The Brineys

[Drogo]

Drew, April, Auralee, and Angela Briney learn that adding a new family member can cause a lot of turmoil in the plural lifestyle. After a two-week courtship, Drew Briney recently married his third wife Angela. Now he and his three wives--along with their 15 children--are all moving into the same house together. April is Drew's first and legal wife, and she has no qualms exercising control over the other wives. And although April and Auralee have known each other for years, they don't always see eye to eye. Angela--the newest wife--had trouble conceiving for 20 years, but is now pregnant just months after joining the family! While April and Auralee are excited to love Angela, they hardly know her. All three women are trying to establish their new normal, but it is a bumpy ride.

[Rabbittron]

April sounds like Michelle Duggar including the crunchy perm.

[Christi]

Nice to see Chris Elliott on tv again

[DaisyMae2011]

16 minutes ago, Rabbittron said:

April sounds like Michelle Duggar including the crunchy perm.

Yes! That was my first thought! 

[Marigold]

The first wife, April, seemed very difficult to deal with.  i wouldn't want to be married to her!

They also seemed like a duplicate family to the Browns of Sister Wives. 

Is this how plural families are?  The women fight it out and the man stand around helplessly? 

Edited January 15, 2018 by Marigold

[bref]

15 hours ago, Christi said:

Nice to see Chris Elliott on tv again

He got fat.

[ShaNaeNae]

3 hours ago, Marigold said:

Is this how plural families are?  The women fight it out and the man stand around helplessly? 

Ugh yes. They’re supposed to not take sides but don’t tell me the men doesn’t secretly tell each wife they are right when they’re alone. 

I may have missed it but how has Angela been trying to concieve for 20 years? Was she married before? 

[bref]

I don't see how one wife sharing the master bedroom with Drew can possibly work out?

I wondered that about Angela too. And she got pregnant right off the bat at 40 after trying for two decades? seems odd. 

Edited January 15, 2018 by bref

[Galloway Cave]

40 minutes ago, bref said:

I don't see how one wife sharing the master bedroom with Drew can possibly work out?

They share the master so he has a place to keep all his stuff. He stays there for two nights (and a random Saturday) with her. Then on April's night he goes to her room for two nights. Then on Auralee's nights he goes to her rooms for two nights. Works out great. His stuff is only down the hallway when he needs it. When his wives were living in separate homes he either had to have two of everything or carry a suitcase between homes (or run between homes with a backpack like Kodouche).

5 hours ago, Marigold said:

Is this how plural families are?  The women fight it out and the man stand around helplessly? 

Well, the patriarch of the family I knew had his own suite of rooms that he retreated to daily. The wives were on their own to deal with their problems with each other (it makes them stronger!!!). No wife wants to be known as causing a fight because it puts her in a bad light with Daddy. And Daddy isn't going to play favorites in front of the wives. He tells each one they are his favorite or most valuable or whatever. Agreeing to go on these shows is the absolute worst thing for polygamists. It blows up the game the male is playing. It is hard for the other wives to watch the husband alone with another wife (as has been discussed on Sister Wives), because they hear the husband say the same things to another wife, or act the same way. They thought they were special and find out they aren't, or worse, another wife is MORE special. It bursts their fantasy bubble. Sister wives are the best at sticking their heads in the sand and ignoring their world around them.

[Marigold]

It would be easier if the husband had his own room and then rotated to the wives' room, right?

Now this Auralee (?) second wife has status with the master bedroom. Adds more fuel to the fire.

How sad that Auralee said that she doesn't trust April. 12 years they have been married as a plural family and you don't trust your sister wife? To me, that is a huge failure. My goodness, if you can't trust a spouse, whether plural or single, then who can you trust?  

[lettsjetts]

5 hours ago, ShaNaeNae said:

I may have missed it but how has Angela been trying to concieve for 20 years? Was she married before? 

Angela was married before to a guy 16.5 years older.  I think it awesome that she was able to conceive after wanting a baby for so long!

