Mariah Brown’s Realitystar Parents Are Mormon Polygamists. But When She Came Out, They Responded With Unconditional Love.
By starring in Sister Wives,TLC’s show about funda-mentalist Mormon polyg-amists, the Brown family became famous not just for its unconventional relationships but for its adherence to strict religious beliefs. So when Mariah Brown asked all five of her parents—her father, Kody, her biological mother, Meri, and her mothers through polygamy, Janelle, Christine and Robyn—if she could talk with them about something deeply personal, the group feared what would come next. “I wondered if she was going to drop out of school and move to Europe,” Kody recalls. Janelle, his second wife, was even more worried. “My head was racing,” she says. “I was terrified something was really wrong and she was sick.” Instead, the Westminster College senior stunned everyone by announcing she was a lesbian. “I remember thinking right before I told them, ‘If I don’t spit it out now, I’m not going to be able to,’” says Mariah. “Like when you go cliff jumping: ‘If I don’t jump now, I’m not going to jump at all.’ It was one of those things, and I just blurted it out.”
This story is from the January 16,2017 edition of People.
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This story is from the January 16,2017 edition of People.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
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