Sister Wives: Dr Drew Interview 9/22/11

This Dr. Drew Pinsky interview of Kody Brown and wives occurred approximately six months after the Joy Behar interview and after the Browns filed their lawsuit.

What  a difference 6 months makes! Obviously lawyered up and  rehearsed, the Browns appear to be better packaged, and let's face it, Dr Drew did not ask any hard hitting questions to Kody and Krew. But you don't have to look hard to see some cracks beginning to appear in that facade they are trying to hide behind!

Oh yes, I don't think the Browns enjoy being compared to 'Big Love' even though they are pretty much following the Big Love script. Could it be because the Dargers claim to be the family Big Love was based on, and the Kody Krew is trying to distance themselves from any comparison with the Darger personae?





DR. DREW
 One Man, Four Wives, 16 Kids
Aired September 22, 2011 - 21:00   ET

... we`re going to meet a man with a bunch of sister wives. A reality star and his wives are here to tell us how their marriage may be more normal than yours.

Fascinating, I promise. Let`s get started!

Up next, I now pronounce husband and wife and wife and wife. TV reality show polygamist Kody Brown, his trendy wives and family seem to be everywhere these days and they`re here with us tonight to talk about their upcoming season and a big family announcement. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PINSKY: Relationships are about sharing, right? But polygamy takes sharing to a whole new level. The more the merrier as the saying goes, but how many more, and how merry is it, really? I`m talking to four women sharing one husband, asking the cast of "Sister Wives" how they do it, and well, how do they do it?

You know what I mean.

Throw away everything you thought you knew about polygamy before. We are answering every question you ever wanted to ask but were afraid to.

