Christine Brown’s husband, David Woolley, pulled back the curtain on his first marriage and shared details of his wife’s death on the latest episode of Sister Wives.
“I blame myself,” David, 61, told Christine, 53, during the Sunday, May 11, episode of the TLC series, as they had a heart-to-heart about Janelle and Kody Brown’s son Garrison Brown‘s death by suicide in March 2024.
While David noted that he didn’t know Garrison well prior to his death at age 25, he understood the feeling of loss that Christine and her family were experiencing because his first wife died in a similar manner.
“My wife, my kids’ mother, she took her life,” David shared, referring to his eight children. “One of the hardest things I’ve ever done was to tell my kids that their mother wasn’t coming home.”
David — who was married for 20 years before his spouse died in 2012 — remembered asking his sister, “What do I do?” when he learned his wife was gone. “She’s like, ‘You need to tell them.’ And I told them,” he said before getting choked up on camera. “It was the hardest thing, crying, realizing that she wasn’t coming back.”
David confessed, “I felt like I let my kids down,” noting that it’s been more than 10 years, and he “still” gets “emotional.”
“Their mom was really special. I’ve seen enough of David’s home videos [to know],” Christine told the cameras. “She loved her kids and there’s so many happy moments and happy memories. I’m glad they have the home videos of them, so they remember because I think without those, I think they forget because it’s so sad.”
Christine and David met online after she and Kody, 56, split in November 2021 following more than 20 years of marriage. Christine and Kody share six children, and she is a bonus mom for their plural family, which includes 18 kids in total. (Kody welcomed six kids with Janelle, 55, before their 2022 split and one child with Meri Brown before they separated in 2023. He shares two biological children with fourth wife Robyn Brown and has legally adopted her three older kids.)
David, meanwhile, formally introduced himself to Sister Wives fans via social media in July 2023, after he proposed to Christine that April.
“I was married to their mother for 20 years when depression got a hold of her,” David wrote via Instagram at the time, sharing photos of his eight children and 10 grandchildren. “So I have been a single dad for 11 years. Yes, I dated since then but never went anywhere. … I’m really excited to be with Christine the future is really bright!!”
David and Christine tied the knot in October 2023 and Garrison was one of the Brown children in attendance. “I’m so glad he came to our wedding,” Christine said during Sunday’s episode, revealing that since Garrison’s death “nothing’s the same.”
She got emotional thinking about how much Garrison will miss out with their family moving forward. “I’m never going to be a grandma to his kids. Never,” Christine said through tears. (She and Janelle are still close and remain in each other’s kids’ lives.)
While Christine and David were somber most of the conversation, there was some levity when they revealed the reasoning behind a tree planted in their yard in Garrison’s honor.
“Sedona Midnight is the tree that we planted for Garrison on his birthday,” Christine explained, noting the moniker is because of a “funny” thing he once said. “Sedona Midnight would have been Garrison’s stripper name if he decided to be a stripper. He took a picture of Sedona and then those were his comments about it.”
The flowering Louisa tree is a willow tree that will always be at their house in case they “need to talk to Garrison.”
While Garrison died in March 2024, his death wasn’t covered on Sister Wives until last week’s episode. This week’s episode was filmed within the weeks and months after his death as the family prepared to bury him in Wyoming.
Sister Wives airs on TLC Sundays at 10 p.m. ET.
If you or someone you know is struggling or in crisis, help is available. Call or text 988 or chat at 988lifeline.org.
