'Sister Wives' ' Kody and Meri Brown Celebrate Their 'Non-Anniversary': 'We're Not a Couple'

For the first time in a year, Kody Brown and wife Meri are spending some quality time together.

On the upcoming episode of Sister Wives, the pair goes out to celebrate their "non-anniversary," during which they acknowledge that their marriage remains strained.

"Meri and I haven't seen each other a lot during COVID, and Meri and I haven't lived together since before we even left Las Vegas," Kody, 52, says in PEOPLE's exclusive sneak peek.

In the car together, Meri, 50, tells the cameras that the two are "celebrating our non-anniversary, 'cause we're not a couple, but we're in a family."

"So like, what are we?" she asks Kody. "And what are we celebrating? It's just a funny situation, that's all."

"True. Is it funny, or is it just odd and awkward?" Kody asks Meri.

Meri goes on to reveal that they haven't been out together in a year. "Today's our anniversary. You and I have not been out together since last year's anniversary, which is fine. I mean, it is what it is," she says.

To Kody, them not going out together is a clear indication of where their relationship stands.

"Yeah, that's an indicator that we're really not in a place where it matters that much," he says, before asking her how she feels. "Are you brokenhearted by that? Is it troubling you?"

In a confessional, Kody says his probing questions are an attempt to get to the bottom of Meri's feelings — and figure out if she really wants to be with her husband.

"I'm trying to help Meri determine if she has a spark or if she's just lonely for anything," he says. "Instead of trying to make believe that our world is different, I want us to be honest about where we're at."

He then tells Meri that if they did want to go out more frequently, "We would."

Kody and Meri wed in 1990. Three years later, the pair welcomed sister wife Janelle into their plural marriage, who was followed in 1994 by Christine. Most recently, Robyn joined the Brown family as Kody's fourth wife in 2010.

Although Kody was originally legally married to only Meri, she agreed to divorce him so that he could tie the knot with Robyn in 2014 — a legal change that allowed Robyn's three kids from her previous marriage to access the same insurance and other benefits as the rest of Kody's children. (Despite the legality of the divorce, Kody considers himself to be spiritually married to all four wives.)

But Kody and Meri's marriage has been on the rocks for years, ever since her 2015 catfishing scandal. (At the time, the TLC star entered into an online relationship with someone she thought was a man, but who actually turned out to be a female admirer.)

During last week's episode of the hit series, Kody confessed that he and Meri saw their relationship "dissolve" in the wake of the drama.

But while Meri acknowledges that their union has been turbulent, she's still hopeful they'll be able to move forward.

"Kody and I have always had kind of an up and down relationship," she says in the sneak peek. "But we've always kind of come back together. And it's kind of weird, over the last five, six, seven years, we really haven't come back together."

"He knows that I want to really move forward with our relationship and I know where he stands, which is: 'We're just going to take this really, really, really, really slow,'" she adds.

Sister Wives airs Sundays (10 p.m. ET) on TLC.