Leon Brown is opening up about their childhood, and they are calling it exactly what they believe it was. In a TikTok video posted August 4, the 31-year-old former Sister Wives star, child of Kody Brown and his ex-wife Meri Brown, described growing up in what they termed a cult, and promised it is only the first part of a longer story.
“This story will take many forms and be in many parts, but here’s a start. Thanks for listening and being respectful,” Leon wrote in the caption.
Leon came out as transgender in 2022 and uses they/them pronouns.
Life Before Utah
Leon described their early years in Wyoming, where the family, which they described as “four parents and two older siblings” at the time, lived from when Leon was 3 until they turned 10.
“I was really shy and really fearful as a child, so I didn’t really know people outside of the cult,” Leon said. “We were homeschooled until we moved to Utah when I was 10. And then we started going to the same church, a cult church, in Utah. At that point, it got a little bit more all-encompassing.”
@leointhemtns this story will takes many forms and be in many parts but here’s a start. thanks for listening & being respectful ☀️🌈🧡
♬ original sound – leon b
What A Week Actually Looked Like
Leon walked through the structure of their religious education in detail. Church school ran Sunday through Wednesday. Thursdays were reserved for what Leon called “primary,” which they described plainly as “religious indoctrination for children.”
Leon’s relationship with that instruction is more complicated than simple resentment.
“I loved primary,” they said. “I loved learning about Jesus. I loved learning about church history. I think there’s some religious scrupulosity there. It was rewarding, and I was rewarded for it. So I’m not actually sure if I like it or not. Who’s to say?”
That ambivalence is worth sitting with. Leon is not describing a childhood defined only by fear or only by warmth. They are describing something that offered both at once, structure and belonging alongside control, which is often the harder version of this kind of story to tell.
Leon closed the video with a rare admission. “This is weird because I don’t talk about this a lot.”
Leon’s Account Echoes Christine’s Memoir
Leon is not the first member of the Brown family to use the word cult to describe their upbringing. Kody’s ex-wife Christine Brown Woolley wrote in her 2025 memoir, Sister Wife: A Memoir of Faith, Family, and Finding Freedom, that she came to the same conclusion about the life she built with Kody and the six children they share.
“I believe I grew up in a cult. I believe I raised my children in a cult,” Christine wrote. She added nuance to that statement rather than leaning on shock value. “I don’t have horrible memories of abuse, ostracism, and being unable to leave. I hadn’t been brainwashed. But just like everyone else, I had a tunnel of thoughts with a particular set of boundaries. Even before I believed we were in a cult, some of my kids figured it out as young adults. I had taught them not to live in fear.”
Elsewhere in her memoir, Christine described a stricter version of that same structure. “Our leader was the only one who knew the rule of God. I was required to follow, without question, a strict list of rules. I grew up afraid of the outside world in a sheltered community. We judged and even ostracized those who left the church.”
Two family members, describing two different but overlapping experiences of the same religious community, arriving at the same word independently is notable. It suggests Leon’s account is not an isolated grievance but part of a broader pattern the family has started to name out loud.
The Estrangement From Kody
Leon’s relationship with their father remains fractured, and Leon has not stayed quiet about it. In November, Kody said on a TLC episode that he had started therapy specifically to repair relationships with his estranged children.
“I got to work on me because I’m angry about what a lot of the kids have said, done and believed,” Kody said. “But I’ve also got to have the tools to be able to engage a relationship, putting my feelings aside and inviting them to step into a space where we can communicate safely and lovingly.” He added, “I’ve reached out to every one of my children, and multiple times. And if they don’t have a relationship with me, it’s because they’re not reciprocating.”
Leon responded directly and sharply on Instagram, breaking a social media hiatus to do it.
“There’s a ridiculous video of my father circulating where he says he reaches out to his children. Let me be so clear: I have not heard from that man since my brother killed himself. Kody blatantly blew me off at Garrison’s funeral. He is a liar. He is a joke of a father. That’s all.”
That statement references the death of Leon’s brother, Garrison Brown, a loss that remains a painful and sensitive subject for the family. Leon’s account directly contradicts Kody’s public claim of consistent outreach, placing the two versions of events in open conflict.
Leon has said more chapters of their story are coming. Given how much weight this first installment already carries, the parts still to come are likely to draw significant attention from a fanbase that has watched this family’s fractures play out for years.
This piece touches on the loss of a family member to suicide. If you or someone you know is struggling, support is available through a doctor, therapist, or a crisis helpline.
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