<P> The show follows the lives of advertising salesman Kody Brown, his wives Meri, Janelle, Christine, and Robyn, and their 18 children . In the first season the show televised Brown's courting and marriage of his fourth wife, Robyn Sullivan, in 2010 . Sullivan was the first new wife to enter the family in 16 years . </P> <P> The only legal marriage was between Kody and his first wife Meri, until their legal divorce in September 2014 . (He legally married fourth wife Robyn in December 2014 in order to legally adopt her three children). The other marriages are considered spiritual unions . As of 2015 Kody has been married to Meri for 25 years, Janelle for 22 years, Christine for 21 years, and Robyn for 5 years . Kody and Meri have a daughter named Mariah, their only child . Kody and Janelle have six children: daughters Madison and Savanah and sons Logan, Hunter, Garrison, and Gabriel . Kody and Christine have six children: daughters Aspyn, Mykelti, Gwendlyn, Ysabel, and Truely and son Paedon . Robyn had three children from her first marriage, which was monogamous: Dayton, Aurora, and Breanna . Kody legally adopted them in June 2015 . Kody and Robyn have two children: son Solomon and daughter Ariella . The family has one grandchild, Axel, from Kody and Jenelle's daughter, Madison . </P> <P> Meri, Robyn, and Christine were all raised in polygamist families, but Janelle was not . Although Christine's mother left the faith she still supports them . Months before the marriage of Janelle and Kody, however, Janelle's mother entered into a polygamist marriage with Kody's father . The Brown family belongs to the Apostolic United Brethren (AUB .) For years before the series, the family kept their polygamist lifestyle what they called a "quasi-secret". </P> <P> In the autumn of 2009, independent producers Timothy Gibbons and Christopher Poole approached Figure 8 Films, a North Carolinian company, with the concept of a reality series about the Brown family . Bill Hayes, the president of Figure 8 Films, said the company agreed to the idea after meeting with the Browns and deciding their lives would make a great story . Camera crews shot footage of the family in mid-2010 to be used in the first season, ending in May with the marriage of Kody Brown and Robyn Sullivan . The crews continued to film them afterward in case the series was picked up for a second season . Sister Wives was publicly introduced on August 6, 2010, at the Television Critics Association summer media tour in Beverly Hills, California . The series' first episode, an hour long, was broadcast on TLC on September 26, 2010, and the first season continued with six half - hour chapters until October 17, 2010 . </P>

What is the religion of the sister wives