 

Edited January 16, 2018 by lettsjetts

[Marigold]

WOW!  What a happy story for Angela!  wonderful!

[Galloway Cave]

Interesting religious backstories on the three wives. April was born and raised Mormon, but converted to polygamy (I would bet AUB due to their location) because of her husband. Auralee was raised in polygamy. And Angela converted from an unknown religion to Mormonism, then again to polygamy. Five years ago, it sounds like she had a lot going on in her life with family, friends, hobbies and her religion, living in the Bay Area of CA. And yet, here she is, sucking hind teat as Wife #3 in a contentious plyg marriage in north Utah. Hope there are some good THs!

[andromeda331]

I'm confused by Angela's profile. I thought the oldest kids were 18 and 17 but according to Angela's profile she has three grandchildren? Maybe she's talking about another marriage because 5 stepkids? I guess she really wouldn't put she has over a dozen stepchildren. But she's now living with 12 kids who does she call her "stepchildren". Maybe Auralee and that was before Auralee's last baby was born and not April's kids?   

[lettsjetts]

4 minutes ago, andromeda331 said:

I'm confused by Angela's profile. I thought the oldest kids were 18 and 17 but according to Angela's profile she has three grandchildren? Maybe she's talking about another marriage because 5 stepkids? 

When she wrote her Etsy bio she was still married to her ex husband.  He is the one with the stepkids and grandchildren.  

[Galloway Cave]

1 minute ago, andromeda331 said:

I'm confused by Angela's profile.

That Etsy profile is from 5 years ago when she was married to someone else. She had 5 step-kids and three step-grandkids. Sister wives do not call their other sister wives' kids step-children. They refer to them like Kody does- Janelle's kids or Christine's kids. I asked one of the plyg guys I knew if he called the other sister wives Mom and he said hell no. They were his dad's wives, not his moms.

[andromeda331]

10 minutes ago, lettsjetts said:

When she wrote her Etsy bio she was still married to her ex husband.  He is the one with the stepkids and grandchildren.  

 

9 minutes ago, Galloway Cave said:

That Etsy profile is from 5 years ago when she was married to someone else. She had 5 step-kids and three step-grandkids. Sister wives do not call their other sister wives' kids step-children. They refer to them like Kody does- Janelle's kids or Christine's kids. I asked one of the plyg guys I knew if he called the other sister wives Mom and he said hell no. They were his dad's wives, not his moms.

Thank you. That makes a lot more sense. 

[Galloway Cave]

Bringing it over to this thread, Drew Briney is a bankruptcy attorney (paging all the Browns!) as well as an appeals attorney, he is a storytelling juggler and he was also the attorney for the AUB when they purchased some land for $4.25 million dollars. The folks in the area were afraid the AUB were going to build a walled and gated compound like the FLDS did in Texas, but they didn't. Drew was the spox on the deal. Also confirms they are AUB.

[Marigold]

A bankruptcy attorney?  Bet he is a  friend of Kody's. 

[Meowwww]

I would be terrified of first wife April too.  She is stealth bitch, secure in her number one spot.  

[RedheadZombie]

On ‎1‎/‎16‎/‎2018 at 10:28 PM, Meowwww said:

I would be terrified of first wife April too.  She is stealth bitch, secure in her number one spot.  

I'm not settled in what I feel about April's and Auralee's relationship.  April probably is stealthy bitchy, but then Auralee came out guns a blazing and knives in hand - at least in her talking heads.  In reality, she whimpers and whines and runs to daddy and he pets and comforts her.  She wanted the master bedroom, she took the master bedroom, yet daddy had to defend her to April about what a meanie April was.  As someone pointed out, the master bedroom is the power seat, and Auralee has seized it.  

Angela simply wanted a baby and chose this guy over a sperm bank.  Interesting that she was drawn to the family because of April.  I'm interested in how Angela and Auralee interact.  

Oh that poor little Malachi . . . .

[Mya]

On 2018-01-16 at 10:28 PM, Meowwww said:

I would be terrified of first wife April too.  She is stealth bitch, secure in her number one spot.  

