ReadMeLattice

Yep. As much as there may be some favoritism, I can tell you I would rather be one of Meri, Janelle or Christine's kids any day. I have a lot of empathy for Robyn's kids. (Plus they have to spend more time with Kody.)

Yes, and to be fair I think the intimacy situation meant more to her than just "I want sex and he won't give it to me." Kody is the only man she ever had sex with and in the cult she grew up in, there's no expectation of other markers of marriage - plural wives don't get legal recognition of any kind. They don't get adequate quality time, help with or public recognition of their children, etc. So the main difference between a plural wife and everybody else is sex; essentially, marriage IS sex to them. To her, Kody saying "we won't have sex again" was essentially a disavowal of the only thing that made them a married couple.

It was on her IG stories, not her posts. Ysabel, Logan and Michelle also posted supportive things and used the name Leon.

Yeah I will never understand why people can empathize with Meri for straying -- which I totally can as well -- but not with Mariah, who was: -18 at the time -raised as a polygamist -put on a national TV show about her parents' polygamous marriage -dealing with her parents' divorce and struggling with her own sexuality as she entered college -aware that her mom was being catfished, and warned her -dragged to MEET the catfish in person behind her dad's back -probably afraid the divorce and affair would leave her, not just Meri, even more alienated from her siblings and dad -aware that her mom's sexts would probably be splashed all over the internet and talked about at her school where she was trying to enter young adulthood Like, she's not perfect, she can be annoying, but I'd have been pretty displeased with my mom too. Especially at that age. They've clearly moved past it and that's great, but her being snotty about it at the time is not a shock to me or a sign that she's some truly awful person. I feel like the aftermath of the divorce is so focused on Meri that it's easy to forget that it probably affected Mariah too. Sure, it was a weird marriage to begin with, but it's the marriage Mariah's parents always had. And unlike the others, their marriage was the only thing really connecting Mariah to the rest of the family, as she didn't have full siblings. That's what I think too. Christine was probably trying to convince herself more than anyone else. She's also always struck me as an "all in or all out" type of person. If she's going to be married, she wants to have a real, affectionate marriage - not this grey area, kind-of thing that Janelle and Meri have with Kody. If she was going to be polygamous, she was going to be gung-ho about polygamy. If she's going to be divorced, she's going to be VERY divorced and clear about it.

Plus, while yes, she is obese and that's an important medical issue, so are almost half of Americans. I highly doubt she's the only overweight college student out there.

I wondered if they gave up that idea once they decided to be on the show and realized that probably wouldn’t go over well with viewers.

Here’s the interview with Dimitri’s previous “wife,” Ariadne. Basic bullet points: -she claims Dimitri choked her sexually and also choked her in a rage -claims Dimitri has physically abused Ashley -claims Dimitri and Ashley constantly tried to get her to have threesomes -claims Dimitri is a felon and keeps guns in the home illegally -claims Ashley pressured her to be naked around the house and was cruel to her children Idk, I have a hard time believing all these women are 100% lying and not a single instance of abuse has occurred.

Yeah, I honestly don’t know if he’s capable of shame.

“Wow, that sounds really bad for him! Like, really REALLY bad. For him. Anyway...” 😂

Yes, what a total bait and switch. They basically had them as background noise for a couple episodes before they were just main characters again. JB is never going to accept not being the protagonist of any story.

I could absolutely see this being the case. Jill seemed horrified that she had to talk about the abuse on camera when the news first broke, so I would imagine it’s very possible that she asked Derick not to make any statements about that specifically on her behalf. JB/the show might be his only “outlet” to publicly condemn. I get the strong sense that they’ve aligned on their messaging and what they want to complain or not complain about.

Yep. I’ve noticed that Jill tends to try to be a little more reticent and diplomatic. Derick has a more assertive and aggressive personality. My husband and I are the same and he’s definitely been our “spokesperson” at times in family issues like this, with my full permission/blessing and even my request. While Derick *might* be doing this without Jill’s OK, I think it’s just as likely that he fucking hates JB for watching idly as his wife was abused, then screwing her over in terms of payments for the show, which was the very minimum of what he owed her, and savors every chance he gets to defend his wife/himself against the mindless defenders of JB & co. That’s just me, though. That doesn’t make him some perfect angelic person, but it’s a little refreshing imo compared to many of the Duggar husbands who seem to just sit around watching their wives suffer and not saying a thing. I’m honestly surprised there aren’t many more arguments going on.

My god, he does have the most shark-eyes stare! No compassion in those things at all.

Gotta line up the MLMs in anticipation! 😂 God knows there are precisely zero other available jobs.

Exactly. I think what he means is that people will continue to criticize him online for his outrageous comments (which makes him... feel like a victim for some reason?). I don’t think he’s concerned about going back and easing the hurt to a wife or child. I doubt he’s ever apologized to them.

Now, now. Let’s be fair. Robyn also has to make time in her daily schedule for brow-furrowing. She has to furrow her brow and look concerned for at least two full hours a day. Probably 12-2 — you know, to start the day right.

