"Sister Wives" took their viewers on an emotional roller coaster with a shocking season 6 finale. Aired on Sunday, Nov. 15, the episode followed how the polygamous Brown family, headed by Kody, dealt with Meri's startling confession.
Meri, the first wife in the family, was seen sobbing while she sat down with Kody and the three other wives -- Christine, Janelle and Robyn. After a moment of tension, she made the agonizing admission that she had an affair with someone over the Internet.
Meri openly told Kody and her fellow sister wives that she got into the relationship due to her extreme loneliness. Her only daughter Mariah has gone off to college while the other wives are still busy raising little children. Robyn, the fourth wife, is preparing for another baby due in January.
"Usually, when people go through having an empty nest, it's a couple doing this together, but in a plural marriage that's not the case," she explained. "I'm in this isolated, and I don't feel like anyone else in the family can relate."
Feeling left out of the family dynamics, Meri looked for solace online. "I was talking to one person who really made me trust him," she said on her on-cam interview. "It was really confusing because I was really caring for him, too. I'm sitting here married and I'm feeling these other emotions, directed toward somebody else."
However, Meri sensed something wrong when her Internet lover became verbally abusive as she began asking personal questions. After some investigation, she learned that she has been "catfished."
Last month, news broke that Meri was having an extra-marital affair with a person named Sam Cooper who turned out to be a con artist, a woman whose real name is Jackie Overton. Meri said that she kept the truth hidden from her family because she feared that the catfish might hurt them.
While Meri was breaking down during their conversation, Kody was strangely quiet. Later, on his confessional interview, he explained that it was hard for him to process Meri's news.
"Meri is saying she's really struggling [and] feels like she lost her identity. And it's weird, some of the words she's saying sounds like she's leaving or something," Kody said. "I'm gathering from this [that] that she doesn't want to be married to me anymore but that she still wants to be in this family. I'm afraid to ask her -- I'm afraid she's she going to get in my face and say, 'This is you.'"
However, Hollywood Life reported that the whole family is standing by Meri during this difficult time. "The family forgives Meri completely, they're not blaming her for it at all," a family insider said. "Since she came clean the whole family has rallied around her to show their love."
Kody, who has been married to Meri for 24 years, assured his followers on Twitter that he will always "love and support" her.
I will love and support @MeriBrown1 ALWAYS!!! She needs to let me. Working on it! #SisterWives
— Kody Brown (@realkodybrown) November 16, 2015
He is also asking his followers for understanding as his family works on their issues. "Please be patient and supportive. The Brown Family is working on it," he tweeted.
Please be patient&supportive. The Brown Family is working on it. Thanks for going to Alaska with us. Special place. Goodnight. #SisterWives — Kody Brown (@realkodybrown) November 16, 2015
According to US Weekly, the Browns will reveal more details about Meri's catfish on their two-hour special entitled "Sister Wives: Tell All." It airs on Sunday, Nov. 22, 9 p.m. on TLC.