I agree she also comes across as a very passive aggressive martyr.  The master bedroom arrangement she so easily passed up will be a bone of contention in the future, she definitely has a motive behind that I think.

[gonecrackers]

If I were Auralee, I'd be sleeping with one eye open in that master bedroom.

[TurtlePower]

Ok, why are these women fighting and experiencing jealousy over Drew? Really? And he seems to enjoy the cattiness, only stepping in when necessary. What a piece of work! These women need to come together, have a girls' weekend and buy Captain Creampuff a gym membership, banishing him to the basement until he gets his shit together. 

[bref]

Can someone explain why the Brineys are concerned about legal consequences? If only one marriage is legal, what law is being broken?

[RedheadZombie]

5 minutes ago, bref said:

Can someone explain why the Brineys are concerned about legal consequences? If only one marriage is legal, what law is being broken?

Do they live in Utah?  Utah has/had a law against cohabitation to crack down on plural marriages.

[Galloway Cave]

3 minutes ago, bref said:

If only one marriage is legal, what law is being broken?

In Utah, it is illegal for a man to live with a women he calls his wife. However, the Attorney General does not prosecute those cases. Instead, the AG will prosecute polygamists for domestic abuse, child abuse and welfare fraud (Bleeding the Beast).

[bref]

Very interesting, thank you.

[Galloway Cave]

9 minutes ago, bref said:

Can someone explain why the Brineys are concerned about legal consequences?

They aren't really concerned or they wouldn't be on national tv. The Brineys live in an area that has a lot of polygamists, he is the attorney for the AUB church and has written books about polygamy. They haven't been living in secret. TLC has been trying to push this same, tired story for 9 years with the Browns.

[RedheadZombie]

So Angela came into this family at forty and living independently, yet she no longer has a proper bed?  Just a mattress on the floor?  I hope she bails quickly.  She seems too normal and not even LDS converted. 

[bref]

I did wonder about that! Like it's so, so scary, we might get caught and sent to jail, but let's be on a TV show!

When our daughter had just turned 4, my in-laws took us all out to an amusement park. They wanted her to say she was a year younger to get in free. I was SO uncomfortable, tried to explain it to her, but being a kid, she just didn't get why something she wasn't supposed to do--lie--was suddenly ok. Not only that, she was proud in the way kids are of having turned 4 recently and had no interest in going backward. I finally gutted up and told the in-laws I was not going to make her fib. Watching all those younguns being told to deny their reality reminded me of this and made me sad. 

Edited January 22, 2018 by bref

[RedheadZombie]

The Brineys seem to think that they're trailblazers.  The Browns and then the Williams family did this years ago. 

Auralee - I'll be the visiting aunt??  Yes because no one will notice that you never go back home. 

[Desert Rat]

Angela looks very familiar, like I've seen her on another show.  Do we know if she has appeared on another show? Does she seem familiar to anyone else?

[B3cky50]

WHY hasn't anyone mentioned Auralee's speech impediment?? My God, it's so distracting. 

Also - here is Angela's old blog. She's an interesting one. 

http://virginwifechronicles.angeladigiovanni.com/the-chronicles/

[B3cky50]

On 1/15/2018 at 8:27 PM, lettsjetts said:

 

 

Her Instagram is captivating. I'm shook. I think I love her now. Why is she with this wackadoo family?? Take your baby and run! 

[ShaNaeNae]

17 hours ago, B3cky50 said:

WHY hasn't anyone mentioned Auralee's speech impediment?? My God, it's so distracting. 

We discussed it quite a bit in the first episode thread.

[Rainflower]

So since Drew is teaching his children to lie about their family's polygamous lifestyle, is it safe to assume his name isn't on all the birth certificates of all his children? I wonder if he was at each child's birth.

[the-grey-lady]

Does anyone else think Angela looks remarkably like Lisa Kudrow? I keep thinking I've seen her (Angela) somewhere, and I think that's why.