MERI BROWN, KODY`S FIRST WIFE: I believe in living this lifestyle. It just makes each of us better.
JANELLE BROWN, KODY`S SECOND WIFE: I think it`s something really awesome. I wouldn`t want anything else.
CHRISTINE BROWN, KODY`S THIRD WIFE: I like "Sister Wives." I`m one of the family. I didn`t just want the man.
ROBYN BROWN, KODY`S FOURTH WIFE: Seems like destiny. Like we should all have been together from day one.
KODY BROWN, HUSBAND TO FOUR WOMEN: Love should be multiplied, not divided.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PINSKY (on-camera): From their unconventional family structure and living arrangements, each episode on TLC`s "Sister Wives" looks at the inner workings of a polygamist household. Meet the Browns. Kody Brown is an advertising salesman who juggles four wives and their 16 children. Kody is only legally married to his first wife, Meri, while the other marriages are considered spiritual unions. Watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KODY BROWN: I like marriage, and I`m a repeat offender. So, I have adopted the faith that embraces that life-style. In fact, it recommends it, and, like to reward good behavior. So, if you`re good with one marriage, they figure you`ll be good with two. Hope they think I`ll be good with four.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PINSKY: The Browns have seen their share of drama, most recently fleeing their Utah home for fear of prosecution. They now call Las Vegas home. Kody Brown and his three wives Meri, Janelle, and Christine join me now together. They`re out there in New York to talk about this season of their show that debuts this Sunday. Kody`s fourth wife is unable to join us, and we`re going to get to that in a minute as to why.
All right. Kody, help me understand this. I mean, I have enough trouble keeping one wife happy. How do you do it with four? How do you juggle your time? What`s the secret?
KODY BROWN: I keep my time even and fair, and my wives are dedicated to it as well.
PINSKY: You said in that clip we just saw that you had adopted this faith. I believe your wives were raised in polygamist families, correct me if I`m wrong on that, and this is not something you were raised with?
KODY BROWN: I wasn`t raised in it. I adopted the belief when I was about 14 and didn`t know that there was a venue to live it in. And by the time I was 21, I found a faith that actually believed in the principle.
PINSKY: Does your family of origin --
JANELLE BROWN: Dr. Drew.
PINSKY: Yes. Please.
JANELLE BROWN: I actually didn`t grow up in the faith either. I grew up in the Mormon Church, the LDS church. I adopted this faith in my early 20s.
PINSKY: And Kody, were you in the LDS church as well?
KODY BROWN: Yes, I was. I grew up in the LDS church.
PINSKY: Now, I am a huge fan of the show "Big Love." I really love that show. And the reason I like it is that it`s describing what the reality of what the kinds of interpersonal struggles that a household like yours would have. And, in that program, there`s a lot of consternation about being rejected by the mainstream LDS community. Are you finding lack of support there? Can you tell me about that?
KODY BROWN: We`re going to give you a little bit of a taste of this this year. I actually went back to my hometown where I grew up, met with some of my old friends, and kind of opened myself to them to kind of say hey, Kody, what have you been doing? Why did you do this? And so, we get to see kind of some of their displeasure with it. And my explanation of why I did it.
PINSKY: Can you share with me what a lot of that negativity is based upon? What`s the sort of main complaint you`re hearing?
KODY BROWN: Well, most faiths or religions think that they`re the only one, they`re the right one.
(LAUGHTER)
PINSKY: What would you say to people that, perhaps, you having been raised in a polygamist environment somehow poisoned your sense of what a real relationship was? What would you say to people that say something like that?
MERI BROWN: I don`t think that`s a very accurate argument because anybody in any sort of relationship or lifestyle was raised a certain way, you know? They were either raised into a monogamous family, and so, this is why this is familiar to them, so you could say, well, maybe they could have been poisoned that way. You know, so in my mind, it`s kind of the same thing.
PINSKY: Fair enough. Yes. I`m going to ask an indelicate question, perhaps. Where does your stamina come from? Maybe that`s the right way to ask it.
KODY BROWN: You know what, OK, your capacity grows. It`s not something you, when you have a child, most men would say oh, my goodness, the first child. I don`t know how I`m going to deal with this. Oh, I`m going to have a baby. It`s very intimidating, and then, they might feel the same way with the second child. But, eventually, you develop the capacity to do it. And so --
MERI BROWN: To love them.
KODY BROWN: Yes. Well, to have the children, to love the children. And so, we have grown in our capacity to be a family. It wasn`t something that just came natural the first day that we started this or when I first met Meri or when I decided to marry Janelle. It`s all been something that we`ve grown into, and our capacity has grown to do that.
PINSKY: I got to say, though, I had triplets. And I got to say, when I first became aware that I was going to have triplets, I felt like, I can`t handle this. I`m not going to make it, and I was right, I barely could.
(CROSSTALK)
PINSKY: My capacity grew a little bit. I don`t know how you do 16.
MERI BROWN: I tell you, if we had jumped right into 20 years ago having four wives and 16 kids, all of a sudden, I don`t know how, if any of us could have survived that. We really had to work into it all.
PINSKY: And then before we go to break --
KODY BROWN: We had 16 years to adjust to the four of us before Robyn joined the family with her children.
PINSKY: And before the break, I want to ask you this question, ladies. How do you not become jealous? How does that work? How do you not get jealous of --
MERI BROWN: Who says we don`t become jealous?
PINSKY: Well, how do you deal with it then?
CHRISTINE BROWN: Of course, you become jealous. What? Because we decided that the relationship between our sister wives is just as important as the relationship with our husband. We all chose to have this plural family. We all love this family. And our main goal is to just help our whole family and raise these kids the best that we can.
