If you ask a Sister Wives fan who their favorite wife is, you will, of course, get a number of different responses.
A lot of people love Christine for her sweetness and how she’s stood up for herself lately, and there are also tons of fans who really sympathize with Meri and what she’s gone through over the years.
Then there’s Janelle, who just has a whole vibe that many, if not most of us can get behind.
What you won’t hear, however, is many people saying that Robyn is their favorite.
Because a lot of viewers simply do not like her.
Some will say that she’s responsible for the terrible shape the family is in now, but that doesn’t seem fair — it feels more accurate to say that her addition to the family helped some pre-existing issues rise to the surface.
But while we can’t really say that she’s single-handedly destroyed the Brown family, we can certainly point out that some of the things she’s said and done over the years feel at least a little manipulative, right?
And there’s a really good example of that in this recently resurfaced clip from the show.
Over on the Sister Wives Reddit page, someone shared an old snippet from when the family was discussing whether or not to purchase the four homes in the cul-de-sac.
The issue was that the developer wanted all the houses to be roughly the same size, and Meri struggled with this because while the other wives needed the space for all their kids, she didn’t want to be criticized for having such a large home when she would be the only person living in it.
Janelle and Christine both admitted that in the past they had an issue with this kind of thing, but they’ve since realized that Meri would feel like she’s being punished for her infertility by getting a smaller or plainer home so they don’t have that issue anymore.
During that conversation when everyone was sympathizing with Meri, Robyn felt like it would be a good time to cry.
“What would Meri be like, what would Mariah be like, what would her life entail if she more children?” she asked.
“I think about how much fulfillment my children are to me, that’s why I offered the surrogacy up to Meri, because I wanted her to have that choice, I didn’t want that choice taken away from her anymore.”
(She was referring to the offer she made to carry a child for Meri right after she gave birth to Solomon, just in case you needed a refresher.)
“I love my kids so much,” Robyn continued through tears, “and what would she be like and what would Mariah be like, and how much fulfillment would other children bring her?”
Even though Meri was crying too by this point, Robyn still had more to say.
“You know, she talks about keeping her stuff nice, well, she doesn’t have kids to break it,” she said. “Would she have those nice things anymore, or would there be little scratch marks when a little boy came and scratched his name in some of her furniture?”
“I can imagine it would be hard as much as kids are a lot of work and a lot of burden, they also fill your heart and your life.”
The whole thing just felt really inappropriate because Meri’s infertility is her own experience, and Robyn seemed to be mourning it for herself, and while it’s understandable to feel sorry for the people you love when they go through difficult things … this is just too much.
And the good people on Reddit agreed.
“This is such a vile thing to do,” one person wrote. “Don’t you think Meri has thought about all these things Robyn? You are just rubbing it in here while trying to look all devastated on Meri’s behalf.”
Another fan speculated that “They were focusing too much on Meri and the other wives and showing empathy towards Meri so Robyn had to jump in and, at the same time, put a finger in Meri’s wounds and play the empathetic hero who bravely wants to carry her child.”
Someone said that “Robyn is either emotionally stupid or just a horrible person if she thinks bringing up a person’s infertility frequently is a reasonable thing to do.”
One person tried to give her the benefit of the doubt, saying “Maybe she thinks she’s being empathetic but it seems hurtful to me.”
But another just went in the opposite direction with “F-ck you Robyn. How f-cking evil can you be? You inconsiderate barely literate deadbeat.”
That same person continued with “If I was on the fence about her intentions being pure evil before, this clip shows there’s nothing but mean spirited selfishness oozing out of that gross woman. I cannot imagine being so evil to someone who supposedly I love. Gross.”
Right now, the post has just over 200 comments, and they’re all pretty much along these same lines.
And we have to admit, it seems odd that a grown woman who the family has continually claimed to be so in tune with her emotions would think that any of this is acceptable.
Do you think Robyn has good intentions with her sister wives?