Sister Wives: Kody the Idiot Divorces Meri to Marry Robyn

[gustava]

I am just going to put this out there - I don't think there is such a thing as a legal stepparent. I have dealt with step-issues for many years and generally, stepparents have no legal rights or responsibilities.

Many employers allow stepchildren to be on the insurance. Maybe it's the insurance companies that allow it. Employers will allow sick time for stepkids. There are ways in which stepparents can provide for stepchildren, however what they *can* do it different than being responsible to do it.

As far as things like making decisions regarding education, medical care, religion... stepparents generally will have no legal rights.

The parents are still the parents. Unless Kody adopts Robyn's children, legally their father remains David Jessop and Kody should not have any sort of legal rights or precedence over Jessop. At least, legally, now maybe under their religious thinking all of them are okay with Kody taking over as the father in which case Jessop should terminate his rights.

Sorry but this just seems like a shitty thing to do to the kids, terminating rights means the legal relationship never existed but maybe truly Jessop is on board with it.

So all Christine and Janelle have to do is find another man and they could remove Kody as the father of their children.

This was my experience as a step-parent.

[Eater of Worlds]

I read some article where they said that Kody said it was done partially for insurance reasons. So if he has insurance through his job with that snake oil company, maybe it was a matter of being able to get her and/or the kids on the insurance in a way that is cheaper than using the companies participating in the ACA (obamacare).

[Cleopatra7]

It's Janelle that was married to Meri's brother.

As I understand it from my knowledge of LDS beliefs, the woman is sealed forever and for all eternity to her first husband. Remarriages of women are not officially sealed. It is very rare to get "unsealed." However a man can be sealed to any number of wives in succession. In the LDS church, of course, they cannot be at the same time, but technically a man married more than once will have multiple wives in the celestial kingdom. A man can get permission to get more than one sealing, while a woman must have hers cancelled (which is almost unheard of). I would hazard a guess in thinking that the AUB is perhaps a bit more flexible in this because they are a smaller organization and therefore it would be easier to have friends in high places.

In the FLDS, wives and children are moved around to punish men who have run afoul of the leaders, which suggests that, far from there being "forever families" in Mormon polygamy, that women/wives are basically seen as interchangable units that are needed for a man to establish his household/kingdom/planet. The mainstream LDS church says that there will be polygamy in the Celestial Kingdom even if it's not practiced in earth right now, which also seems to reflect this view.

[Firiel]

I have a question about Mormon sealings and divorce. One of the attractions of Mormonism is supposed to be the idea of "forever families" that are sealed to each other for eternity. But what about divorce? Can a woman be sealed to more than one husband or does she have to get the Mormon equivalent of an annulment if she divorces and remarries? I ask this because Christine used to be married to Meri's brother and Robyn was married to David Jessop. Kody and the Sister Wives have said that divorce isn't an option in their religion but that's clearly not true, as Christine and Robyn show. So what's the real deal here? :think: :liar: :shifty-kitty:

In mainstream LDS practice, men can still be sealed to more than one woman, but women can only be sealed to one man. It's a remnant of their polygamous past. Sealings can be undone in the case of divorce, but they aren't always. For instance, my friend is LDS and her parents are divorced. Her mom never remarried, but if she wanted to remarry, she would have to get "unsealed" from her ex-husband first. However, he re-married in the temple (i.e. it was sealed) while still being sealed to his ex-wife. He asked her to get "unsealed," but she wouldn't do that. Thus, she is still eligible for the area of the celestial kingdom that requires being married and sealed in the temple.

If I'm wrong, any LDS folks can correct me, but I think those are the basics.

[Mama Mia]

I am just going to put this out there - I don't think there is such a thing as a legal stepparent. I have dealt with step-issues for many years and generally, stepparents have no legal rights or responsibilities.

Many employers allow stepchildren to be on the insurance. Maybe it's the insurance companies that allow it. Employers will allow sick time for stepkids. There are ways in which stepparents can provide for stepchildren, however what they *can* do it different than being responsible to do it.

As far as things like making decisions regarding education, medical care, religion... stepparents generally will have no legal rights.

