Nearly a year after Christine Brown left behind her plural marriage of 26 years to Kody Brown, as well as her fundamentalist Mormon faith, the Sister Wives star says she’s never been happier.
“I get to live life for me,” Christine, 50, says in the latest issue of PEOPLE. “My whole world has changed, and every single cell in my body is happier.”
Before Christine announced on Instagram last November that her spiritual marriage to Kody was over, the TLC star shared a life with her husband and his three wives Meri, Janelle and Robyn in Flagstaff, Arizona. The pair who wed in 1994 are parents to son Paedon, 24, and daughters Aspyn, 27; Mykelti, 26; Gwendlyn, 20; Ysabel, 19, and Truely, 12. (Kody has a total of 18 children between the women.)
While Christine always wanted a plural marriage, things started to change in 2018. “I started thinking maybe this isn’t working for me,” she says. “And then I stopped believing in polygamy. I realized I didn’t really want to live it anymore. I didn’t like sharing a husband or feeling like I wasn’t important.”
Kim Raff Christine Brown
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After years of unhappiness, she packed up and moved to Salt Lake City, Utah, with Truely to start a new life.
“We got here and that night when I went to bed, I realized I was home,” she says. “It was just like that. And I got to start over again and it was exciting and it was new and so scary because I had no idea what to expect, but I was so excited. I remember feeling hope for the first time in a long time because I just got to take my life by my own and go. It was wonderful.”
Kim Raff Christine Brown
Christine co-parents with Kody, 53, who still sees his daughter often, but the mother-daughter duo have been embracing their new lives.
“I can’t tell you how many times I’ve opened up Truely’s door and been like, ‘What should we do for fun today?’ And so we just pick a destination and we go and we just have fun and we just go and explore. I mean, it’s just absolutely amazing,” says Christine, who launched her solo digital series Cooking with Just Christine for TLC in February (season 2 premieres Sept. 11).
“And now that I live here, there’s so many things to do and I just want to do it all.”
Joe Pugliese/TLC/Everett Kody Brown with his wives and children
RELATED: Christine Brown Moves Out of Kody Brown’s House in Sister Wives‘ Dramatic Season 17 Trailer
That includes dating, though she adds she isn’t ready quite yet.
“I would love to date. Love the idea of the end having a romantic partner. But I talked to Truely about it the other day and she’s like, ‘Mom, I really like our life how it is now.’ Down the road. I’m just going to let fate take care of that one.”
When she does, “I want a guy who actually loves me and wants to be with me intimately,” she says. “I will be a monogamist from here on out.”
Christine brown/Instagram Christine Brown’s kids
For now, she’s focused on her children, her future and the joy in each day.
“I just want to be an example to my kids more than anything. I always told them, ‘Do what’s going to make you happy,’ I have to do the same.”
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Season 17 of Sister Wives premieres Sept. 11 at 10 p.m. ET on TLC.
