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Janelle Brown sheds light on the state of her son Garrison Brown’s mental health before his death in an emotional new episode of “Sister Wives.”
The TLC reality series addresses the 25-year-old’s death by suicide in its May 4 episode and follows the Brown family as they grieve his loss together.
In a confessional interview, Janelle Brown reveals that her son Gabriel Brown was the one to find Garrison Brown after his death. She recalls the moment she learned he had passed away.
“Heβs like, ‘Mom, he’s gone.’ And I’m like, ‘What do you mean?’ He said, ‘Heβs dead. He killed himself.’ And I donβt remember the next few minutes, but I got in the car and I drove,” she says.
Along with several members of her family, the mother of six opens up about the struggles Garrison Brown faced before his death in the episode.
“We all knew that he was sad, and then we all hoped that he would just (make it through),” Christine Brown Woolley says in a confessional interview.
Janelle Brown then recalls how she’d often have several phone calls a day with Garrison Brown.
βI knew he was struggling and I always just picked up the phone and I always made it a point to just talk to him. And it wasn’t really about anything. It was just, I think he needed the connection. And I know he was calling his brothers and stuff too,β she says.
On the night her son died, the reality star noticed that he βkind of stopped texting me,β so she asked her sons Logan and Hunter Brown to reach out to him to see if heβd respond. Gabriel Brown later called her while she was asleep to break the news.
While reflecting on her sonβs emotional health, Janelle Brown reveals that he experienced βanxietyΒ and depressionβ and βstarted drinking as a way to sort of soothe that.”
βI knew heβd been drinking again. He would go through periods where he was really good and then he just would have a binge just as part of the cycle, I think,” she says.
Janelle Brown said she was surprised that he used alcohol to cope with his emotional struggles.
“I don’t know what happened. He was never a drinking kid. He didnβt like it, didnβt like the taste of it. And he started to drink during COVID. And something happened in this last year and it really just got him,” she says.
The reality star then notes that the family had given Garrison Brown “all the love, all the support, all the help, all the resources.”
“I donβt know what happened that this night he did that. Because heβs had other nights like this where he would drink and then pass out and he would go kind of radio silent, but heβd be back in the morning. I donβt know. I donβt know what happened this time,” she says.
In his own interview, Gabriel Brown also sheds light on his late brotherβs mental state before his death.
β(He) really was so genuine and he didnβt let on to it a lot, but he always felt a lot deeper than he expressed. Everyone in my family knows that,β he says.
While sitting down for an interview about her late brother, Maddie Brown Brush recalls trying to convince Garrison Brown to move closer to her so she could keep an eye on him.
“He was almost coming,” her husband Caleb Brush says.
“I think he was just so deep (in his depression),” Brown Brush replies.
In a conversation with her sister, Janelle Brown says her son “couldn’t get a hold of” his drinking.
“We did everything we could. And I know that,” she says while holding back tears.
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