The parents are still the parents. Unless Kody adopts Robyn's children, legally their father remains David Jessop and Kody should not have any sort of legal rights or precedence over Jessop. At least, legally, now maybe under their religious thinking all of them are okay with Kody taking over as the father in which case Jessop should terminate his rights.

Sorry but this just seems like a shitty thing to do to the kids, terminating rights means the legal relationship never existed but maybe truly Jessop is on board with it.

So all Christine and Janelle have to do is find another man and they could remove Kody as the father of their children.

I don't think , at least in my experience, that it has to be so all or nothing with the kids father being completely cut out of the picture.

Being a legal step-parent doesn't mean that Kody could suddenly over rule either of the biological parents regarding medical or educational or parenting decisions. But it does mean he could take the kid to the E.R., or go to a parent-teacher conference if Robyn wasn't available or sign the waiver to allow a kid to play on a sports team. If their dad doesn't live near by it can be a benefit from a practical stand point, to have the legal status.

As far as insurance, yes step-kids can be on the parents insurance -- but they have to be legal step parents - meaning a marriage license. Truthfully for most everything else -- no one cares if the step-parent status is official. Or for things like obtaining medical treatment can be covered another way -- like a note authorizing the designated person to obtain care for the children. But insurance companies sure do care about the official status.

I really don't see how people think Kody marrying Robyn means they could swoop in and terminate the Dad's rights. It doesn't work that way. He would have to agree to the termination in order for Kody to adopt them. Unless he was completely unfit as a parent, which is another issue entirely.

[NewSeasonOfLife]

I would not be shocked if there is a scene in the season finale where Meri has a "special talk" with Robyn and tells her something like, "We've always been close and you offered to carry a baby for me, so now I want to give something to you" and it being spun as some sort of gift to Robyn and her kids to bring them completely into the family even if Kody isn't their bio-dad, at least in a legal way.

[J'Beka]

I am completely in shock that Meri allowed this. I'm interested to read about what reason they come up with.

[eri]

I am pretty sure AUB follows the same principles as other groups- when you divorce and the wife remarries, the kids become the children of the stepfather. I wonder if the Browns are going to try to test that concept in court? As stupid as they are, they are all about normalizing this religion.

Eyeroll at the semantics game. My point still stands, ex is an adult who is obviously capable of being more involved with his children but is not (by choice).

[Justme]

Eyeroll at the semantics game. My point still stands, ex is an adult who is obviously capable of being more involved with his children but is not (by choice).

How do we know that? We only know what they show on TV. Maybe he doesn't want to be on TV. How can we judge the Father when we know nothing about him. He doesn't blog. He's not in the news.

[BrownieMomma]

How do we know that? We only know what they show on TV. Maybe he doesn't want to be on TV. How can we judge the Father when we know nothing about him. He doesn't blog. He's not in the news.

Several times I read that Jessop was opposed to his children being on the show. If that is true, then Robyn has clearly disregarded him as an equal parent - IMO parents don't have some inalienable right to put their children's lives on TV, esp if the other and equal parent does not want it. In that case, the parent who does not want it should win out.

We don't know if Jessop is out of the kids lives by choice. Maybe Robyn has made choices because Jessop already chose to check out. Maybe Robyn's choices effectively pushed Jessop out. We cannot tell from what is on the show and I've found nothing in print or online media to suggest either way, except that Jessop didn't want his kids on the show. Maybe he's just being a dick from a distance. Maybe not.

I think the Browns were more palatable in their original form, that somehow it was more okay that the first wife was also the legal wife, and that the next wives freely chose to be spiritual wives. Divorcing Meri to marry Robyn just reeks of something else, and it smells bad. I think a lot of people are going to not approve of this unless the Browns come out with a really really good reason and if it's Robyn's kids, then the general public is not going to like "giving up your kids to the next husband just because your religion says so." Then I think we are going to see the Browns as less acceptable.

[nelliebelle1197]

Eyeroll at the semantics game. My point still stands, ex is an adult who is obviously capable of being more involved with his children but is not (by choice).

