Everything 'Sister Wives' Star Christine Brown Has Said About Her Relationship Issues with Ex Kody

Christine Brown revealed Tuesday that she and Kody Brown have split after 25 years together, following months of openly discussing their relationship woes.

"After more than 25 years together, Kody and I have grown apart and I have made the difficult decision to leave," the Sister Wives star, 42, said in a statement on Instagram. "We will continue to be a strong presence in each other's lives as we parent our beautiful children and support our wonderful family. At this time, we ask for your grace and kindness as we navigate through this stage within our family."

"Christine's decision to leave comes with a great deal of sadness," Kody, 52, added in his own statement. "We enjoyed many years together and I have a large amount of respect and admiration for her."

Christine entered the Brown family's plural marriage in 1994. At the time, Kody was already married to first wife Meri Brown and second wife Janelle Brown. Robyn Brown became Kody's fourth wife in 2010.

In the time leading up to the split, Christine had been open on Sister Wives about her ongoing issues with Kody, one of them stemming from her desire to move back to Utah from her family's current ranch in Flagstaff, Arizona.

Christine, who shares son Paedon, 23, and daughters Aspyn, 26, Mykelti, 25, Gwendlyn, 20, Ysabel, 18, and Truely, 11, with Kody, addressed the conflict in the trailer for the upcoming season of the TLC show, set to debut later this month.

"I would move to Utah in a heartbeat, are you kidding me? Is it on the table still?" she asked Kody in the clip, who told her that everyone else in the family had said no to the move.

"I'm not going to talk to you," she replied, walking away from the conversation.

"Why would I want to live on the same property with a dysfunctional marriage where right over there, he's got a full-functioning marriage," Christine said as the trailer ended. "Who would ever want to live like that?"

Christine also talked about wanting to say goodbye to Arizona during the last season finale of the series in April, noting that her hopes for a move were reignited after polygamy was decriminalized in Utah in early 2020.

At the end of the episode, she broke down to fellow sister wife Meri, telling her through tears, "I can't do marriage with Kody anymore."

Meri, 50, tried to reassure her and give her advice, but Christine told the cameras she didn't want her own marriage to mirror Meri and Kody's.

"Her relationship with Kody certainly isn't one that I would want. And the relationship that I have with Kody isn't what I would want either," she said in a confessional. "What I have here is not what I want right now."

Still speaking to cameras, Christine later admitted that the relationship had "been a struggle" ever since she moved to Flagstaff — and that she didn't feel supported by Kody.

"I don't want to look at the mountains and remember the angels, how they were singing and I felt this pull. I agreed to move to Flagstaff and I followed Kody here, but it's been a struggle the whole time," she said. "I'm tired of feeling like I don't matter. I'm tired of not having his support when I really need it. I'm just tired. I need a partnership. I need something different than this."

Earlier in the season, she opened up about feeling jealous of the three other wives, revealing that she felt she was "on the outside looking in all the time" and calling the environment at the family gatherings "hostile."

"I'm really sorry — I still get jealous," Christine told Kody and the wives. "I still get super, super, super jealous and I'm really, really, really sorry."

She added that "it makes getting together hard — really, really hard."

"Maybe I don't like me either. I'm not really strong on my own, and it's surprising and it's hard," she continued. "And I thought I'd be stronger on my own, but I'm not. And it's really hard to just feel like I can contribute anything. It's hard to find that balance of being strong and not being a b----."

In another episode, Christine recalled a painful part from the earlier years of her marriage with Kody, when she said Kody would prefer to shower in the other wives' homes instead of hers.

"I had a backdoor entrance, so it's like, Kody would come in, dump all of his stuff at Meri's house or Janelle's house — never settle in mine," she told Robyn at the time.

"It's like, I do everything that I can to make my home our home," Christine said, adding that she was told by Kody, "'Well, Meri's shower's just better.' I'm like, 'I don't care. I don't care. Because what you're saying is, I don't matter.'"

"I mentioned it a lot over the years, and he didn't change it and didn't change it and didn't change it, and it wasn't until Robyn was coming into the family that he changed it," she then said to the cameras. "I hated it. It really, really bothered me."

Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

Speaking with PEOPLE in February, Christine expanded on where her relationships stood with Kody and the sister wives.

"Just like all relationships, there's just been ups and downs. And it's like, it's the gift that keeps on giving, though, 'cause you film it, and then you could answer questions about it, and then you get to watch it, and then you get to do reruns on it, whatever, things like that. So you see yourself in a light," she explained.

Christine went on to say that "the relationships with my sister wives and Kody, they've come and gone, they've ebb and flowed. It's a rollercoaster ride."