PINSKY: And finally, I mention that there was sort of some news in your family, the fourth wife is not with us because why, Kody?
KODY BROWN: Because Robyn is going to have a baby soon, and they won`t let her fly. So, maybe two or three weeks for another baby.
PINSKY: Now, we`re looking at a quick clip here.
MERI BROWN: She`s very sadly missed though. We miss her.
PINSKY: Oh, that`s nice. We have a clip -- nervous Robyn in this clip we`re about to see sharing the news. Take a look at this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KODY BROWN: Expecting a baby in October.
ROBYN BROWN: We haven`t told anybody in the family. We`ve got to make the announcement to everybody and tell them. I`m worried about Meri taking it hard. She always wanted to have more children. Her body won`t let her have more. Hopefully, everybody will be OK with it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PINSKY: And so Meri, before we go to break, how did you take it?
MERI BROWN: I took it very well, and I was very happy for Robyn. I`m very excited for her.
PINSKY: Excellent. OK.
Up next, the tough life changes for the sister wives and how they are adapting to the new home in Las Vegas and how the kids are adapting. Stay with us.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KODY BROWN: In seven and a half months, truly won`t be the little one.
(CROSSTALK)
KODY BROWN: Mom is going to have a baby.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KODY BROWN: The whole family moved to Las Vegas a couple months ago.
MERI BROWN: We need to flip that around.
KODY BROWN: Everything is completely different.
JANELLE BROWN: there`s been a lot for me of changes, culturally, and everything, with the move. I mean, my world is upside down with the move.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PINSKY: Welcome back. We`re talking to the family from the show, "Sister Wives," the Browns. They had to move from their home state of Utah to Las Vegas because the family was under investigation for violating the state law prohibiting polygamy. Now, Kody, when you revealed yourself as a polygamist on national TV, did you think it would lead to this?
KODY BROWN: I didn`t know what to think. Honestly, we were very naive. There were so many polygamists out there and there were so many that were living in secrecy and obscurity. We just felt like by going public, we would actually be doing a service to bring them more open. You know, just being an example of being open about who we were. We didn`t know what to expect. We were naive.
PINSKY: Has this been too big a price to pay or are you guys doing OK in Las Vegas?
CHRISTINE BROWN: It`s been a bit challenging for our kids, but it`s always challenging when you move your kids. But they`re adjusting well, and they`re making a lot of friends, and we`ve been very accepted into our communities.
PINSKY: And Kody, let me ask this about the sort of legalities of what you`re facing. You have a marriage license only to Meri, is that correct? And how come, if that`s the case, you`re not allowed to say whoa, I`m not legally married to the other three, I`m just polyamorous with the other three. How come the state cares, I guess, my question?
KODY BROWN: I just -- I don`t know. Ask a lawyer that one.
(LAUGHTER)
PINSKY: Do the kids call each other brother and sister even though they`re living in these separate houses?
KODY BROWN: Yes.
PINSKY: So, they all consider themselves sort of equally siblings?
MERI BROWN: The kids are absolutely siblings, yes.
CHRISTINE BROWN: I think that`s the best part about our family is that the kids feel really like we`re their moms, and all the kids are brothers and sisters, even though, we live in four separate houses, they`ve made a huge point to keep together and do things together. And the other day, I was asking Ysabel (ph) if we all lived in one house, who she would want to share a bedroom with, Gwendlyn, (ph) maybe, and she said straight off Mariah (ph), who is Mariah`s daughter --
JANELLE BROWN: Meri`s daughter.
CHRISTINE BROWN: Mariah is Meri`s daughter.
(LAUGHTER)
PINSKY: Now, the question is does having more parents to raise the kids somehow make life easier? We got a little bit of tape here that may address that question. Take a look at this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think truly the house is the best therapy. There`s pretty cheap therapy, really, honestly.
JANELLE BROWN: I mean, they`re grappling with the way things work and the way the world is, and when they hit a road bump, you want to fix it for them, you want to tell them exactly what to do, but they`re their own independent people and they only will listen to you so much. I mean, it`s just brilliant that I have sister wives who can relate to my children at times when they aren`t necessarily wanted to relate to me.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PINSKY: Living in separate houses, it appears that everyone is helping out with one another and the child rearing. Can you tell me how that works?
JANELLE BROWN: You know, just like before, we cooperate together to cover schedules and cover needs. In this instance, I have a 14-year-old son, and he thinks Christine is awesome. She walks on water. He wakes up on Saturday morning, he`s like before breakfast, can I go to Christine`s? I`m like OK.
CHRISTINE BROWN: Well, he`s just as delightful to me that I am to him, believe me.
JANELLE BROWN: It`s wonderful when they have different personalities who can reach out to children who have a different personality than I do and meet their needs in a way that I can`t.
PINSKY: Now, Christine, I understand you filed a lawsuit against Utah`s bigamy law. I think it`s bigamy, not polygamy that allows the state to care about the way you guys are living. Why did you file that lawsuit?
CHRISTINE BROWN: You know what, if I can actually speak to this question, the lawsuit is something that`s really important to us and so under the advice of our attorney, we really aren`t going to be able to discuss that, and I hope you can respect that.
PINSKY: Absolutely. What would you guys say to somebody who took the position that becoming more lax with bigamy laws will lead to more sex, sex with Warren Jeffs and the FLDS?
MERI BROWN: It`s easy for groups like his group to be able to fall into the secrecy and be able to commit these crimes and horrible things.
CHRISTINE BROWN: It`s because of the fear, because of the fear.
PINSKY: OK. So --
KODY BROWN: They exploit the fear of their people.
PINSKY: Got it.
