Gwendlyn Brown and Leon Brown. Courtesy Gwendlyn Brown/Instagram, Courtesy Leon Brown/Instagram
Sister Wives’ Gwendlyn Brown opened up about her sibling Leon Brown‘s relationship with their family after coming out as transgender.
In a video uploaded to her YouTube channel on Sunday, February 19, Gwendlyn, 21, reacted to episode 9 of Sister Wives’ 17th season and took issue with her father, Kody Brown, saying the children he shares with multiple partners are “not cohesive” as a family unit.
Gwendlyn — whose mother Christine Brown is one of the 54-year-old patriarch’s ex-wives — called her dad’s comments “beyond wrong,” noting, “Leon has given themselves space for their emotional health.”
Later in the video, the TLC personality elaborated on her 27-year-old sibling’s feelings toward the blended clan.
“Leon has been, since childhood, kind of the odd one out in the family because they had no siblings from their mom to really get along with,” she said of Kody’s only biological child with ex-wife Meri Brown. “They just probably felt like the odd one out. And also, with Leon being transgender and queer in general and being in a family that predominantly practices a Mormon fundamentalist faith. Mormonism hasn’t really traditionally been kind to queer people, especially with a family that’s quite a bit conservative and partially against transsexuality in general.”
Gwendlyn added of Leon distancing themselves from the large brood: “It’s not that they’re not fitting in. It’s that they have chosen to go to people who they can trust, and it’s just they found a safer community for themselves.”
Leon announced that they are transgender via Instagram in June 2022.
“Someone recently told me that I didn’t have to have all of my shit figured out in order for me to share myself with the world,” they wrote at the time. “So, here’s me, definitely not having almost any of my shit figured out, to let you know that i am trans. My name is Leon or Leo (I love both) and my pronouns are they/them.”
Leon brown with their partner, Audrey Kriss. Courtesy Leon Brown/Instagram
In addition to commenting on Leon’s dynamic with the rest of the family, Gwendlyn called out Kody for how he treated Meri, 52, in the episode. After watching the Wyoming native state in a confessional that he no longer acknowledged the marriage, Gwendlyn said, “The thing is, he is just leading her on at this point.”
She continued: “It is so unfortunate to see my dad going off about how he and Meri basically have this done relationship — because she doesn’t know that. They haven’t had a conversation about it. … It feels completely manipulative to me because he’s basically keeping this information from her and letting her be in this loveless relationship with this false hope that it’s going to be fixed.”
Meri officially left the reality TV star in December 2022 after spiritually marrying him in 1994.
In addition to Gwendlyn and Leon, Kody is father of 18 kids with Meri, Christine, ex Janelle Brown and his only remaining wife, Robyn Brown.
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“Honestly, he doesn’t have good relationships with any of his kids,” Gwendlyn said of her dad.