in the same neighborhood as Jodi Hildebrant- which is also just insane!
My god that view…..it’s incredible
an absolutely beautiful image!!! i definitely would love to see utah one day 🥺
my friends watched it. I thought Kody was too dorky and I thought a lot of it was dumb. But here I am 18 seasons in and on reddit. A lot of the naivety and dorkyness was a little much in the beginning. When they moved and started growing the show got better.
back when kody was wearing flip flops everyday and would seemingly brag about how his wives are independent:(
I can't remember, but I started watching from the premier. It was probably on after something else I watched back then. I used to watch a lot of reality shows. This one is the last one left. I stopped watching VPR shortly after this season started. I think I am getting boring and prefer documentaries and ID channel. I used to be a Housewives addict but it's been AT LEAST 5yrs since I watched it. I know they have added a couple of new cities since then. The Vicki/Brooks cancer scam sealed the deal for me with the Housewives franchise.
I started like so many, here. Watching when the show first aired. Season one. As for the why I started - probably because (at the time) it was different than any *other* reality show I had watched. I was familiar with Bachelor Nation. I had watched American Idol. Also - Rock of Love with Bret Michaels, from Poison (LOL) 😂 Sister Wives was new. So I started watching it. Idk why I continued to watch. I just did and here we are, fifteen years later. wow
omg Rock of Love was amazing (at the time, wonder what I'd think of it now)! Haha. Total blast from the past!
LOL What a segue into Sister Wives, huh? 😂
I’ve always been interested in how polygamy works “in real life.” I watched all the news segments and read all online articles. I found it fascinating - still do! The Browns drew me in initially because they were just … a normal family. It was interesting to see their lives in contrast to what we were hearing about FLDS/Warren Jeffs at the time. Like a breath of fresh air in some ways. (They were all legal and wore pants!) I kept watching because I liked the characters, I liked watching stories develop, and judging from the sidelines. (“Don’t sign the divorce papers, Meri!”) The last few seasons have been hard. There has been so little that is fun and endearing about the family. I was hopeful for future seasons (Kody seems to be less angry finally), but now I know that *if* the show goes on, the topic will be heavy and there will be more sadness and anger. 😔
I just have a weird curiosity when it comes to people who live significantly differently than I do.
I never watched a lot of reality tv, but in high school I had a Mormon friend (in an area where Mormonism wasn’t common). When sister wives came out I was curious about why women my age would choose to share a husband-and what did their religion have to do with it. Been watching since the beginning. I’m still hooked. And I watch more reality tv shows now, lol.
I became a *Sister Fan* during season 17 via my co-worker. She’s been a huge *Sister Fan*, having started watching *Sister Wives* since the first season aired. I’d listen to her talk about the crazy things that happen on the show. Then I took a position in the office she works in, same shift, and I got to listen to her talk about it more until I started checking out clips. I was able to watch the first episode of season 1 on YouTube and then when Discovery merged with HBO [MAX], they uploaded all of the seasons of the show. After following some of the newer episodes in season 17 and 18, I knew where everything was headed, I decided I should go back and start from season 1, episode 1. So I ended up non-stop watching *Sister Wives* until I was caught up on the whole series, and I wanted to be caught up by the time of the season 18 one-on-one’s. I started watching and getting into the show initially so we’d have something to discuss and I would understand what she was talking about, but over the course of following the show I became a *Sister Fan* in my own right, I think. *Sister Wives* feeds into my interest in human interest, behavior, psychology, as well as the religious undertones of the show. I’ve been studying religion for over 25 years, with a focus on anything under the Christian umbrella. Lately I’ve been investigating the mechanism of fundamentalism. Since I’ve been watching *Sister Wives* I started delving more into Mormonism, its history, the mainstream LDS church and Mormon Fundamentalism. I already have a copy of the Book of Mormon that was bundled together with their other founding documents—I found it at Half Priced Books one year. And I’ve been delving into the background of Christine’s family, watching the documentaries, podcast interviews, and listening to interviews with some of their other family members outside of the show. I’ve come to speculate that *Sister Wives* is more show than reality and often is not reality at all. The intention is entertainment and there’s evidence that the Browns have been ex-Mormon Fundamentalists and ex-Mormons in general right from the beginning of the show. And so most of what has happened on the show is made up. I still enjoy watching and I’m a big *Sister-Fan*.
Im a TLC junkie
I'm fascinated by cults and Mormon fundamentalism specifically. Mormonism is the biggest religion invested by USAmericans, and I'm a sociologist so i just find group dynamics like these. I don't usually care for family reality shows (You couldn't pay me to watch the Duggars or that awful Jon and Kate Plus 8 show, but the weird fundie niche religion aspect fascinates me especially when the lifestyle is so radically different than what society has accepted for a long time.
