Madison Brush's strained relationship with her father, Kody Brown, isn't due to a lack of effort on her part. Nearly a year after the "Sister Wives" star—who is also the daughter of Janelle Brown—revealed that she had stopped communicating with the family patriarch, she broke down in tears while discussing their relationship during the season 20 premiere of the show. “I might have to step out,” Madison confessed tearfully in a confessional alongside her husband, Caleb Brush, during the September 28 episode. “You yearn for your dad to show up. You long for reconciliation. I know I played a role in this, and I’m angry because I’m still struggling to learn how not to be disappointed.”
Last November, two years after Janelle and Kody—who is currently married to Robyn Brown and was previously married to Meri Brown and Christine Brown—separated in 2022, Madison confirmed that she had severed ties with her father due to his failure to respect boundaries in their fractured family. “I’m still figuring out how to accept him for who he is,” Madison added in a confessional. “I’m trying to wrap my head around the possibility that he didn’t know how to be there for us. Maybe he’s hurting too.”
For his part, Kody—who is the father of 13 other children from his relationships with Robyn and his three ex-wives—admitted during the episode that he would “really love” to mend fences with the children of his former wives. “I’ve basically just pushed aside all the heartache,” Kody, 56, said in a separate confessional during the show. “I’m at a loss for what to do. I desperately want to heal with everyone I know.”
However, the reality star isn’t necessarily willing to make concessions to reach that point. “We’re at a standstill here,” he explained. “Because this healing can only occur on their terms.”
Previously, Madison shared that her terms included her father acknowledging the true state of their family. “There was a lot of resentment, and he’d say, ‘That’s not true!’” Madison recounted during a November 2024 appearance on "The Authentic Society" podcast. “And I’d respond, ‘It is true. I’ve experienced it firsthand.’” As she put it, “He didn’t appreciate being confronted with the truth.”
