As Kody Brown was busy multiplying his love, his authority over his eldest children was slowly diminishing.
The Sister Wives star—who has 18 kids from his plural marriages to exes Meri Brown, Janelle Brown, Christine Brown and current wife Robyn Brown—recently reflected on how his relationship with his older offspring has changed.
"Your relationship with your 10-year-old or your 5-year-old or your babies is very different than the relationship you have with a 15-year-old, a 20-year-old, and a 25 and a 30-year-old," Kody told People in an interview published Oct. 4. "It's very different. I didn't have any power in my household to say, 'These are the rules.'"
The TLC celeb told the outlet he'd felt "powerless" as a parent and that their family struggled to work through their differences—with him noting there were "very difficult issues that we had to deal with."
One issue viewers saw the past few seasons was family-wide disagreement over Kody's COVID-19 protocols. The 54-year-old told People he was also "not in a good place" with Christine, who announced the end of their relationship in November 2021, and that he was "recovering from a lot of anger" with Janelle, who revealed their separation in December 2022, and Meri, who he split from in January.
"But in the end, it's almost like it was a blur," Kody said while reflecting on the challenges they faced during the pandemic. "I don't know what happened. All that's left now is moving forward. Moving forward and hopefully healing these relationships. It is really a story now, moving forward. This is a story about forgiveness. Forgiveness and finding hope and joy after relationships have been severed from the way that's the norm."
He also expressed his desire to "find a new normal" with his exes and "all of my children."
While Kody didn't say which children he hoped to repair his relationship with, he previously noted on the Sister Wives: One on One special that he's "estranged" from his sons Garrison and Gabriel, two of the six children he shares with Janelle. Fans also saw Kody and some of his children celebrate Thanksgiving and Christmas separately.
To learn more about the Sister Wives family and their significant others, keep reading.