Your whole statement is one big eyeroll. Your point is not valid. You have no idea what role David Jessop plays in the lives of his kids and what the real story is behind Robyn's first marriage or David's parenting. Not one one iota of evidence of anything, period.

[Antimony]

Well, as usual, I checked out Cynical Jinx for whatever news she has. She seems to think the leak was calculated to increase ratings.

Robyn's tweet the day of the Meri/Kody divorce is interesting:

How can so much love and so much pain exist in one single moment? It is like the most beautiful rose with the most painful thorns.

So, uh, no idea. If the unit stays together as a family, perhaps it has something to do with Robyn's children being the youngest or preventing a custody hearing, etc. I don't know custody laws in Utah or Nevada but a legal marriage probably looks better to a traditional judge than cohabitation. Maybe it's insurance.

The My Sisterwife's Closet Facebook page is still going but it looks like they disabled posts to page or I can't see them. Pity, some of them were complaints about how crappy the jewelry was.

[BrownieMomma]

Well, as usual, I checked out Cynical Jinx for whatever news she has. She seems to think the leak was calculated to increase ratings.

Robyn's tweet the day of the Meri/Kody divorce is interesting:

So, uh, no idea. If the unit stays together as a family, perhaps it has something to do with Robyn's children being the youngest or preventing a custody hearing, etc. I don't know custody laws in Utah or Nevada but a legal marriage probably looks better to a traditional judge than cohabitation. Maybe it's insurance.

The My Sisterwife's Closet Facebook page is still going but it looks like they disabled posts to page or I can't see them. Pity, some of them were complaints about how crappy the jewelry was.

I could be very wrong about this, but if Kody did that to increase ratings, I think it will backfire on him.

Marriage wouldn't be able to prevent a custody hearing if Jessop sues for one.

While normally I'd agree a legal marriage might look better to a court, the Browns have been public about their living situation and a judge is likely to take that into consideration, especially if Jessop makes an issue of the polyg, considering that he comes from a plyg background yet did not practice it while married to Robyn.

I can't see people really making divorce/marriage decisions to secure insurance, esp now that we have Obamacare and negotiating insurance for Roybn's kids into the TLC contract would be easy.

[eh02]

This is all so weird. Part of me does think it could just be a ratings thing. Like they could have done it just so it would leak and everyone would go crazy speculating about what's going on. They've never really been a family that has been big in the news for stuff outside the show (like the Duggars).

But...it's also not hard to believe it's a legal maneuver. I am just not sure what kind of reason it would be. I am not totally sold on it being about Robyn's kids and their dad.

I know Robyn has negative feelings about him, but I never got the impression that she thought he was a bad dad or shouldn't be in their life - unless I have missed something? I think hating your ex but still wanting them in your kids' life is pretty common.

And I can't really think of a situation where the financial aid side of things makes much sense, either. Wouldn't Robyn end up benefiting a lot than Meri would as a "single mom?" She has a lot more kids to put through school than Meri.

But clearly they are still together. Mariah's twitter (linked from Meri's) has a photo from just a few weeks ago of Meri and Kody looking pretty cozy.

[Becket70]

Perhaps this is wishful thinking on my part but this probably really irritated TLC and it could effect the shows ratings, which were going down anyway. TLC canceled "My Five Wives" this week. TLC's usual pattern is to double down on genres, offering two or three of the same kind of show (weddings, little people, weight issues,etc.) but I cannot imagine they will air another polygamy series. Did TLC know about this in advance or were they blindsided? People are imperfect and when you base the entirety of your programming on real people, you are bound to run into issues like Honey-Boo-Boo, the My Five Wives bankruptcy, Kody's problem with bad optics. I may be naive but it is time for TLC to rethink their "remarkably relatable" shows because I find very little that is "remarkably relatable" in their programming.

