Sister Wives Kody Brown Credits His “Special Forces” Success to ‘Good Quality Manhood’

For years, viewers have known Kody Brown as the outspoken patriarch of TLC’s Sister Wives. But now, on Fox’s Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test, the 57-year-old is letting the world see a very different side of him — one defined not by reality-TV drama, but by grit, introspection, and an unfiltered look at what manhood means to him.

Brown Proving His Worth Through Action and Accountability

In an exclusive clip from the Oct. 23 episode, shared by PEOPLE, Brown is seen shoulder-to-shoulder with costar Gia Giudice, pushing through a brutal task that demands teamwork and physical stamina.

“Here’s the thing — I don’t consider myself a great leader,” he admits between gasps, hauling heavy equipment through the mud. “But good quality manhood, masculinity, is taking responsibility for the job that needs to be done and doing it.”

That belief — that a man proves his worth through action and accountability — has become a recurring theme for Brown.

During the season 4 premiere, he reflected on what truly drives him. “I’m gonna say this at the risk of sounding sexist, but I think men want to be respected and women want to be loved,” he said candidly. “I don’t care if you love me. I care if you respect me.”

Later, after rappelling from a helicopter in one of the show’s early challenges, Brown summed up his experience in a single line that revealed both pride and vulnerability: “To do the hard things is to be good at being a man. And every once in a while, you need just proof of who you are.”

From Reality Drama to Real-Life Lessons

While Special Forces has pushed Brown to his physical and emotional limits, he describes the experience as “life-affirming.”

After more than a decade of sharing his unconventional family dynamics on Sister Wives — now in its 20th season — Brown found the Fox competition to be a stark and welcome contrast.

“I really appreciated the difficulty of Special Forces because it was very life-affirming,” he told PEOPLE in September. “You accomplish a task, very difficult, with other people, and there’s a camaraderie you develop for it. Sadly, Sister Wives has really become an experience of criticism and backbiting.”

Following the end of his plural marriages to Christine Brown Woolley, 53; Janelle Brown, 56; and Meri Brown, 54 — and remaining married to his fourth wife, Robyn Brown, 46 — Kody admits the timing of the show felt almost poetic.

“The experience with Special Forces was life-affirming in the sense that I got so much out of it, almost like a pivot away from my life, my real life,” he said.

Lessons Beyond the Battlefield

One of the moments that stayed with him came from veteran instructor Rudy Reyes, whose words have continued to echo long after filming wrapped.

“He said, ‘What are you doing that you should not be doing, and what should you be doing that you are not doing?’” Brown recalled. “That’s a lesson I’ve started applying in my life. I could have used this 10 years ago.”

For a man who has lived much of his adult life under public scrutiny, Special Forces seems to have offered something rare — a chance to rebuild, reflect, and rediscover a version of himself that isn’t defined by cameras or controversy, but by quiet determination.

Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test airs Thursdays at 9 p.m. ET/PT on Fox.

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