It’s a great day to be a Sister Wives fan!
At long last, nearly a year after the last season wrapped up, it’s finally time for the new season to premiere.
And not a moment too soon, right?
Thanks to social media, we know a little bit about what’s been going on with the Brown family.
We know about Maddie’s baby and the health issues she’s faced, and we know that Mykelti is pregnant with her first child!
We’ve also heard about Ysabel’s big surgery to help with her scoliosis.
But those are all pretty big things — we don’t know about the little issues, or the day-to-day drama we know comes with being a sister wife.
They usually save all that for the show.
And judging by a new sneak peek for the season premiere, we know that the drama is definitely alive and well.
In the video, which you can watch in full below, we see Kody, Meri, Janelle, Christine, and Robyn all gathered around a table, having a chat.
It seems like they’re having a big discussion about the family and their dynamics, because we see Janelle asking Robyn about why she chose to “enter the principle,” which she explains to the camera later is their “real term” for plural marriage.
Everyone seems taken aback by this question, so Janelle takes the time to explain her reasoning for wanting to be a sister wife.
“I did it because I loved the idea of the whole family,” she says, “and this whole group’s energy, and I really felt like we would get progression, the whole idea is that we would overcome our crap.”
The “crap,” she clarifies later, is being selfish.
Meri says that she wanted to be a sister wife because she grew up in that lifestyle, and Christine’s story is basically the same.
“The big family thing was always really cool to me,” Robyn says. “I loved when I first met you guys how you guys functioned. I loved it.”
“We seemed so functional,” Kody interjects, and Meri laughs and says “We really pulled the wool over your eyes.”
Robyn tells them that’s not what she meant, and that she thinks they still function well as a family, but Kody seems to disagree.
“I’ve thought about this a lot lately,” he begins, “because I’ve told friends recently that I didn’t want to be an advocate of plural marriage anymore.”
Say what?!
“I am more aware now than I ever was before the apparent and obvious unfairness in the relationship,” he continues. “I know I have all the love I want and you guys sometimes feel like you’re pining constantly for me to give you some.”
He says that he was recently having dinner with Logan, one of the family’s many children, and that he told him “I have really messed this up.”
Kody tells the camera later more about all of this, saying “We came into this by way of commandment, we felt like we were supposed to live it and we had an ideal that it was a better way, and I’ve come to a stark reality of the struggle that it is.”
And that’s it, that’s the clip.
So this is a huge deal, right?
After all, Kody has been defending plural marriage since the series began — how many times have we heard him saying “love should be multiplied, not divided” in the show’s opening?
He’s refused to really listen to his wives talk about how difficult it is to share their husband because he’s always believed so strongly that it was the right way to live.
To hear him finally acknowledge how hard it must be for his wives is …well, it’s really something.
So where do they go from here?
Is he going to try to divide his attention more evenly between the wives? Is he going to allow them to have other relationships if they’d like?
Is he going do what many fans of the show think he’s doing anyway and focus solely on Robyn, who seems to be his favorite?
Guess we’ll have to watch to find out!