Sister Wives stars Kody Brown and Janelle Brown are no longer married but after the death of their son Garrison, they have been united in their grief.
“Janelle and I are deeply saddened to announce the loss of our beautiful boy Robert Garrison Brown,” Kody wrote in a joint Instagram statement with Janelle in March 2024. “He was a bright spot in the lives of all who knew him. Our loss will leave such a big hole in our lives, that it takes our breath away. We ask that you please respect our privacy and join us in honoring his memory.”
The former couple’s statement came shortly after Us Weekly confirmed Garrison died by suicide at the age of 25. (Kody and Janelle, who split in 2022, share six children including Garrison.)
Since Garrison’s passing, Janelle has been vocal on social media about her ups and downs with grief. Kody, meanwhile, expressed his heartbreak on several episodes of Sister Wives, season 19 of which documented the family’s initial reactions and eventual burying of Garrison.
Scroll down to see what Janelle and Kody have said about Garrison’s death:
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Coming Out of the Fog
“It’s been hard to get my brain to work properly again,” Janelle explained via Instagram in March 2024, sharing photos from Garrison’s celebration of life. “I am so grateful for the outpouring of love and support I’ve received these last three weeks. The support has been overwhelming. I am honored.”
Heavenly Birthday
“Happy Birthday Sweetheart,” Janelle captioned an Instagram post in April 2024 on what would have been her son’s 26th birthday. “We are missing you terribly today. It’s hard to believe you aren’t here anymore.”
She shared, “We talked a lot about you today and even went to Texas Roadhouse for dinner (your favorite place 😀) I still feel you nearby sometimes. And I’m grateful we will see each other again when my journey is completed.”
Janelle Brown and Garrison Brown. Courtesy of Garrison Brown/Instagram
Mother’s Day Memories
Janelle revealed in May 2024 that she “felt the grief so close to the surface” while celebrating her first Mother’s Day without Garrison. “It was especially poignant when I made this simple pie,” she wrote via social media. “Our strawberry picking excursion combined with the fact that I randomly found rhubarb at the local farmers market made it feel like this pie was destined.”
Janelle continued: “Maybe no one loved it more than Garrison. And that made this pie a little bittersweet. I love you honey and miss you every day.”
Getting Through It
“Every day is a day,” Janelle exclusively told Us at the Us Weekly + Pluto TV Reality Stars of the Year Party at the Dream Hotel in October 2024. “You just take it one day at a time, one moment at a time.”
She explained, “I just think you do what you can to support mental health, especially men’s mental health. And we just continued to try to honor him and remember him.”
1 Year
Janelle mourned her son in March 2025 on the anniversary of his death, revealing via Instagram, “I stay busy but in EVERY quiet moment you are first and foremost in my thoughts. It’s been a year baby. We miss you so much. I miss you so much.”
Gone Too Soon
Sister Wives documented the family’s reaction to Garrison’s death during a May 2025 episode, including Kody’s response to the news. “Grief comes in waves. It just wasn’t supposed to be this way. You know what I’m saying?” Kody said during the May 4 episode. “It’s just heartbreaking.”
He confessed, “I didn’t get a chance to really just make things right, just not being able to say goodbye.”
After butting heads with Garrison prior to his death over his COVID-19 rules, Kody confessed, “It’s, like, I’ve got to do something different because I could have had more time with him, and I thought there would be more time. Everybody thinks they got more time.”
Kody broke down to wife Robyn Brown, asking, “How am I going to do this? How do I do the rest of my life with every holiday and every birthday?”
Garrison Brown. Courtesy of Garrison Brown/Instagram
Last Conversation
During the same May 2025 Sister Wives episode, Janelle recalled the hours before Garrison died. She remembered texting and talking with him throughout the day and when he stopped around 8 p.m., Janelle asked his brothers to check in on him and then she went to bed.
She woke up to a call from her son Gabriel Brown telling her that Garrison was dead. “I don’t know what happened that night he did that because he’s had other nights like this where he would drink and then pass out and he would go kind of radio silent, but he’d be back in the morning,” Janelle explained. “I don’t know what happened this time.”
Janelle later told her sister Carrie that Garrison had “anxiety and depression and then he started drinking as a way to sort of soothe that” during the coronavirus pandemic. “And then just became the animal he couldn’t get a hold of. We did everything we could. And I know that,” she concluded.
Brotherly Love
Janelle recalled during a May 2025 episode of Sister Wives that Garrison was “very much involved with the young kids.” She fondly remembered him being “very mindful” of Kody and Christine Brown’s youngest daughter, Truely.
“Robyn would comment that he would come over every day to see Sol and Ari,” Janelle explained in the May 11 episode, referring to Kody and his fourth wife’s two children, Solomon and Ariella. Janelle gushed, “He was always very much about his younger siblings.”
Overcome By Anxiety
During the same May 2025 TLC episode, Kody detailed his desire to take Garrison’s ashes and bury them in his ancestral state of Wyoming as a sort of “pilgrimage.”
“Sometimes out of the blue, out of the blue, it’ll overcome me. Almost, like, some kind of anxiety attack,” Kody said of the process. “Just a deep, overwhelming feeling that I’ll never see him again. There’s so much left unsaid, so much left undone.”
He noted that in order to mourn, he planned to bury Garrison “next to his grandma and his grandpa and, you know, just kind of … finish the circle.” Kody teared up, saying, “I was the first one that held him. This is my son. I rocked him to sleep. This is part of my mourning process.”
Digging the Grave
“I talked to the sexton of the cemetery and he’s the one that would normally dig the graves,” Kody explained in a separate May 2025 episode of Sister Wives. “And I just asked him permission if I could dig it. It means something to me. I don’t know why.”
Kody proceeded to dig Garrison’s grave in an “old west country cemetery” in Wyoming, calling it, “One of the most important things I’ve ever done.” He revealed, “It’s the last ode to my boy. … This is my duty, my job.”
