'Sister Wives' stars Christine and Meri Brown explain why friendship ended

"Sister Wives" stars Christine and Meri Brown are cordial these days, but they're not close friends. They both have their own unique take on why they've drifted apart.

The former sister wives open up about the state of their strained relationship in a new “Sister Wives” special that airs on Sunday, Dec. 18.

The conversation starts when host Sukanya Krishnan asks Meri if she feels like Christine also left her when she divorced Kody in 2021.

“At the time that she first was telling us, that’s really how I felt. I felt very betrayed by her and that she was leaving me too," Meri explains in an exclusive clip shared with TODAY.com. "Cause she has always said, 'I didn't just want the man. I want the sister wives.'"

Meri goes on to explain that she and Christine were close at one time. Meri and Kody married in 1990, the same year they met Christine through a church youth group. Christine joined the marriage four years later in 1994 as Kody's third wife.

"I know what kind of relationship she and I have had in the past. It's been fun. It’s not been super super deep, but it's been a lot of fun and I miss that. I missed that for a lot of years with her," Meri says.

Krishnan points out that Meri and Christine’s friendship fractured at some point, and asks why they never ended up mending things.

“I don’t know exactly what the deal is,” Meri, 51, replies.

“You know what you did,” Krishnan says, seemingly referring to Meri's 2015 catfish scandal that eventually led to the dissolution of her marriage with Kody.

“Well, I mean, I have not always been the perfect person or the perfect wife or the perfect sister wife. It just kind of comes down to we’re just not safe with each other and I don’t think there was one thing. It was over time," she explains.

"Safe with each other cause you don’t trust each other?" Krishnan asks.

"Probably, yeah," Meri says.

The scene then shifts to Krishnan's conversation with Christine. She asks the 50-year-old why she thinks Meri feels betrayed.

"Cause I ended the friendship. I ended the relationship, I did. I ended it. It wasn't safe for me anymore and I ended it and I just told her straight up, 'No, we’re not going to be friends cause I don't trust you and I'm not gonna do that to myself anymore,'" Christine explains.

Krishnan is curious to know if the door was closed on their friendship forever or if there was ever a time when Christine wanted to repair things.

"For me, yeah (it was closed). We tried a little bit here and there in Vegas but her treatment of me wasn't nice. She wouldn't be nice to me. She was just putting me down a lot in public situations. Especially if her family was there she would just put me down," she says.

The mother of six then explains that she hit a breaking point where she didn't want to deal with the tension anymore.

"When I hit my wall, I'm done," she says.

Krishnan then asks Christine if she felt like her friendship with Meri was worth fighting for.

"No, because then sure she would be nice for a while but then she would just come out again and I just never knew who to expect. And it was just too stressful," she says.

In a recent interview with TODAY.com, Christine shared an update on the status of her relationships with Meri and Robyn. Christine said she is amicable when she runs into them, but doesn't maintain any sort of friendship with them.

“I don’t know if I’m ever going to be anything different. You know, I think it might just always be that when we see each other we will be cordial. I think that’s all that’s going to happen, to be honest,” she said.

The reality star echoed not feeling "safe" with the two, as she does in her interview with Krishnan.

“I just want people in my life that are safe and people that I trust. So that’s what I’m going to do: Surround myself with people that I trust, and that I know trust me,” she said.

When Christine told Meri, Janelle and Robyn that she was leaving Kody during Season 17 of "Sister Wives," Meri said she felt a mix of emotions.

“I feel angry and I feel a little betrayed and I feel like I understand where she’s coming from,” she said in a confessional. “I’m hurt that she doesn’t see value enough in our family.”

Later on in the season, Christine told Robyn and Meri that she needed space as she prepared to move to Utah. Meri was frustrated by the situation.

“She doesn’t want to work on anything. I have seen her non-acceptance of Robyn and I have seen her disdain for me through the years. As much as it hurts me, I’m glad to know where she actually stands,” she said.

This article was originally published on TODAY.com