Kody and Christine Brown‘s daughter Gwendlyn is sharing new insights into growing up in front of the TLC cameras.
In a Teen Vogue feature published Wednesday, May 14, Gwendlyn, 23, and more children of reality stars opened up about their experiences filming throughout their adolescent years and beyond. Gwendlyn admitted that she was “super into” the process of filming Sister Wives when she was younger.
“We just got thrown into fame and thrown into money. And I stopped wanting and needing things,” she told the outlet, hinting that Sister Wives — which is currently airing its 19th season on TLC — gave her polygamous family the means to get out of “a poverty situation” when the series began. “Life is a lot easier for a kid that’s not going hungry. It was quite a blessing initially.”
Gwendlyn claimed that she and her 17 siblings, however, didn’t receive direct compensation. “The network only paid the parents,” she alleged. “I’m not sure if they did or didn’t expect the parents to pay us kids, but we weren’t paid.”
According to Gwendlyn, it was her mom who stepped in. Christine — who shares six children with Kody — made the choice to pay her kids “a certain amount per day or half-day of camera time.” While Gwendlyn doesn’t know exactly how much she’s earned over the years, she claimed “it certainly hasn’t been a fair share.”
A spokesperson for TLC told Teen Vogue that “compensation is handled in accordance with contractual commitments and applicable labor laws and regulations” but declined to address the specifics of contract agreements.
Christine, for her part, noted that money was set aside for the kids’ college funds and vehicles but confirmed Gwendlyn and her siblings were not paid when the show began.
Sister Wives centers on Kody and his relationships with wives Meri, Janelle, Christine and Robyn Brown as they navigate plural living. In recent years, however, the family dynamic has shifted — and cameras have captured the fallout.
Christine was the first of Kody’s wives to leave, announcing their split in 2021 after more than 25 years together. She has since moved on with David Woolley, whom she wed in 2023. (Gwendlyn was noticeably absent from the wedding.) Janelle and Meri later ended their respective relationships with Kody, leaving him legally married to Robyn alone.
Gwendlyn hasn’t shied away from sharing her thoughts on her parents’ split. “I felt like they should have divorced for a while,” she told Teen Vogue. “I remember one time as a kid, I saw them arguing, and my first thought was, ‘I hope they get a divorce.’ What kid thinks that, right?”
More than a decade after her family was first featured on reality TV, Gwendlyn has a new perspective on life in the spotlight. “I’m growing a bigger dislike for it. And [in the past] it was like, ‘this is my normal,'” she says. “But now it’s like, ‘this does not have to be my normal,’ and it’s weird.”
Sister Wives airs on TLC Sundays at 10 p.m. ET.
