Sister Wives’ Janelle Says First Marriage to Meri’s Brother Doesn’t Count, Calls It a ‘Starter Union’

While appearing on the Reality Life With Kate Casey podcast, the Sister Wives star said she considers her brief marriage to Meri Brown‘s brother, Adam Barber, to be a “starter marriage.”

“It was very, very short lived,” Janelle said of the two-year union.

Host Kate Casey joked, “Many of us have had starter marriages,” prompting laughter from Janelle who replied: “[It] probably really qualifies as [that]. I think we might have lived together physically, actually lived together for, like, six months.”

Looking back, Janelle said the marriage “just didn’t take.”

Janelle was married to Barber for two years before they divorced in 1990. That same year, Meri wed Kody Brown, becoming his first wife.

And while Janelle was no longer married to Meri’s brother, she stayed close with her former sister-in-law and often spent time with her.

“I was not at Meri’s house all the time. I mean, I was there occasionally,” Janelle recalled. “I just happened to be there one time when Kody came. And I already was intrigued with the faith.”

The reality star said she remembered thinking that polygamy “represented something a little more dynamic or something more robust than the faith I had.”

“When I met Kody just in passing, Meri introduced us. I go, ‘Oh,’ I had sort of a feeling. Like, ‘Oh there you are,'” Janelle explained.

But their connection didn’t happen overnight, with Janelle admitted she had several different suitors after her first marriage — some of whom met Meri and Kody — before she and Kody ultimately got together.

“I knew them as friends. I had other relationships and boyfriends. Sometimes we did double date,” Janelle shared. “They were always my token polygamist friends. I was 20. It felt cool to have unique friends.”

Janelle also revealed that it wasn’t Kody who sought her out for a romantic relationship, but her pull to the religion did inspire their eventual union.

“I started to investigate the faith. Meri’s mother was a really great resource for me,” she continued. “I pretty much made the decision to join the faith.”

Janelle and Kody ultimately wed in 1993, making Janelle his second wife. The pair eventually welcomed six children — their son, Garrison, died in May at the age of 25.

While they appeared to one, happy and friendly trio, the union was “weird” at first for Meri, who revealed during a June appearance on the Miss Understood With Rachel Uchitel podcast that her and Janelle’s hometown wasn’t “that small” so she didn’t expect her then ex-sister-in-law to move on with her husband.

“It took a minute for me to get my head wrapped around it,” Meri said of Janelle’s marriage to Kody. “The whole thing was interesting. There was emotions. Let’s just say, there was emotions.”

Kody’s polygamist family continued to expand, with the group adding Christine Brown to the mix in 1994. Kody would eventually take on a forth wife in Robyn Brown, who he began dating in 2010.

Kody divorced Meri in order to legally married Robyn. He also adopted her three children from a prior marriage.

Meri remained in a spiritual union with Kody for nearly another decade before things began to fall apart amongst the Brown clan, with Christine, following suit, splitting from Kody in November 2021 after more than 25 years together, and Janelle ending her relationship with Kody a year later.