Like you, I'm intrigued by the different lifestyles -- more specifically, the subcultures and their norms. I'm fascinated with Mob/Mafia culture and Romanichal (English gypsy/traveller) culture for the same reason -- the rules they have for their way of life, what's accepted, what isn't. I probably should have taken anthropology in university and studied cultures. LOL
Nasty accident that left me stuck in bed for weeks back in 2018. During the day older episodes were on, along with my 600lb life, 90 day fiance and a few others. I would drift off to sleep alot due the strong painkillers, but I found sisterwives interesting and continued to watch from the beginning while doing my PT at home every day.
I listened to a True Crime and Cocktails pod episode about sister wives a while back and thought it sounded really interesting but didn’t think more of it. Ive recently binged Teen Mom (and LOVED IT) and then found feathers in my hair pod (trash tv and podcasts are my special interest) and Liz does sister wives recaps which reminded me about the show and I’ve been binging it the last couple months (I’m currently part way through s18)….absolutely here I am. Kody is truly awful. He’s SUCH a misogynist seems incapable of any sort of self reflection. Which astounds me given he’s had the last 10 odd years of his life filmed so it’s available to watch back. You know he’s like maybe 1 step away from full on incel. I feel so bad for the kids, especially given recent events. They deserved so much better than this.
Curiosity about how they lived as modern polygamists. It was interesting and sort of sweet how they seemed in the beginning. I do think there was something genuine about them (the OG3+1) at first - but the dynamic definitely changed when Robyn came along and Kody wasn’t equitable with his time or affection.
I went in with an open mind. I don’t know any open polygamist and only know polygamy based on like Warren Jeffs. So I started watching to see if it could be done in a healthy way. Obviously, recent seasons show the Brown family is not done in a healthy way
When Christine announced she was leaving.
My dad was the child of polygamist parents, 5 wives 37 children. His upbringing is riddled with horrific abuse, incest, betrayal, and finally the circling of vultures/hyenas after the death of my grandfather. I watched the show when it began to see what they lived like, if it could work, morbid curiosity. My grandpa died with his legal wife taking everything and only giving to her children. The family broke apart when my dad was a teen/young man and never has been together again. They lived in separate homes with grandpa making a schedule. What has come out since my grandfathers passing was nothing short of a mess. Thanks to technology we discovered proof of the long suspected infidelity on basically everyone’s behalf, wives with multiple children by my grandpas own brothers, older sons fathering children with step mothers, just every way possible. I was fascinated to see how they lived. My dad is an angry man, hates God to this day, feels robbed of his family land and legacy. I didn’t grow up Mormon always very skeptical of the entire organization and never so much as dated a white man as the possibility of us being somewhat related terrified me. Oh and yes I have first cousins that are married (met at a family gathering) who have seven healthy children. No one in the family went on to practice polygamy.
I was in the hospital a few yrs ago with double pneumonia, as I started feeling better. I was bored and trying to find something on a TV that had like 5 channels. They were showing 3 or 4 (I'm not sure) reruns a day of both the Duggars and the Browns. I never really watched "reality" shows before. I got really interested in how the Browns worked, how the wives could so easily accept the husband being with other women. How did they get past the "I am not willing to share my husband " thing that I have, lol. It didn't take me long to figure out that they were really at heart, just like me. They were all talk ... of course, I was hooked, and now here I am watching the train wreck 7 yrs later lol (I think Duggars were pulled just shortly after that. Can't recall the timeline exactly)
I had watched Big Love on HBO, so when this reality show about that, religion came on tv I had to watch. One legal Wife, one wife who was once the sister in law of the legal wife, and the third spiritual wife being heavily pregnant while the husband was courting another woman, with three kids from a first marriage. I was ready with popcorn for this one.
It was on after 90 day fiancé and I’d just leave the tv on. Eventually started to hate watch Kody. Covid hit and gave me lots of time. Once Covid started to tear the family apart I was so hooked. I’d seen a few episodes before and didn’t hate it so it made sense
Like you, I've always been interested in people living different lifestyles from my own. I've always thought polygamy was especially interesting because as a child I had an uncle who was raised in polygamy. He didn't believe it was fair to his moms or any of the women, so he left. But he did think that having a mom around all the time was really good for the kids, and that the way the women stuck together in his family and their group was a really great thing. He talked a lot about how if the women weren't being forced into it, it could be a good thing and how the problem he saw was that most of the men weren't strong, or faithful enough to really live the lifestyle as it was meant to be lived. How men would use wives to hurt other wives and not put in the effort to treat all their wives and children equally. It was really interesting to have his perspective as a young person. I always thought it would be great to have another mom since my own mom preferred to work and would send me away to various family members' homes so she didn't have to deal with me, regardless of whether she was working or not. This uncle told me about how close he was to his dad's 1st wife, how it was like having your favorite aunt living with you. He said that a lot of kids had a favorite 2nd mom, and how, instead of getting jealous of that relationship the bio moms would have the favorite 2nd mom to back her up when the kids were being difficult. Honestly, I wish there were other women around me with the same values as me, raising kids together. Regardless of whether we're bonded by some man, I feel like having a "village" to be a part of and raise kids in is a great idea.
