Despite the fact that Meri Brown has moved on from her previous relationship with Kody Brown, there is one item about their marriage that she continues to maintain: her surname.
The actress that plays the role of Sister Wives was born Barber. Nevertheless, when she married Kody in 1990, she adopted his surname as her middle name.
We’ve had a lot of conversations about it. It’s like, sure, I am related to Kody Brown because I have his last name, but at the same time, it’s the only thing that everyone knows me as. In an exclusive interview with PEOPLE, Meri, who is 53 years old, says, “For the past 34 years, that’s all I know myself as.” My maiden name is not something I would ever consider changing under any circumstances. It would be strange for me to do that. For a total of just 19 years, I had it. When you consider that I’ve owned this one for 34 years, it would be strange on that level.
Meri makes the observation that she will “probably keep it until I get married again and change it.”
She goes on to state, “We go with Black or White, we were thinking of all the last names that are colors.” She includes the phrase “Hopefully, his last name is also not Brown,” before referring to chats she has had with loved ones over the topic.
“It would be funny to just be Meri Christmas,” she continues, saying that she and her friends have joked about her changing her last name to Davenport since it is “very, very regal.” She also mentions that she has considered going through with the change. During the episode of the TLC program that aired on Sunday, December 29, Meri made a joke about taking on the name Davenport, which was also the name that her great-great-grandmother had used before she married.
In 2014, Meri finalized the divorce of Kody, who was 55 years old at the time. Subsequently, Kody went on to legally wed his fourth wife, Robyn Brown, giving him the opportunity to adopt her children from her previous marriage. In spite of the fact that Meri and Kody continued to be spiritually married, they went through a number of difficult years together. During this time, Meri was taken advantage of by a woman who pretended to be a male, and Kody showed little desire in working on their relationship. After being married for more than three decades, they made the announcement of their divorce together in January of 2023 on their own. Afterwards, Meri filed for the marriage to be dissolved via her church on the grounds that she had abandoned her husband.
Following a short relationship in the beginning of 2024, Meri has confirmed that she has reentered the dating scene. This comes after she has been divorced for more than a year. The fact that she is utilizing dating apps is in addition to the fact that she has been introduced to possible suitors by her loved ones.
Nevertheless, she acknowledges, “Sometimes I get tired of it, and I turn my profile off, and then I just do my own thing for a while, and then it’s like, ‘Maybe I’ll try it again.'”
“I’ll turn my profile back on and see what happens,” she adds. “I’ll watch what happens.” It’s a strange thing because you never know what will happen, and there’s a lot of this and that I have to get rid of. It’s almost as if they are aware of who I am. When should I be the one to reveal my identity to them? In addition to the fact that I come from a family that is plural, I am also a cast member on a television program. Who else is searching for their five minutes of fame? As a result, there is a great deal that you need to sort through. It is a fascinating method of operation.”
During her search for the ideal partner, she has said that it is “very important to me to have somebody who matches my energy and cheers me on with all the things that I’m doing.”
“I want to continue being independent in what I’m doing and also have a safe space to land, that somebody is going to cheer me on and be supportive of everything that I’m doing and not intimidated by that,” she says in her interview. People that are highly accomplished, very ambitious, and who have their own goals and aspirations that they are working toward are the kind of people I want to be around. Extremely driven and ambitious. This is the kind of person I want to be with.”
Meri continues by saying, “I think it would have to get to a [certain] point of relationship before I did that, because that’s a big thing to be seen publicly like that.” This is in response to the question of whether or not she would expose her romantic journey on the TLC series that her family produces.
