What happened to the Briney family after ‘Seeking Sister Wife’?

 

“Seeking Sister Wife”

Since its premiere in January 2018, “Seeking Sister Wife” has been one of TLC’s most-watched reality TV series. Most of the show’s cast members are from Mormon or secular backgrounds, and all of them practice polygamy. As the title implies, during each season the show follows different polygamist couples, or ‘throuples’ in their search for new sister wives. The series also shows viewers that, although seeking out additional wives is surprisingly easy, polygamist lifestyles are full of challenges.

It’s unusual for the polygamist families to stick around for more than a couple of seasons, so we’ll be exploring where fan favorites such as the Briney family are today, after their brief taste of reality TV fame.

The Briney Family

Drew Briney and his three wives – Angela, April, and Auralee – featured in the show’s first season, and lived in Utah. The fundamentalist Mormon family had a combined total of over a dozen children; however, Drew wasn’t raised in the Mormon faith despite being interested in religion since his early years.

Drew and April were together for over two decades, and had eight children before he convinced her to become a sister wife. Soon enough, he was dating Auralee, with whom he celebrated a spiritual marriage ceremony after a whirlwind eight-month relationship; over the years, Drew and Auralee welcomed six children. Despite taking his time getting to know Auralee, Drew became spiritually married to Angela just two weeks after meeting and soon welcomed his fifteenth child and her first, Leonardo Vincenzo.

The Briney clan relocated to Oregon due to polygamy being illegal in the state of Utah. However, the tension in the family was evident as April was becoming disillusioned with the lifestyle for undisclosed reasons – in fact, she hinted on various occasions that she wouldn’t mind leaving her husband and sister wives.

While filming for the second season, April took her and Drew’s six underage children to Utah, and the couple were divorced soon afterwards. We’re not sure what went on behind the scenes, but it appears that April’s decision took her former husband by surprise, as none of the family were expecting her to leave so suddenly. In the end, TLC decided to cut the remaining Brineys out of season two while they worked out their personal issues.

Not much is known about Drew, Auralee and Angela these days, because they chose to delete their family blog and website following April’s departure. However, we can confirm that Drew has been busy at work publishing his science fiction and fantasy novels, including two number-one bestsellers. Meanwhile, April is active on social media, and shares her personal journey after leaving her husband and sister wives behind, to focus on making a new life for herself and children.

The Snowdens

The Snowdens are also season one cast members, who made headlines for all the wrong reasons after their stint on “Seeking Sister Wife”. Dimitri and Ashley, who both come from secular backgrounds, had three children at the time of filming, and had been in a spiritual marriage for almost a decade. Dimitri was interested in seeking out a second wife for spiritual reasons, whereas Ashley seemed rather more reluctant to immerse herself in the polygamist lifestyle.

In seasons one, two and three, the Snowdens courted a number of potential wives such as Jakira, Christeline, Joselyn, Vanessa and Tayler. However, the couple were unlucky in their search for several reasons. Ashley’s non-negotiable rule was that there could be no physical intimacy between Dimitri and the potential sister wife until they’d become spiritually married… a rule which Dimitri broke after just one date with Joselyn.

Upon discovering Dimitri’s betrayal, Ashley ended the courtship between the two because she felt that she could no longer trust Joselyn around her husband. Jakira was the next potential sister wife who was also sent on her way, and although things looked bleak for the Snowdens, they persevered and finally hit it off with Vanessa Cobbs in season two.

Although the courtship and engagement process went smoothly, and the three celebrated a spiritual wedding ceremony, Vanessa ended things with Ashley and Dimitri for undisclosed reasons. Despite her cryptic Instagram posts, Vanessa preferred not to discuss her experience with the Snowdens at the time, and was soon forgotten about.

Undeterred, Ashley and Dimitri courted Tayler and Christeline in season three. The two women, along with Christeline’s two children, paid the Snowdens a visit at their home, but had to stay there for far longer than planned due to coronavirus-related travel restrictions.

As Dimitri worked in a non-essential business at the time, he found himself pretty much unemployed. The Snowdens decided that he and Tayler would work odd jobs, while Ashley and Christeline stayed home to take care of the five children; for some reason, Tayler went to visit family members in Dallas a few weeks after the lockdowns began, and never returned, but six weeks after leaving, Tayler ended her relationship with Dimitri via a videocall. No clear explanations were given, but viewers were more focused on Dimitri and Christeline’s flourishing relationship, especially when they married.

In May 2021, in a shock move Dimitri filed for divorce from Christeline, just two months after she filed for a restraining order against him. Both parties were declared legally single in March 2022, and details of Dimitri’s abusive behavior began circulating online almost immediately. For example, Christeline described a harrowing incident in which her former husband woke her up by slamming her head into the headboard of the bed they shared, and also claimed that he had been abusive during intercourse on several occasions.

Vanessa and Tayler were emboldened enough to drop hints about Dimitri also being abusive towards them, whereas Ariadne Joseph spoke to a well-known blogger about the dysfunctional relationship between herself and Dimitri. Although Ariadne and Dimitri’s relationship took place before the Snowdens joined the “Seeking Sister Wife” cast, she allegedly spoke to TLC producers and provided evidence of Dimitri’s behavior, which was supposedly scrubbed from the internet.

In July 2021, Ashley confirmed via social media that she and Dimitri were no longer together – as such, the couple’s contract with TLC was quietly terminated. Although the Snowdens decided to reunite several months later, we won’t be seeing them on our screens anytime soon, as they are believed to have been blackballed by the network. To date, the incident with the Snowdens is the biggest scandal related to the series.

Season five of “Seeking Sister Wife” has an expected release date of late 2023. TLC has yet to confirm which families are returning, or if they will be introducing any new faces.

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