[Maggie Mae]

Perhaps this is wishful thinking on my part but this probably really irritated TLC and it could effect the shows ratings, which were going down anyway. TLC canceled "My Five Wives" this week. TLC's usual pattern is to double down on genres, offering two or three of the same kind of show (weddings, little people, weight issues,etc.) but I cannot imagine they will air another polygamy series. Did TLC know about this in advance or were they blindsided? People are imperfect and when you base the entirety of your programming on real people, you are bound to run into issues like Honey-Boo-Boo, the My Five Wives bankruptcy, Kody's problem with bad optics. I may be naive but it is time for TLC to rethink their "remarkably relatable" shows because I find very little that is "remarkably relatable" in their programming.

Do they really call it "remarkably relatable?" Because they really should just be honest, they are the modern day freak show channel. "My Strange Addiction," "My 600 lb life," "Long Island Medium," etc. These are all things that people have gone to the freak show to gawk at. Now they are just paid more and we can watch them in our houses. They stay in their houses, we stay in ours, no travel required. They used to have a couple of shows or specials about conjoined twins also - both the older ladies with the one who wanted to be a country star - and the younger girls in Minnesota. Oh, and they had that show about piercings, right? Oddities or some such? There isn't much on TV that relates to my life in any way, shape, or form, including the seemingly endless list of shows that Discovery films in my area, but I would be hard pressed to find something on TLC that is relate-able.

[Four is Enough]

I read through this entire rabbit hole today, and still have no coherent thoughts. In that, I think I'm like KTI and his groupies.. but I must say that the biological father of Robin's children can certainly choose to relinquish his parental rights. Obligations to pay for them would end at the same time. Some people do choose this route.

And for the person who said that adoption is not an alternative to abortion, it IS, in some instances. Birth mothers of my first two children consciously considered abortion, and decided the better choice for them was adoption. The birth mother's rights to my younger two (the father's too, as far as that goes) were terminated by the court.

[Georgiana]

Do they really call it "remarkably relatable?" Because they really should just be honest, they are the modern day freak show channel. "My Strange Addiction," "My 600 lb life," "Long Island Medium," etc. These are all things that people have gone to the freak show to gawk at. Now they are just paid more and we can watch them in our houses. They stay in their houses, we stay in ours, no travel required. They used to have a couple of shows or specials about conjoined twins also - both the older ladies with the one who wanted to be a country star - and the younger girls in Minnesota. Oh, and they had that show about piercings, right? Oddities or some such? There isn't much on TV that relates to my life in any way, shape, or form, including the seemingly endless list of shows that Discovery films in my area, but I would be hard pressed to find something on TLC that is relate-able.

The best part is that Kody is ALWAYS going on about how "OMG, THIS IS SUCH A POLYGAMIST PROBLEM. NO MONOGAMIST CAN UNDERSTAND. DON'T TRY THIS AT HOME, GUYZZZZZ"

Kody actively TRIES to be un-relatable, even when the situation at hand totally is, like the car debate from the last episode. 90% sure that happens to my monogamist family every single trip. It's not about wives, it's about the number of cars and drivers you have in the family.

What I can't relate to is why Kody even thinks it's a big deal.

[Mama Mia]

I can't see people really making divorce/marriage decisions to secure insurance, esp now that we have Obamacare and negotiating insurance for Roybn's kids into the TLC contract would be easy.

That's interesting. I can think of several instances just among the people I personally know where marriage and divorce decisions were greatly influenced by health insurance. Not that someone would marry someone they didn't love, but they might have just kept living together if it weren't due to one partner having insurance and the other needing it due to a health problem.

For the Brown's , if they feel they are all equally spiritually married I can see why rearranging the paperwork status might not matter too much to them, emotionally.

Currently they make far too much to benefit from The ACA or any subsidies. And the TLC show certainly won't last forever - or probably for more than another season or two. If Robyn or any of her kids have an on-going health issue, and if Kody has health insurance through that marketing job, or maybe has another job lined up, I can see that being a valid option.

[Evilbad]

I don't find them at all relatable. They are all dysfunctional.

I will give credit where credit is due, however, in that Kody seems to be very attached and connected to all of his kids. I don't know if having them in smaller family units with their respective mothers helps that or what, but, as much as I really don't like him, he seriously seems like the dad who is always involved with the kids. Given what we see with JB and even the little people dad, he seems much more involved.

They still make an absolute spectacle of themselves, otherwise.

