Maddie Brown is opening up about her boundaries with family members and why she has “no contact with some” of them – including her dad, Kody Brown.
“It’s because of stuff that has happened,” Maddie, 29, shared on the Monday, November 11, episode of her “The Authentic Society” podcast, later adding of her estranged father, 55, “doesn’t have any respect for boundaries, and you have to play by his rules, and I just don’t care to do that.”
She continued, “My dad would get very angry when I would — I’m a straight shooter. You ask me a question, I’m going to tell you what I think. And he would get very angry when I would be like, ‘I don’t know why you’re surprised here.’ And so that was one of the reasons that I went no contact because it was like, he didn’t like a mirror being held up.”
Kody and Maddie’s mom, Janelle Brown, split in 2022 after nearly 30 years together.
The pregnant mom of three – who shares son Axel, 7, and daughters Evie, 5, and Josephine, 1, with husband Caleb Brush – previously said during a 2023 appearance on the “Somewhat Basic” podcast that her kids also don’t have a relationship with her dad either, and wouldn’t “recognize him” if they saw him.
“I always get messages from people who are like, ‘You should just forgive your dad and respect him,’” Maddie explained. “And I’m like, ‘I don’t think you know what you’re talking about because your experience with your dad could be very different than my experience with my dad.’”
Maddie is one of six children Kody shares with ex Janelle, 55. The former couple also share sons Logan, 30, Hunter, 27, and Gabriel, 22, and daughter Savanah, 19. They also share son Garrison, who died by suicide in March. He was 25.
During an episode of Sister Wives that aired in October last year, Kody touched upon Maddie cutting off contact with him amid his November 2021 split with ex Christine Brown. The exes were together for 25 years and also share six kids together.
“I do not know what happened. But during the breakup with Christine, Maddie stopped reaching out to me,” Kody said. “Might have been COVID or I have no idea what was going on, but she quit reaching out to me.”
Janelle, however, had a different take on why her eldest daughter stopped talking to Kody.
“Maddie doesn’t call him because of his behavior, lately,” Janelle alleged in a confessional, which was taped in spring 2022. “She’s like, ‘I don’t know what to do with him. I don’t know who this guy is.’ She has to consider her children. She has to consider the stability of what they see or perceive as a grandfather. There’s a lot of things at play here. It’s not just Maddie not calling him.”
When TLC viewers first met the Brown family amid the show’s network debut in 2010, Kody was married to Janelle, Christine and first wife Meri Brown. Robyn Brown, whom he was courting at the time, eventually became his fourth wife after they tied the knot in December 2014.
After his breakups with Christine and Janelle in 2021 and 2022, respectively, Kody and Meri confirmed they went their separate ways in January 2023 after more than 30 years together. They share one child, Leon.
Robyn, 46, is Kody’s only remaining wife. Together they share five kids, including three from Robyn’s previous relationship.