Family affair as ‘Sister Wives’ returns

By Frazier Moore

AP Television Writer

NEW YORK

They laugh a lot.

Maybe the Browns are just happy to be back in New York City, where they have landed to plug the second season of their TLC reality show, “Sister Wives.”

The Browns love being here, make no mistake. But something larger is going on as they meet with a reporter in midtown Manhattan to discuss the show and their plural marriage, which “Sister Wives” documents. It’s easy to see that Kody Brown and his four wives share a closeness and a comfort zone and, yes, a sense of humor that keeps the conversation at a gallop.

At one point, their newfound celebrity (a word at which they cringe) is broached.

“It’s embarrassing!” cracks Christine, Kody’s wife of 16 years, with whom he has six children, the youngest being 10 months old. “It’s embarrassing when someone recognizes you in a store and you have on no makeup and you’re wearing your home pants. A man spoke to me who said he watched the show. I thought, ‘You recognize me THIS way? Why should I put on makeup? Why dress up?’”

The room rocks with laughter.

Certainly the mood is lighter than on their previous New York publicity hop last fall.

Tonight’s season premiere (airing at 9 p.m.) captures scenes from that media tour, as the Browns made appearances to introduce a TV series no one had seen yet, a series headlined by this unconventional Utah family that already was raising eyebrows coast-to-cast.

At the same time, the Browns — nervous but resolute — were publicly coming out as polygamists.

But exposing their lifestyle to the world was a big reason the Browns had welcomed the opportunity to see their story told on a TV series. They were tired of keeping secrets and living in fear. They were tired of the misconceptions and stereotypes that defined polygamy in many people’s minds (including HBO’s extreme polygamy drama “Big Love,” which some of the Browns say they have watched and enjoyed).

“I went through high school hiding who I was,” says Robyn, who wed Kody on last season’s finale, bringing three children from her previous marriage into a brood that now numbers 16. “I shut people out because I didn’t want to be labeled and made fun of.”

“We’re not trying to proselytize our faith or our lifestyle,” says Kody, who is legally married only to Meri, his wife of 20 years. “We’re just looking for acceptance.”

“And I think we’re getting that,” says Meri, with whom Kody has a 15-year-old daughter. “People will tell us, ‘It’s not for me. There’s no way I could share my husband with somebody. But I am totally for you doing it, if that’s what you want to do.’”

The show averaged 2.2 million viewers its eye-opening first season.

But acceptance for the Browns’ family values hasn’t been universal.

“There have been a lot of people who have opposed it,” Kody acknowledges. “They say they still think it’s creepy.”