[Gothish520]

On 1/28/2018 at 4:43 PM, the-grey-lady said:

Does anyone else think Angela looks remarkably like Lisa Kudrow? I keep thinking I've seen her (Angela) somewhere, and I think that's why.

I see a bit of Lisa Kudrow, but I feel like she reminds me of someone else too, but I also can't put my finger on who.

April reminds me of Bebe Neuwirth.

[grammaester]

On 1/17/2018 at 10:49 PM, RedheadZombie said:

I'm not settled in what I feel about April's and Auralee's relationship.  April probably is stealthy bitchy, but then Auralee came out guns a blazing and knives in hand - at least in her talking heads.  In reality, she whimpers and whines and runs to daddy and he pets and comforts her.  She wanted the master bedroom, she took the master bedroom, yet daddy had to defend her to April about what a meanie April was.  As someone pointed out, the master bedroom is the power seat, and Auralee has seized it.  

Angela simply wanted a baby and chose this guy over a sperm bank.  Interesting that she was drawn to the family because of April.  I'm interested in how Angela and Auralee interact.  

Oh that poor little Malachi . . . .

m not settled in what I feel about April's and Auralee's relationship.  April probably is stealthy bitchy, but then Auralee came out guns a blazing and knives in hand - at least in her talking heads.  In reality, she whimpers and whines and runs to daddy and he pets and comforts her. 

After watching Sister Wives from the beginning and now this show and reading quite a bit of polygamy non-fiction, it seems to me the many of the women who gravitate to this lifestyle are incredibly passive=aggressive.  Nowhere is this more evident then in April and Auralee's relationship, even more so than in Meri's and Janelle's on SW. When one person in a relationship is passive aggressive, it's almost impossible to ever come to a resolution on anything but when both people are, forget it. Hence these two have hated each other for 13 years and guaranteed they could live together another 30 years and it won't change. What a life!

[SL16]

http://www.intouchweekly.com/posts/seeking-sister-wife-oregon-move-152628

 

Apparently they have moved to Oregon to escape persecution in Utah. *yawn* Where have we seen this story line before?

[Galloway Cave]

"Threat of arrest". Was local or state law enforcement even investigating them for domestic violence, child abuse or welfare fraud? This family has been out for a long time and Drew is an attorney for the AUB. There is probably another reason for the move but it doesn't sell the show as well as "persecution!". Lying liars who lie. Just like the Browns.

[Rainflower]

Quote

But the family's new home wasn't their only problem; they had difficulty selling their place as well. "We’ve had our house under contract 3x in 2 months — 3rd one just fell through," Drew wrote in late December. "At the end of the day, we either sell it or go on food stamps so looks like a backup offer where I lose $30k equity may be our only real option," he added in the comments' section.

So he is no better than Kody. Added another wife but can barely provide for the harem he has. Wasn't he a lawyer? 

And I bet, I'll get some sensitive nancy telling me I'm wrong again...Why didn't he list "Sell or get my wives to go out and work" as options? Why go immediately to food stamps?

What is stopping him from picking up two jobs. What is stopping two of his wives from going out and getting jobs? 

On top of saying that, the idiot has TWO wives with young babies. Did he or any of his wives stop to think about finances and what they would do if or when hard times came? Is it always "we'll mass produce children because the government has our back?". 

[Rainflower]

Angela Briney, Plural Wife by Choice podcast:

Quote

Join Lindsay as she interviews reality television star, Angela Briney  from the show Seeking Sister Wife.  Angela chose to enter polygamy in her 40’s as a third wife, after converting to Mormonism in her 30’s. 

 

http://www.yearofpolygamy.com/year-of-polygamy/episode-142-angela-briney-plural-wife-by-choice/

[Kyanight]

3 hours ago, Rainflower said:

Angela Briney, Plural Wife by Choice podcast:

 

http://www.yearofpolygamy.com/year-of-polygamy/episode-142-angela-briney-plural-wife-by-choice/

Very interesting.  I liked her more after hearing this, you feel like you to get to know her a little better than you do from the show.  But - I thought it was kind of .... I don't know what word I want....Telling?  Strange?  that she never said she joined the family because she loved DREW - she never says she loves Drew - but she joined the family because she was going to have that little baby she wanted.    She married him 13 days after really meeting him.

