Sister Wives star Meri Brown is clearing the air with regard to her sexuality. In a recent Instagram Live, Brown shared that she identifies as straight after rumors about her sexuality began swirling when she posted a photo alongside a female friend.
"I've got people really wondering what I may or may not want to say. I'm just gonna do it. I am …straight," the 52-year-old reality star said. "I made an announcement. Now that you all know. You heard it from my mouth. I'm coming out as being straight."
As for the need to clear up the rumors, Meri said that she was tired of the tabloid speculation about her sexuality.
"It does not matter who I take a picture with and post it," she maintained. "I'm either dating this guy or dating this girl because people can't seem to think I can be friends, completely platonic friends, with females or males."
The rumors come after a little over a month after Meri's split from husband Kody Brown. Meri announced in January that "after a decade of working on our relationship in our own unique ways," the two decided to permanently "terminate" their marriage.
"In light of a recent unapproved press release, we feel compelled to share our own truth, in our own way, and in our own timing," the former couple said in a joint statement. "After more than a decade of working on our relationship in our own unique ways, we have made the decision to permanently terminate our marriage relationship."
The exes noted in their statement that they are "committed to kindness and respect toward each other and to all members of our family."
They signed the statement, "In kindness, Meri and Kody."
Meri tied the knot with Kody in April 1990. She became his first wife and had always planned to add more wives to the family as she is part of the polygamist faith. The former couple struggled to conceive, but eventually welcomed their child, Leon Brown, in 1995.
She legally divorced Kody in 2014, so he could legally marry his fourth wife, Robyn Brown, in order to adopt her children from a previous relationship. Meri remained spiritually married to Kody after that.
In 2015, Meri was the victim of a catfishing scandal in which she was talking online with someone she believed to be a man, but who was actually a female career criminal.
The incident served to sever the already tenuous relationship between Kody and Meri and they were no longer intimate or even lived together after that.
Despite Meri saying she was sticking things out with Kody, in season 17 of the TLC series, he noted that he no longer considered himself married to her -- a claim she later said he never expressed to her.
In addition to the end of his marriage to Meri, Kody and his third wife, Christine Brown, split in late 2021. He is also currently separated from his second wife, Janelle Brown. His only remaining marriage is to his fourth wife, Robyn.
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