Kody Brown in Tears As He Apologizes to ‘Favorite Ex-Wife’ Meri Amid Return to Utah

On Sunday’s all-new Sister Wives Kody helped Meri move out of her Flagstaff, Arizona home amid her planned return to Utah, and their goodbye was filled with emotions — especially for Kody.

At one point, Meri accidentally backed up into Kody, resulting in the duo erupting into laughter. “Closer than I have been to him in years,” Meri told the cameras.

Kody even referred to Meri as his “favorite ex-wife.” Though Kody was with Meri the longest of his four wives, which included Christine and Janelle, now he’s only married to his fourth wife, Robyn.

Toward the end of the moving process, Meri and Kody had a chat that unexpectedly brought the 55-year-old Brown family patriarch to tears.

“It was a great run, but I’m not going to let it get me down,” he shared, calling it the “end of an era.”

Meri, meanwhile, was “blown away” by Kody’s emotional reaction, telling her ex. “I just don’t understand.”

“We had something special and it feels like it just all went to s–t, sort of,” Kody said through tears. “I’m not bitter anymore. I’m not angry. I’m glad you and I got that figured out. I’m glad that we were able to be friends. I’m glad that you’re my favorite ex-wife. But it’s the weirdest thing to be in that place. It is just heartbreaking in a way. And I love the life I have, but it’s a very different life than what I had three years ago, you know? It just seemed like everybody else just went, this isn’t important.”

Kody then admitted he’s “been going through an anger phase of divorce,” and though he’s no longer angry, he said he’s found himself “sad” as he mourns the “loss” of their marriage.

He continued, “And now with you, I’m through that anger phase. I’m sorry about the seven years, but I’m glad we did it because now I can mourn a loss instead of being angry.”

Meri was taken aback by Kody’s apology and unexpected emotional response to her move after he disregarded their relationship for years.

“He’s saying it’s the end of an era and I’m thinking it didn’t have to be this way,” she told the cameras. “I do not understand. I don’t get it. I don’t know where this is coming from. I do not understand it. He has made it clear that he did not want me in his life. So why this emotion? … I am floored. I don’t know what to do with this.”

Looking to the future, Kody said he wouldn’t be “weird” about her remarrying someday. Meri’s BFF Jenn then jokingly asked if Kody would be the flower girl at her next wedding, and the father of 18 responded, seemingly serious, “No, I get to walk her down the aisle.”

Meri and Kody laughed at his remark before hugging once more as the episode came to a close.

“It’s like, you know, this is the end of an era and now we have permission to move on,” Kody added through tears.

While there was some levity and closure for Kody and Meri, tensions only continued to rise between Kody and Janelle, who claimed that her ex is trying to blame their money problems on her.

“She basically implied that she was so surprised, like, somehow, she thought I’d been controlling the money,” Janelle said of Meri’s reaction to the Brown family’s financial woes. “I’m like, ‘Dude, man, if I controlled the money we would have paid off, built a house.'”

She continued, “I don’t know what Kody’s been saying about, like, somehow, I’m controlling the money.”

Christine backed up Janelle saying, “If you controlled the money, I think things would look a lot different.”

Janelle agreed, noting that when they were all married to Kody all she did was “record what was spent and send it to the accountant.”

Kody, for his part, didn’t defend Janelle however, and instead implied that Meri’s assumptions about her might be correct.

“It’s funny, my other wives remember Janelle controlling the money,” Kody said in a confessional before adding, “I sort of guided where the money went.”

He alleged, “We all had access to the account. Listen, we were a family working together and we did the best we could.”

Sister Wives airs Sundays at 10:00 p.m. ET on TLC.