[Christi]

On 1/23/2018 at 12:47 PM, ShaNaeNae said:

We discussed it quite a bit in the first episode thread.

It sounds like someone who is deaf, or hearing impaired.  Im not an Ear Doctor, I just play on one Previously to appear super smart

[RedheadZombie]

My DVR picked up the first three episodes in rerun, and since I'm not a football fan, I ff'd to watch only the Brineys in episode one.  There are just so many dynamics going on in this family.

I've already stressed that I think Auralee may be the true stealth manipulator, but I definitely understand that April is a huge part of the problem.  I think the biggest issue is that historically, wife number one hold the authority, which sets up a clear hierarchy of power, and the husband holds firm as decision maker.  In AUB, they seem to strive to be more egalitarian, which is lovely in the real world, but sets this whole system up for failure.

And while April already had a good start on an entire herd of children, Auralee is from this world and has ambitiously placed herself only two children behind April, even though April had an eight year head start.  Auralee knows the amount of children equates to level of power.  So here's April, the highest number of children, but two out of the home, which means she's equal to Auralee (Angela didn't even count April's first two children when discussing how many she was now "mother" to).  To make things worse, April hasn't pushed out a baby in five years, but Auralee and Angela each have infants.  As Drew clearly dotes on the infants, April's already out of favor.  And while Auralee wanted to pretend that April manipulated her into taking the master bedroom to make her look bad, clearly Auralee managed to get the power seat and still look like the weeping infant that daddy had to comfort.  And it's no mistake that Auralee came out swinging in the very first episode by painting April as the big bad.  It took Sister Wives and My Five Wives quite a while to figure out the dynamics.  Auralee just threw it out there and I hope there's a reunion, and Auralee is asked about this.  Would like hubbies response as well.  His sweet, innocent angel was playing offense.

And why, why in the world does Angela name her only child the grand name - Leonardo Vincenzo - then call him Lenny?  The name Lenny calls to mind two things - the simple-minded killer in Of Mice and Men, and a non-killing but just as simple-minded Lenny from Lavern & Shirley.  Why not Leo, which at least sounds like his actual name.

[Rainflower]

From Facebook (question about if he was on all his kids birth certificate):

Quote

Prosecutors use birth certificates to prosecute in Utah as well as other documents like those you may be implicating so I defer to answer publicly. I will say that I am generally not interested in insurance programs ... ;^) Also, I have helped many polygamists with estate planning and it is a very complicated matter in Utah for most polygamists to get things set up well.

Answer to the question about health insurance:

Quote

 Nope - no health insurance. We've paid cash for virtually every issue we've had. Other than broken bones and major accidents, we have been a very healthy family and haven't needed medical attention much. Besides, insurance has been ridiculously expensive. When they mandated Obamacare, they said I made too much money for medicaid but not enough for reduced insurance because of all of my dependents so it was full price or nothing - I saved thousands by just paying the Obamacare penalty.

A lot of the polygamists posts attempt to compare their push for decriminalization with what gay rights had to go through. Drew writes:

Quote

One other point is ALLEGEDLY (I haven't researched myself), the gay movement started with a deliberate meeting and plan back in the 60s that began with certain marketing efforts and always intended to push for more civil rights. Plural families don't have any such organization or resources. We're too busy trying to provide for our own families to donate so much attention to larger civil rights issues.

[Gothish520]

Wow, that's a whole lot of...something.

[Juliegirlj]

Angela seems like a smart, kind woman~ wonder what damaged her so much that she resorted to joining these chuckleclucks?! 

Pretty telling that Angela’s FB Page has zero photos with her sister wives, nor do they even appear to be FB friends ( is not because of polygamy secrecy as she is open about it) .