Sister Wives’ Kody Brown Breaks Silence on Garrison Estrangement 6 Months After His Death: ‘Shock’

Sister Wives star Kody Brown broke his silence about his estrangement from his son Robert Garrison Brown six months after his tragic death by suicide.

“The hard part is giving away that future that I saw for him, the excitement,” Kody, 55, told People in an interview published on Thursday, September 12. “It’s strange having your child pass. The wave of grief is different that any wave of grief I have ever had with a best friend passing, with a relative passing. It’s different. And it is different in the idea that it’s irreconcilable — the future that we missed with him.”

Garrison, who Kody shared with ex-wife Janelle Brown, was 25 years old when he was found dead from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound on March 5. In Touch obtained the autopsy in May, which said ethanol intoxication, more commonly known as alcohol poisoning was a contributing factor. Garrison’s blood alcohol level was .370 almost five times more than the U.S. legal limit of .08.

Kody said his son’s death “still feels like a shock” and admits his relationship with Garrison “certainly could have been better” at the time of his tragic passing.

“We could have been talking more. I’d get texts, stuff like that, and we could have, retrospectively, we could have done so much more,” he said. “And it was almost like — I’m busy with my life, he’s busy with his life, and when we connect, we’ll connect.”

The Sister Wives star — who shares 18 kids between his ex-wives Janelle, 55, Meri Brown and Christine Brown and current wife Robyn Brown — said his “only regret” was that he wishes he’d “taken advantage of the time” he had with Garrison.

“I want to go out to dinner again. I want to sit down. I want to have a beer. I want him to try and make me laugh because he was kind of that way. The only regret is just, gosh, I would just do that more often,” he says. “The only regret is that you didn’t do something. You didn’t take more time.”

He said his son’s death changed him “irrevocably,” adding, “I can’t get back to where I was. I can’t reconcile that he’s not here.”

“You do have a little bit of an expectation — and especially with somebody who’s got essentially a bright future,” he concluded. “He was planning a future. He always wanted a story to tell, some adventure. He was always either cracking a joke or wanting to talk about an adventure.”

Kody’s crumbling relationship with Garrison was a focal point of Sister Wives season 18, which aired on TLC from August to December 2023. Kody and Garrison — along with Kody’s son Gabe Brown — had been at odds since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic as they did not see eye-to-eye when it came to the Brown patriarch’s strict protocols.

“I haven’t been in touch with Gabriel and Garrison for quite a while,” Kody revealed to the cameras in November 2023. “I’m pretty sad that I’m not close anymore.”

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“There were just so many things in our lives that we did that were rich together, you know, just special experiences,” he continued of Garrison and Gabe, who he expected an apology from before moving towards reconciliation. “Right now, there’s not really an open door with Gabe and Garrison. They’re not willing to engage [with] me.”

Even before Garrison’s tragic death, Janelle was worried about the growing divide between her sons and their father, as well as their overall mental health.

​​“Gabriel feels everything very, very deeply. But he’s also the kid who doesn’t say anything,” Janelle said of Gabe, who was the person who sadly found Garrison’s body at the time of his death. “[Garrison] just seems angry or sadder, like, he’s not as happy-go-lucky as he used to be.”

Sister Wives season 19 premieres on Sunday, September 15 at 10 p.m. ET on TLC.