Christine Brown opened up about a private struggle she never shared on her hit series Sister Wives.

In her new memoir, Sister Wife: A Memoir of Faith, Family, and Finding Freedom, the  reality star, 53, revealed she secretly battled an addiction to oxycodone following knee surgery in 2016.

‘Just before Maddie and Caleb got married [in 2016], I blew out my knee. I tore my ACL and my meniscus, and I had to have surgery,’ Christine wrote.

After the procedure, she recalled her then-husband Kody Brown bringing her home from the hospital before preparing to leave.

‘”What do I need to do?” I asked, wondering about meds and aftercare. “I don’t know,” he said. “They didn’t give you any instructions?” “No,” he said. But he had gotten my prescription for pain pills filled, and he handed me the bag.’

Christine explained that while her mother and daughters stepped in to help with recovery, she had never taken oxycodone before.

Christine Brown opened up about a private struggle she never shared on her hit series Sister Wives

‘If something hurt, I took ibuprofen or aspirin,’ she revealed. ‘Real pain indicates that something’s wrong, and if I take something that masks the problem, I’m not going to fix the problem, so I generally avoid it. With the surgery, I had already fixed the problem, and it hurt, so I took my meds,’ she explained.

The TLC star did end u p taking the drug while experiencing flu-like symptoms and feeling ‘achy from head to toe’ during her recovery.

‘I took an oxycodone, and all the symptoms went away. It gave me the best high I ever felt. I was on top of the world, and I could accomplish everything!’ she confessed.

Christine said she kept the ordeal away from TV cameras.

‘I just dealt with it privately because at the time, it was absolutely devastating. It was very difficult, and even though I was on it for a month, the effects of it lasted at least six. I didn’t feel normal. I didn’t feel okay for so long. So, once I was done and I felt better, I just felt good to feel better. And I realized that with writing the book, that’s something I didn’t go back and revisit was the addiction to oxycodone.’

She also cautioned readers against misuse of the powerful painkiller.

‘Oxy is a terrible, addictive thing if you don’t need it. If you need it and you’re in a lot of pain, there’s nothing better than that, but since I can get addicted to things easily, it seems it’s just best to stay away from that kind of thing,’ Christine shared. ‘But I just wasn’t in a place where I could talk about it on the show. I just really couldn’t. It was so personal, and it was embarrassing, and I didn’t know if I wanted people to know that about me.’

Beyond her addiction, Christine said she hopes others see themselves in her story.

In her new memoir, Sister Wife: A Memoir of Faith, Family, and Finding Freedom, the reality star, 53, revealed she secretly battled an addiction to oxycodone following knee surgery in 2016; seen in 2023

After the procedure, she recalls her then-husband Kody Brown bringing her home from the hospital before preparing to leave (pictured with Janelle Brown and Kody Brown)

‘I think there are a lot of people that were in situations like mine, men and women, and people just in general who were in, are in relationships where they feel less than, or they feel like their opinion doesn’t really matter, or they feel mistreated,’ she said.

‘I feel like there’s so many people like that, and I think overall, what I would love is for people to realize that you got to find yourself, and you got to make sure that you live life for yourself. You got to make your decisions.’

While reflecting on her past polygamous marriage, Christine admitted she often went along with what others wanted.

‘There were so many times where I would just kind of go along with the flow, and I didn’t really spend a lot of time getting to know what I really wanted. It was when I started realizing what I really wanted was when I was like, ‘I don’t think I’m going to find it here.’ I think I have to make some choices here that I have to leave,’ she said.

Ultimately, Christine realized she ‘needed to make [her] life what’ she ‘wanted it to be’ and make her ‘own choices.’