[Becket70]

I don't find them at all relatable. They are all dysfunctional.

I will give credit where credit is due, however, in that Kody seems to be very attached and connected to all of his kids. I don't know if having them in smaller family units with their respective mothers helps that or what, but, as much as I really don't like him, he seriously seems like the dad who is always involved with the kids. Given what we see with JB and even the little people dad, he seems much more involved.

They still make an absolute spectacle of themselves, otherwise.

The terms "Remarkably relatable" comes straight from the Discovery Communications PR department. It is how they refer to TLC programming when they issue press releases. To me, the people at TLC as well as parent company Discovery Communications are remarkably delusional. They are kidding themselves if they think that people can identify with the vast majority of their programming.

[NotALoserLikeYou]

I read through this entire rabbit hole today, and still have no coherent thoughts. In that, I think I'm like KTI and his groupies.. but I must say that the biological father of Robin's children can certainly choose to relinquish his parental rights. Obligations to pay for them would end at the same time. Some people do choose this route.

And for the person who said that adoption is not an alternative to abortion, it IS, in some instances. Birth mothers of my first two children consciously considered abortion, and decided the better choice for them was adoption. The birth mother's rights to my younger two (the father's too, as far as that goes) were terminated by the court.

In CA at least you cannot give up your rights and have your obligation to pay for them end. He would still have to pay child support unless Kody adopted them. So it could be a win win for them both.

[BrownieMomma]

That's interesting. I can think of several instances just among the people I personally know where marriage and divorce decisions were greatly influenced by health insurance. Not that someone would marry someone they didn't love, but they might have just kept living together if it weren't due to one partner having insurance and the other needing it due to a health problem.

For the Brown's , if they feel they are all equally spiritually married I can see why rearranging the paperwork status might not matter too much to them, emotionally.

Currently they make far too much to benefit from The ACA or any subsidies. And the TLC show certainly won't last forever - or probably for more than another season or two. If Robyn or any of her kids have an on-going health issue, and if Kody has health insurance through that marketing job, or maybe has another job lined up, I can see that being a valid option.

By Obamacare, I don't mean subsidized. I mean that they can get insurance if one of those kids has a chronic illness or something. Somebody, somewhere HAS to insure the kid, Robyn doesn't have to get married in order to get a sick kid insured.

Only on Gray's Anatomy have I known someone who married to get someone else covered.

idk, people like the Browns who live on the fringes of society, do they even need or use insurance?

There's a reason for swapping legal wives, will be interesting to find out what the real reason is.

[Mama Mia]

By Obamacare, I don't mean subsidized. I mean that they can get insurance if one of those kids has a chronic illness or something. Somebody, somewhere HAS to insure the kid, Robyn doesn't have to get married in order to get a sick kid insured.

Only on Gray's Anatomy have I known someone who married to get someone else covered.

idk, people like the Browns who live on the fringes of society, do they even need or use insurance?

There's a reason for swapping legal wives, will be interesting to find out what the real reason is.

Oh, I see what you mean. But I could see preferring to have really good coverage provided by an employer with only a minimal family contribution -- to having to pay $1,000 + a month for a policy that might still have lots of out of pocket costs and a high deductible. Mostly it only seems like a serious option if Robyn or one of the kids has a chronic or serious health condition. Anything from asthma to an auto-immune disease can quickly add up.

At one point in my blended family, the difference between being married or not meant either having a great employer sponsored HMO with no deductible and $10 co-pays, covering 2 adults and 6 kids for $250 a month for the employee share ---- or having that for half the family, plus one adult covered by another employer and paying $1,100 a month for three dependents.

[Georgiana]

I knew a couple who were married sooner for insurance. They both make quite a bit of money (she's a lawyer, he's an Project Manager), but his employer had better insurance benefits. So she was paying $500 out of pocket for coverage and he was paying $20. Neither one was sick, but they married legally months before the wedding so that she could be added to his insurance (for only $5 more).

I mean, heck, once you're engaged and know you're going to marry the person (not that engagements don't fall apart), you might as well. You're just throwing money away at that point.