I was also randomly wondering - does anybody know how Meri’s (or Christine’s) LuLaRoe business could be doing post-lawsuit? Did it affect individual sellers, does anybody know? Or was it mostly just the overarching company that took a big hit? I wonder what would happen if it completely went under.

Yeah, I absolutely agree with this. It’s hard to focus on your marital issues if you have 6 kids — and she basically had 13 when they were young — even if you’re monogamous. Now she has a few older kids at home and is going, “wait, what have i done and what did I settle for?”

Yeah, I see a lot of Meri’s self-centeredness in Mariah. They both have a hard time seeing the pain of others and seeing beyond their own feelings. I also do agree with a previous poster that Mariah was probably cast in the role of Meri’s substitute partner for a long time because of Kody’s neglect — which is obviously Kody’s fault just as/more than Meri’s, but still. I have often wondered if the whole extended argument between them was partly Mariah distancing herself to get out of that enmeshed role. She could have been a lot nicer about it, yes. While Meri was also humiliated, Mariah had no choice in the matter, while Meri did. Meri chose to appear on a show about promoting and praising polygamy while her daughter was still a minor. She also chose to engage with an obvious catfish after being warned. Mariah did not. So while Mariah’s sulking and pouting annoyed me just as much as the next person, she ultimately didn’t really *cause* the problem or have a choice in it unfolding — her parents did. And I include Kody in that for sure.

Ok at least I’m not totally crazy, I thought I was the only one who felt like Mariah had a point with this. Don’t get me wrong, Mariah can be very annoying and melodramatic, but I couldn’t believe that NO ONE seemed to see that a *teen girl* would rightfully be embarrassed and mad as hell at her mom for sending banana BJ pictures to an obvious catfish when she was famous for being a super-religious polygamist on a national reality TV show. People said it wasn’t Mariah’s business, but Meri kinda made it her business when she stuck her on a TV show about polygamy and also made her meet the catfish in person. This was not Meri realizing she wanted to leave Kody and privately talking to Mariah about it and her daughter flipping her lid and not showing her any grace. This was a humiliating tabloid scandal that was 100% preventable (and foreseen by Mariah) — and afterward, Meri has stayed with Kody and continued to publicly extol the virtues of polygamy and claim she is his wife through and through, so it’s not even like it was a step toward a different life. Meri wasn’t falling in love with a viable partner and getting a boyfriend, she was fantasizing like a schoolgirl about being in some sort of romance novel setting with a drop-dead gorgeous multi-millionaire. It permanently changed Meri’s relationship with the rest of the family and likely Mariah’s as well, especially since she was already the only child in the family and probably felt like a misfit to begin with.

Very true. And I know that we outside the relationship are like “but Kody’s been cheating for years,” which he has imo, but not according to the rules of the relationship Meri set up with him willingly and preaches on a TV show. Like, I’m not gonna feel bad that she is in a polygamous relationship if I’m her kid - they went on national TV to talk about polygamy and raised all their kids in a hardcore polygamy-promoting cult. Mariah even went to an AUB school. Meri also seemed to be the one who kept bringing it up by bringing the other “catfish victims” around to meet Mariah and the sister wives. She was just BEGGING to hear “you are a 100% victim in this and clearly never wanted to leave the family” and Mariah just wouldn’t give in because she knew the truth. I wouldn’t have either.

I thought Virginia’s drinking seemed like a whole lot at first, but I was surprised when she kept being the only one whose drinking was talked about. In several of their arguments, Erik seemed to be a hell of a lot drunker than she was. He seemed to be imbibing quite a bit too. His words were slurring like crazy across like three different episodes. Based on the last few episodes, I’m thinking/hoping that they might have just been basically partying their way through their first month of marriage and reality TV? Not what I’d have done, but not necessarily indicative of alcoholism. I do think the drunken fights and the going out drinking every weekend are too much. But they have seemed to calm down and take the drinking break seriously like you said, so I’m hoping (perhaps against hope) that it was a temporary thing.

I actually took it that way too personally. I’m open to being wrong but that’s what I thought her comment was about. I didn’t think she was saying, like, “man up and tell her to stop” - I thought she was saying “man up and actually be a husband to two women like you promised, or you’re going to lose at least one of us.” She came there under the assumption that they would be sister wives. It was Garrick who seemed to not be actually into that idea.

Yeah, I remember several years later, Mariah basically said as much. In an interview with the producers she said she was just sick of hearing about it because she knew that her mom had been warned and *did* want to date someone else but refused to admit it. The lack of accountability would bother me too. I’m sure it would have been nice just to hear “you know what, I really should have listened to you. You had my best interests in mind.” Plus, it’s not like the kids asked to be public figures or have their parents’ business splashed all over the headlines. Imagine being 18 and your friends at school seeing the banana picture. 😬 😬

Right, it’s either fake and scripted or it’s giving me Matt and Amber from Teen Mom vibes - he moved in suddenly with her and just never went back home. That’s weird, not flattering.