KODY BROWN: And take advantage of that, and it gives them this all powerful we control you, you got to do what we say, and that`s because these people are closed up. They`re afraid of the government.
PINSKY: All right. Now, Kody, I asked you something earlier about stamina. And, of course, my job is to ask the questions that my viewers want asked, and I just know that there are people out there asking themselves about Kody and his stamina, and it`s not the child rearing stamina that we`re talking about.
That how do you, sexually, how do you keep up with four women? I mean, you`re a relatively young man, but however, you choose to answer that question, I`m asking it just because I know people out there are wondering.
KODY BROWN: And this is how I`ll answer it, Dr. Drew. A gentleman doesn`t speak of such things.
PINSKY: Fair enough. Fair enough. So, I will go to the wives. Is he able to keep up? everybody happy? Does he have to resort to the blue pill?
CHRISTINE BROWN: Ladies don`t speak of those things either.
PINSKY: All right. Fair enough. I can`t tell my viewers I didn`t try. Now, Christine, with respect to polygamist cultures and the controversy surrounding Warren Jeffs and this sort of the FLDS and the splinter groups, what are the misconceptions out there about your lifestyle?
CHRISTINE BROWN: People automatically think that because we live polygamy that we are like FLDS. The FLDS are a very, very small part of the fundamentalist Mormon community. There are so many more people that live this plural lifestyle than live in LDS. Most of them are just like us. Most of them want all of their children around them all of the time, and they want them to have correct choices for their future.
They want them to go to school. They want them to marry as adults who they want to marry. They don`t care if they dress modern. They give them that kind of freedom. We want everything for our kids. We want the world for our kids. That`s what they deserve.
PINSKY: I get that that`s it. And really, you know, hats off for making this work.
CHRISTINE BROWN: And can I just say it`s disgusting. OK. I`m sorry. I`m just putting that out there.
PINSKY: What is?
CHRISTINE BROWN: Warren Jeffs is using religion to molest girls is not OK. It`s wrong.
PINSKY: I absolutely agree with you. And I thank --
CHRISTINE BROWN: There`s no way.
JANELLE BROWN: And that is absolutely the biggest stereotype that`s out there that people think when they think polygamy, that`s what they think, and that`s not what it is.
PINSKY: Yes. I think the more --
KODY BROWN: It`s what pushed us to go public is we needed to be able to go public in order to say, hey, we`re not like this. This is not part of our world at all.
PINSKY: You know, it`s interesting. It`s so funny. Do you guys watch the show "Big Love"? I`m a huge fan of that show, and that`s very much why the same kind of reasoning that propelled them to go public
They were, you know, sort of associated with FLDS-type group and they wanted to distance themselves from it and talk about, you know, the struggles of the kinds of life, alternative life that they`ve chosen, and the family they`re trying to raise, but to make it clear, they were not -- have you ever watched that show?
KODY BROWN: Meri saw the first two seasons.
CHRISTINE BROWN: The biggest thing to say about that show is that it`s absolute fiction. We all reality.
PINSKY: I totally get that.
KODY BROWN: You don`t watch a soap opera and think that regular Americans are like that, do you?
PINSKY: No, I completely get it, but isn`t it interesting how their motivation to be public about it was very much to move away from the FLDS and those kinds of groups, and that I find it fascinating that that Kody that was some of your motivation, too.
And so, you know, I think people would have questions about how you manage the interpersonal aspects of this, which are challenging in any marriage and to sort of exponentially add, you know, elements to it. It just makes it very interesting. And it`s hard to get one`s head around because I`m not sure I`d sign up for it, but Kody, hats off!
(LAUGHTER)
PINSKY: More with the Browns when we return. Be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JANELLE BROWN: At this point, the religious influence is really secondary for me. I just really need somewhere for my teenagers to go to be able to hang out, especially Hunter, just to find anything that he`ll participate in.
CHRISTINE BROWN: With us having a polygamist background and all these other churches, we don`t know what church is going to accept us.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PINSKY: We are talking to reality show polygamist, Kody Brown, and three of his four wives, Meri, Janelle, and Christine. Guys, I got less than two minutes here. One last thoughts do you have and what are we going to see this season?
KODY BROWN: You know, one of my favorite things about the episodes this year is, obviously, the announcement of the baby, Meri`s interaction with Robyn about the baby, how the family is excited about the baby, but we have an episode called guys night out where I actually go out with some of my buddies and I get to do a little MMA, you know, and I`m jazzed about that.
(LAUGHTER)
CHRISTINE BROWN: And ladies get to do a ladies night out, and that`s awesome. We get pampered. You`ll have to see.
JANELLE BROWN: But you know, I mean, on a serious basis, you get to see our children really work to get established.
(CROSSTALK)
CHRISTINE BROWN: I guess it`s important for us to be getting our legs and seeing our children start to triumph over the sadness they felt of leaving.
MERI BROWN: You know, and I was going to say the same thing about our kids just growing and learning through this whole experience. My daughter, Mariah, said to me the other day, mom, I still have a hard time with the fact that we moved and this is hard for me, but I wouldn`t change the experience, because I`ve learned so much about myself and I`ve grown so much.
PINSKY: And we can see this show on TLC. What time and what day, guys?
KODY BROWN: Sunday at --
CHRISTINE BROWN: Six, nine, depends if you have high def.
PINSKY: So, it`s a cable programming.
CHRISTINE BROWN: Sunday at 9:00 p.m.
MERI BROWN: Sunday night, TLC. This coming Sunday, the 25th it starts.
PINSKY: OK. It`ll be -- check your local listings whether you`re watching direct TV or cable may be different times, but we will be looking forward to the struggles of getting settled in Las Vegas. So, thank you guys for joining me.

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1109/22/ddhln.01.html