Telling My Story on My Terms

IN A VULNERABLE NEW MEMOIR, THE REALITY TV STAR OPENS UP ABOUT ADDICTION, FEUDS, SEX AND WHAT VIEWERS DIDN'T SEE ON THE TLC SERIES ABOUT POLYGAMY

- DORY JACKSON

New Perspective "I do believe that Kody is a good person," Christine (in Utah in 2022) says of her ex. Inset, from left: Janelle, Christine, Kody, Meri and Robyn in 2010.

SISTER WIVES STAR CHRISTINE BROWN WOOLLEY

For more than a decade, much of Christine Brown Woolley's life has been extensively documented on her family's hit TLC series Sister Wives, which debuted in 2010. Over 19 seasons the series followed fundamentalist Mormon patriarch Kody Brown navigating his polygamous marriages to Christine, Meri Brown, Janelle Brown and Robyn Brown-then all of the marriages disintegrating except Kody and Robyn's. Fans got a front-row seat to much of the drama, but Woolley, 53, says the series only scratched the surface: "I still felt like there was a huge part that I kept hidden."

Christine's Kids Kody and Christine ca. 2014 with (from left) Mykelti, Aspyn, Gwendlyn, Truely, Paedon and Ysabel.

Now she's telling the full story in her new book Sister Wife: A Memoir of Faith, Family, and Finding Freedom. It's part of Christine's process of reclaiming her life-and her truth-after leaving her 27-year relationship with Kody, 56, in 2021. The mother of six then found love with her now husband, David Woolley, 61, whom she married in 2023. She writes about the strains of polygamy, personal struggles and the growing rift between Kody and their children, now ages 15 to 30. "Even though I really feel like our show did our best to be authentic," she says, "I felt like I finally got it out there, really what my heart had been holding on to for so much, and it really felt [like I was finally able] to be free."