'Scared to go to jail': Polygamist father from Sister Wives appears on Oprah with his large family

Jealousy, sleeping arrangements and breaking the law - nothing was off limits when polygamy family The Browns appeared on The Oprah Winfrey show on Thursday.



Kody Brown and his four wives, Meri, Janelle, Christine and Robyn sat on the famous talk show couch to talk about their combined family and 16 children.



Now stars of TLC's show Sister Wives, the controversial family discussed the real possibility of all five parents going to jail as bigamy is illegal in Utah where they live.

Big Love: Polygamy family The Browns appeared on Oprah Thursday to talk about their controversial lifestyle



The family came under investigation for bigamy since the show began airing in September. If convicted, Kody could face up to 20 years in prison and each wife could face up to five years.



Kody said to Oprah about facing possible jail time: 'It's scary. I didn't expect it'.



With only one legal marriage licence with his first wife Meri, Cody said he wasn't expecting the state to recognise the other relationships.

Room for one more: Kody Brown was married to Meri first and then added Janelle and Christine and more recently added Robyn and her 3 kids to the fold



'We weren't looking for he state to do that. This is strictly a family unit, we didn't feel like we needed that'.



He went on to explain why he wanted to open up his family to the scrutiny of reality show cameras.



'The [polygamist] society tends to be fairly closed,' Kody said. 'We figured that just by being an example of that, by showing our lives, we'd actually help the society be more transparent, have other people in the lifestyle feel safer about being transparent.'

Quality time: Kody spends each night with a different wife who each have a separate section of a large house



But they are also facing a backlash from other sectors with Meri's former employer terminating her position in the mental health industry after the show debuted.



Meri said today: 'They felt that they needed to protect the company, I think. It actually makes me really sad because I loved my job. It breaks my heart, definitely... but I understand where they're coming from.'



Oprah shared that she was most intrigued by the sisterhood between the wives and how well they got on.

One big happy family: The Browns say their lifestyle work for them but face felony bigamy charges in their home state of Utah



She said: 'We're most fascinated with the relationship the women have with each other. In being in the same family, you have to sort of develop a sister relationship or friendship in order to get along'.



The wives explained that when they marry into a polygamous family, they're not just marrying the husband - they're marrying the whole family.



'It's definitely a bonding experience', Meri said. 'We're sisters in that sense, and we're very close. Janelle added that she wanted to be part of a big family.

Documented: The 21-person household is being filmed for a new reality series called Sister Wives



During the first episode of the show, which aired last month, Kody's second wife Janelle explained how the family feels about their controversial set up.



'If we raise productive, contributing members of society who are moral and ethical, that's our final goal, whatever their path is,' says the mother of six of Kody's 16 children.



Polygamy is illegal in Utah although guidelines issued by the Utah attorney general state that bigamy laws 'have not been enforced against adult consenting polygamists' unless abuse, domestic violence or fraud are alleged.



Mirroring HBO drama Big Love, where Bill Henrickson's (Bill Paxton) three wives (Chloe Sevigny, Ginnifer Goodwin and Jeanne Trippelhorn) live in separate houses in the same family compound, each of Brown's wives has her own floor in the family home.