A mother goes for a hike with her kids.
She smiles for the camera.
She shares this photo on social media and receives many comments in response.
On its own, this is a common and harmless course of action.
But Janelle Brown doesn’t live in a vacuum.
The long-time Sister Wives star lives in the spotlight and under a microscope and, as a result, she can’t just upload a simple photo without many astute and concerned observers weighing in.
“My Flagstaff based kids and I had a fun day hiking! (See my stories for more details ),” wrote Janelle as a caption to the snapshot above on Saturday, adding the following hashtags upon doing so:
#gooutside #adventureinyourownbackyard #arizonastateparksandtrails #tontonaturalbridg.
Many followers were quick to note that Janelle looked super happy in this image… while they also pointed out who was missing from the outdoor adventure.
Why does Kody never go? wrote one user, while others echoed this sentiment as follows:
Sad their dad is never with them.
I never see Kody joining your family.
Over the past few weeks, Janelle has taken a number of trips — all without her spiritual spouse.
She even took these trips with Christine Brown, to whom Janelle remains close, even long after Christine announced she had walked away from this same spiritual type of union with Kody.
Could Janelle be talking to her pal about doing the same?
Might she be the next Sister Wife to finally realize once and for all what sort of unhealthy relationship she has been in for years now?
Remember, back on Sister Wives Season 16, Janelle openly wondered what the heck she was doing with Kody.
Her kids are grown.
He treats her like crap.
What’s the point at this point?
“With Kody and I right now, our relationship is pretty strained. And you know, it’s easy to walk away,” Janelle previously said on air.
On the subsequent tell-all special, Kody wouldn’t even say he was in love with Janelle.
“We don’t partner really well, but we just are able to have a marriage that’s, if you will, lower in attachment,” Kody actually said on the special, as cryptically and unpassionately as possible.
“I don’t even know. We’re good friends, we get along well. It’s more of a, like, just a committed relationship,” he added.
After the season ended, meanwhile, a report in Us Weekly claimed that Christine leaving Kody was going to someday prompt Janelle to do the same.
“She sees how happy Christine is now that she’s ‘free’ from Kody and is strongly considering separating from him too,” Us Weekly wrote in this article
“Christine and Janelle are very close and they have conversations about it…
“[Kody’s] trembling and worried that Meri or Janelle are going to leave him.”