"Brother Husbands," about MFM polyfamily with kids, will apparently become a weekly reality series on TLC

Remember Brother Husbands, TLC's one-hour reality special last month that followed an MFM polyfamily and their new triplets?

Jeremy, Amanda, and Chad

That show was a pilot: a one-off to test whether there'd be enough of an audience for a weekly series. We've seen no official word on whether a series will go ahead. But just out on SheKnows is some unofficial word: apparently yes. This afternoon the online women's mag posted an interview with husband Chad, and it contains this:

SheKnows: TLC has [only] aired a one-hour special about your family. Is there a series in the future?

Chad Ferris: TLC is extremely excited about the show, and they have been busy filming. You will be seeing more of us!

Here's more from the interview:

Everything You Wanted to Know About the Brother Husbands Family

By Sarah Aswell

SheKnows: First of all, I have to know: Do you use the term "brother husbands" around the house?

Chad Ferris: No, we say co-husbands.

SK: I'm guessing it's been some time since the special was filmed. How old are the triplets now, and how is the family managing?

CF: They turned one in December. They are all walking now, they’re all talking and eating real food. When they became mobile, it changed everything. It's crazy.

SK: During the special, your mom came to visit and she was obviously still getting used to the situation. How is your relationship with family now?

CF: That was the first time I'd seen my mom in four or five years. We had talked on the phone and started rebuilding, and that was the first in-person interaction. Since then it’s been good. I've also reconnected with my brother, who had felt kind of betrayed. When we came out as polyamorous to him, we had been doing it secretly for over a year, and he wished we had been honest sooner. We grew up with a conservative, religious background, and he saw our decision as abandoning our traditional family values and our faith.

SK: Are you currently religious?

CF: I'm not religious on any level. I worked at a church, and I had been working in churches for seven or eight years when I met Jeremy. Based on the response we got when we started talking with the community about our family, we left. We had already been moving past that, but the response from the church confirmed a lot of our feelings and we left that part of our life behind....

...SK: What are most of the conflicts about in the household?

CF: The most common conflict is parenting style. I’m more liberal and free-spirited, and Jeremy is more structured, maybe because he has to be with the triplets. I am a hippie and laid-back, we co-slept with the boys and everything like that. Jeremy and Amanda are more structured with bedtime, and the girls have always slept in cribs. Sometimes I need to check myself and respect Jeremy’s boundaries, and sometimes Jeremy needs to realize that he could be a little more flexible. We've gotten to a place where we know to respect one another but also learn from one another.

SK: Do you and Jeremy spend quality time together alone?

CF: Jeremy and I do try to make an effort to do that — bro dates when we go get a beer or play video games, or go see a movie or go shopping to stay connected. It's easy to slip into dad mode, and we both try to keep the house running as smoothly, so it’s easy to forget that we were friends in the first place....

The whole interview, with lots of pix (March 8, 2017).


● Another interview with Chad, on The Ashley's Reality Roundup: ‘Brother Husbands’ Star Chad Liston [sic] Answers Questions About His Family (mid-February):

The recent TLC special Brother Husbands left a lot of viewers in shock.. and with plenty of questions!

The special showcased Amanda Liston, a woman who is married to two men – Chad and Jeremy. The trio raise their kids as siblings and live as one big family unit. ‘Brother Husbands’ did well in the ratings, and started quite the firestorm on social media when it aired on February 5.

While the special touched on the family’s dynamic, it failed to answer many viewers’ questions. ...

“We felt like our family’s story was worth telling,” Chad explained. “We know there are many ‘modern families’ out there, especially ones that aren’t defined by patriarchy and monogamy, and we wanted to be a part of starting those conversations for people who may have never seen a family like this before.”

Chad said that, naturally, most people want to know about the sexual dynamic of his marriage.

“I think it’s easy to over-sexualize our relationship because of the unique makeup of it,” Chad told The Ashley. “We are probably much more boring than you think!”

Chad answered more of the frequently asked questions he’s been getting since ‘Brother Husbands’ aired.

Q: Who’s having sex in the family? Are you and Jeremy having sex together, as well as with Amanda?

Chad: Jeremy and I do not have a sexual relationship with one another! Jeremy has his own relationship with Amanda as do I.

Q: Isn’t it weird to know that some other guy is having sex with your wife?

Chad: When we are all in a good spot and trusting and communicating well, I can honestly say, no it doesn’t [feel weird]. It’s a choice we all made. It doesn’t mean it’s always easy….but I love and trust them. I don’t feel threatened by love.

Q: Do you consider yourself married to both Amanda and Jeremy? Or just Amanda?

Chad: I consider Jeremy my co-husband. We clearly are a family unit and my relationship with him matters just as much to me as my relationship with Amanda. They just are very different relationships. I would recommend the book Sex at Dawn. I especially look to that book as the template for how I operate within my family. ...

In the meantime, you can follow along with Chad and his family on social media at @BrotherHubsChad on Twitter and @brotherhusbandchad on Instagram.

● More backstory, at Independent Review Journal: Man Admits to Best Friend He’s in Love with His Wife. Nothing Could Have Prepared Him for the Reply (Feb. 23):

Amanda Liston and her husband, Chad, both come from conservative and religious families.

The couple has been in a relationship for eight years and they married when Amanda was only 18 and Chad was 21. Together they have two sons, Atreyu and Cassian.

Amanda explained on TLC's new show, “Brother Husbands,” that the pair considered themselves traditional up to that point:

“We went to the same church, our families were friends with each other, so we kind of had that small town Americana love story—boy meets girl, they get married young, they have kids young. My family life was the definition of traditional.”

That all changed four years after they got married, when Chad met a man named Jeremy. Both Chad and Jeremy worked at the church together and they eventually became best friends.

...Then, Jeremy fell in love with Amanda. He admitted on the show:

“When I first realized that I had feeling for my best friend's wife, I knew that it was just something that I had to deal with. The more time I spent with Amanda, the more I realized what an amazing person she is and I just started to fall in love with her.”

Wanting to come clean to his best friend, Jeremy told Chad that he had feelings for his wife.

Chad was not expecting this. He revealed on the show,

“I did not expect what [Jeremy] said to come out of his mouth. He understood what Amanda and I were and what our family was—he wanted to join that. It did feel in a lot of ways that my entire foundation had been out from underneath me.”

Chad's reaction, however, wasn't what anyone expected, and it wasn't what he expected either. Instead of lashing out, he found a way to deal with the new love triangle and formed a relationship that included all three of them....

● Here's the Brother Husbands site, where you can watch for free if you get TLC. Or pay to watch on YouTube (from $1.99).

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