The beginning of the end.
That’s what Sister Wives fans will witness on this Sunday’s new episode of the long-running TLC hit.
Back on November 2, as you very likely know at this point, Christine Brown announced she was leaving spiritual husband Kody after over two decades as a couple.
The split came as a surprise at the time.
But now that we’ve been watching Sister Wives Season 16, it’s clear the writing wasn’t just on the wall for this couple a very long time ago.
It was written on this wall in permanent marker.
At various points over the past few installments, Kody has clashed with his spouses over his extremely strict COVID-19 guidelines.
Aside from Robyn, each of Meri, Janelle and Christine has taken exception at different times to Kody’s apparent lack of trust in them, prompting Kody to demand loyalty and respect from his sister wives earlier this year.
Cut to a couple sneak peeks we’ve seen from the January 23 episode of this reality show.
According to Christine, because she had been openly questioning him and his rules, Kody apparently takes away her sex privileges.
“He goes, ‘I’m not interested in having an intimate marriage anymore. I don’t like your behavior. We’ll see if you can be a good sister wife,’ and all this,” explains Christine this clip from the episode.
“I’m like, ‘Okay, so you don’t want us to have an intimate marriage?’ And he goes, ‘No.
“I’m like, ‘That’s not enough for me. I can’t not have an intimate marriage.'”
Does she really mean this?
It sure looks that way.
Entertainment Tonight has uploaded its own footage from this same episode, and it features Kody arriving at Christine’s place… only to find his stuff all packed up in boxes.
“Guess it’s time for me to talk to her about it,” he says on air, noting: “I have been moved out of my house.”
The thing is, Kody doesn’t seem too broken up about the likely break-up.
“I don’t want to take any of it out of here yet, ’cause I honestly didn’t know she was this serious,” he continues.
“I’ve had times past when she’s said something, and I didn’t feel like she was serious. I don’t know.
“I don’t know what it all means.”
Concludes Kody on the topic:
“Honestly, I’m thinking about it a little bit and I’m not angry. It appears to be a game, but it might not be.
“I don’t know… I don’t know why [she did this], but I’m ambivalent.
“I almost don’t care.”
Christine, who shares six kids with Kody, later says in a confessional:
“Now that Kody’s not sleeping her anymore, I feel like I can take a breath and get my self grounded, get my head in a good place, and just rest for a bit, and just settle for a bit, here, independent.
“I don’t know what the future looks like. I don’t know what tomorrow looks like. I don’t know what next week looks like. I don’t know. There are so many uncertainties.
“Kody will come over and spend time with the kids, and then he’ll leave and go somewhere else, and he won’t sleep here anymore.”
Since this episiode taped, Christine has since moved to Utah and moved on with her life.
She seems very happy with her decision, too.
“After more than 25 years together, Kody and I have grown apart and I have made the difficult decision to leave,” Christine wrote on Instagram about 10 weeks ago.
“We will continue to be a strong presence in each other’s lives as we parent our beautiful children and support our wonderful family.
“At this time, we ask for your grace and kindness as we navigate through this stage within our family.”