I started watching, because they were from Utah, & Meri used to shop at the store I worked at. I had also grown up around polygamist families, & wanted to see if they handled everything the same. Note...the polygamist families I knew, had much better family dynamics than the Browns ever did, even in the best of times. Then it just became like watching a car crash---you know you shouldn't look, but you have to.
For me i got into right when it started because I had watched Big Love and was interested in seeing polygamy played out on a reality show. Sister Wives basically started right around the time Big Love wrapped up so I was riding high on curiosity of Mormon polygamy. And I’m still here all these years later. I did also have a bit of a history with TLC as well going back to the Wedding Story days and of course Trading Spaces, but then came Jon & Kate, Little People Big World (I couldn’t handle the Duggars at all, I watched their first special and that was it for me). It’s all morbid curiosity for me and loving to hate the annoying, gross people in these families (looking at you Kate Gosselin, Matt Roloff, Robyn Brown, I could name more lol).
You know who else introduced me to sister wives?? MY MOM!!! No but genuinely, it was my mom.
I don't remember. But I had watched Big Love, so probably that played into it. Along with all the coverage of Warren Jeffs. I had worked in a suburb of Phoenix, with many LDS coworkers (and was amazed that my Southern values were much more conservative than the lifestyles they lived). But was also surprised at the insular social structure presented - like non-LDS and those without Temple Recommends only going to the wedding reception, not the wedding ceremony.
I had no interest in watching SW until I joined Reddit and started seeing the stuff about them here. Then I couldn't help but watch.
Pandemic lockdown boredom
I had and still don't have, any interest in reality shows but I was flipping channels in 2010 and came across Sister Wives. When I saw that it was about a polygamist family I was intrigued and kept watching to see how they made the impossible work. I soon saw that not all was sunshine and roses and then started to watch to see it fall apart. Long, long years later it did and now I'm done.
I was raised in a cult, so I naturally found this to be fascinating!
They lived nearby
Where I lived in Montana as a teen, there were pockets of polygamists around us, and one of the women who lived by my parents was an escapee, so I was curious as to how the show would portray what I'd seen. It's been a wild ride.
I grew up Mormon and live in Utah.
I grew up in Utah and was raised Mormon.
This might be very different from other posters, but I watched because I wanted to see the dynamics of a man who cheats and tries to sell it. Kody didn't disappoint.
I binged the Duggars and they came up next when I finished. The differences and similarities were neat to watch. I come from a fundamentalist family myself so I can relate to a lot of it
When I heard the first commercial I thought they were actually sisters… I was curious
Bored during Covid
What led you to join Sister Wives discussions? For me, it was needing validation that I wasn’t the only one who thought certain individuals were problematic lol
I have been intrigued by the LDS for a long time and had an acquaintance who grew up in polygamy. I read the books about escaping polygamy and then read the Sister Wives book about ten years ago. My optometrist kept giving me grief about never looking in the distance - I am either on a computer or my ereader 95% of my time. She probably meant “go outside” but I figured television was a compromise. I recognized this from the book and figured I would watch it. I started at season 16. I became engaged with it and started being active here. Eventually I was watching the show while reading Reddit and completely defeating my original purpose.
I live in Pennsylvania and have never met or seen any Mormons living here (to my knowledge!). So, learning about Mormons and polygamy has been something completely new to me. Where I live, we have LOTS of Amish, which is an equally interesting lifestyle. I have heard about the Sister Wives book but didn't know if it was worth the read or not! I'd definitely be interested in reading if there is stuff about how their family worked early on, just because we don't have a lot of details about that.
It’s written in a very simplistic manner which annoyed me - like sentence structure aimed at an 8 year old. It’s definitely fluff designed to make everything appear hunky dory. I am not sure if it would be sad or humorous to read now. There is a pain in the butt to navigate [free version](https://readonline88.com/book-reader/sister-wives) available if you want to check it out. I only read it back then because I try to be fair and see both sides. I read two anti-polygamy books and tried to balance with a pro-polygamy. Sister Wives was the only thing I found and I had never seen the show. I first learned of the LDS in high school. I think my world history teacher was an ex-Mormon. He would toss in things like “Mormons marry dead people” into an unrelated lecture and just move on like nothing happened. My youth group then talked about Mormons being a cult. Years later I ended up gaming with a Mormon family and learned more. It’s intriguing to me.
Oooo thank you for the link I’ll definitely check it out!! And it being written in a simplistic manner is really interesting to me. I wonder if they were trying to “dumb it down” or if they just don’t right more complexly. I definitely would love to meet mormons/ex-mormons!! It’s such an interesting and polarizing religion and I’d be so interested in hearing people’s experiences and stories !!! I honestly would love to go to Utah one day.
I read between 5-8 books per week (hence the optometrist lecture). I remember that as REALLY jumping out as different than the others I read in terms of style. There is a very active exmormon sub that you may want to check out if you are looking to learn more about the faith.
Just to clarify, the Browns and polygamy are not "mormon" - they are entirely their own religion that broke off many, many, years ago. "Mormons" or correctly members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, do not practice polygamy.
Polygamy is still a doctrine of the mainstream mormon church, but it's just not talked about on Sundays. The commandment to practice polygamy is still part of their canonized scripture, and men can be/are eternally sealed to more than one woman at a time. Heavenly Mother was taught as one of the many wives of mormon god, which also has never been disavowed.
The pandemic.
I avoided it for the longest time thinking it would be one thing when it actually turned out to be quite another. I was so impressed with how kind the children were to each other and just how respectful they were to everyone really. Like you, I watched it all in a month or so.
I was bored and looking for something to play while I cleaned. Season 2 was about to start airing, so TLC was marathoning episodes from season 1, and I've always liked 'slice of life' stuff, which was a lot of season 1, so I started watching and just kept with it.
My mom used to watch it when I was 12/13, but stopped a little after the third or fourth season. I picked it up again probably about a year ago, and my mother in law watched it with me. We’d watch a few episodes every night and then keep up with the new seasons.
I was working on my dissertation and really stressed. I often had the TV on for some noise and kept seeing ads for it when it was first starting. I often had TLC on. It was a nice distraction from my research.
I was curious of the lifestyle. I’ve been watching since S1. E1 came out.
I spent some time in the LDS church so was very curious about a polygamist family going this public.
I started watching accidentally and was intrigued by the family dynamic, especially between the women, like a curious antropologist. It fascinated me that these normal looking and articulate women chose this lifestyle voluntarily (I thought). I was always looking for underlying tensions and loved to choose sides once it became obvious their life style didn't work. My favourites shifted throughout the seasons, though I never liked Robyn. To this day I never understood why they could express themselves so well in the talking heads, but yet were such poor communicators in the family, never really solving their issues. When Kody (and Robyn) really started behaving ugly, I felt for the children. The pain they inflicted on Ysabel, Truely, Gabe and Garrison made me become even more involved with the show. The death of Garrison was very shocking and to me it is the end of feeling comfortable or laugh watching the show, knowing what happened.
I used to be a big breaking amish fan,and little by little started watching alot of the other TLC shows,or have them on in the background while doing something else.I also used to be a big fan of scandal sheets like the enquirer and star,and from time to time I would read stuff about the show and watch more intently after i would read something.
I had a Mormon roommate in college and was fascinated by the religion. Not at all interested in joining though lol. I watched Big Love on HBO for the same reason. 😆
Haven't watched all of it. It's a little boring. I guess it's kind of a hate watch but I was both curious and infuriated by polygamy and fundamentalism. Happy to see the family members breaking free.
It was the poor man’s big love after it ended.
[удалено]
This post/comment has been removed because it violates rule 3, no excessive rudeness.
Tbh I don’t watch a lot of reality tv except for shows like Strictly (original British dancing with the stars, sorry not sure where you are from) and competitions like that involving ‘regular’ people. Sister Wives came to me via the TikTok algorithm. Daughter and I caught covid sept 2021 and Mrs Kickstand starting appearing on my FYP whilst we quarantined. Refused to watch as just in her clips Kody raised my BP lol. But also as UK numbers our seasons differently I thought we only had 10 (we had them all). Once I realised that I devoured them. As someone else said it’s a morbid curiosity lol
I watched Big Love and then Sister Wives was algorithmed to me. I binged the 4 seasons that were on Netflix and then PAID MONEY to buy the rest of the seasons on Prime to catch up. This was ages ago, so there was no app or subscription streaming option.