Who is Billy Brown’s Wife Ami Brown from ‘Alaskan Bush People’?

Ami Brown is an American TV personality, born on 28 August 1964, in Fort Worth, Texas USA. She’s known for being an “Alaskan Bush People” star.

Early Life

Amora “Ami” Lee Branson Brown is the youngest child of Eugene and Earlene Branson. There’s no information about Ami’s early education and interests, though it’s known her parents divorced when she was eight years old, leaving her mother working two jobs at the same time to provide for her children.

Ami has stated she comes from an economically underprivileged family with an abusive father. However, her older brother Les has contradicted his sisters’ claims, affirming that Ami was a popular cheerleader in high school and Branson’s family favorite child: ‘She was the baby, so she was kind of spoiled!’

Les has also denied the claims against his father, stating he was never abusive in any way. Ami’s mother Earlene has disagreed with her daughter’s words as well, saying her younger child was ‘spoiled rotten’ during her early years.

Personal Life

Marriage

Ami met Billy Brown when he was working as plumber in her mother’s house. The meeting was described by Brown as ‘love at first sight’, despite the age difference between the two: Billy was 26 and Ami 15.

Brown and Branson started seeing each other behind her family’s back, and by the time Earlene Branson found out her daughter’s relationship with the older man, young Ami was already deeply in love with Billy.

Threatening to elope with Brown if her mother tried to impede the marriage, Ami was able to marry Billy on 16 June 1979. Despite the circumstances of the union, Ami’s family wasn’t worried about him: ‘I wasn’t really that concerned about it, because I assumed Billy was an honest, reputable person. And that he wouldn’t keep Ami from us’.

The Branson family’s good opinion of Billy changed for the worst sometime after the couple’s wedding, when Brown’s deception about his background was discovered: ‘He lied about his age! He gave the impression that he was very wealthy, and came from a wealthy family. He seduced us with the trappings of wealth’.

Billy allegedly didn’t inform his bride’s family that he was a divorced man with two children, and Ami apparently didn’t finish her studies due to her premature marriage.

Children

Ami and her husband Billy welcomed their first child Matthew Jeremiah in 1982, when she was barely 18 years old. One year-and-half later in August, their second child Joshua was born.

Despite the family’s apparent happy life, Billy found himself discontented with his plumbing company and his 9-to-5 job. Informing Ami of his desire to leave Texas and change his lifestyle, she agreed with him and the little family left their hometown to roam as nomads throughout the country.

In an interview with People, Ami declared her feelings at that time of uncertainty: ‘We didn’t really know where we wanted to go, but we knew we weren’t where we wanted to be’.

The couple sold their truck and boarded a ship to Alaska, where a friend of Billy offered the couple and their two sons to stay at his abandoned cabin, located on Mosman Island, miles away from Wrangell.

Isolated and with no means of communication, the young family remained stranded on the remote place for more than 18 months, until a skipper offered to return them to the city. However, neither Ami nor her husband wanted to live in civilization anymore, apparently smitten with the detached-from-society lifestyle: ‘After we realized we weren’t going to die, we fell in love with everything.’

The couple settled in the Alaskan wilderness, and welcomed another five children, whose names are: Solomon Isaiah, Gabriel Starbuck, Noah Darkcloud, Amora Jean and younger daughter Merry Christmas Kathryn Raindrop.

The family lived in various places in Alaska, including Haines, Hoonah and Juneau.

Although the couple and children apparently lived off hunting and fishing, it’s known Ami’s husband Billy took small jobs around the city, also publishing various kids books to provide for his family.

The family eventually settled in Haines, where they lived for severalyears, and allegedly build a cabin that ultimately burned down. They currently live in Hoonah.

Career

Alaskan Bush People – TV Debut

In 2014, Ami along her family debuted on TV in Discovery Channel’s “Alaskan Bush People”. Focused on the Brown family’s journey as they survived apparently alone and away from any civilization even in Alaska, the show was well received by audiences attracted to the family’s out-of-the-mold lifestyle.

Although the series was primarily promoted as reality TV, the show is reportedly scripted, and has been filmed in various locations including in Washington State, and it was revealed that the Browns didn’t reside in the Alaskan bush, when in 2015 Billy and his family were found guilty of second degree theft and falsification, regarding forms filed by them to obtain Permanent Fund Dividends available to permanent residents. The family apparently spent more than 180 days per year outside Alaska, thus they didn’t qualify for the funds received. Furthermore, the family reportedly only occupies their small forest cabin during show shootings, living in a local hotel the rest of the time.

Health

In 2016’s Ami started experiencing intense back pain: ‘There were days I was just bedridden, but I just thought it was my arthritis. We were filming the show and at times it was all I could do to just stand there. I was in so much pain.’

In December that year, she went to a dentist to obtain teeth impressions. Instead she discovered her life was in serious danger, as in early 2017 she was diagnosed with lung cancer, and subsequently received chemotherapy treatment for six weeks in a Los Angeles’ hospital. Despite the harsh treatment and after being given a chance of survival of only three percent, Ami remained hopeful: ‘I realized early into this that it’s very easy to want to give up and just die.

And on the pessimist side, it could be my last days. But I have the will to fight’.

Ami’s husband Billy supported her during the severe treatment: ‘She’s the strongest person I know, so if she’s saying it hurts, it really hurts. She tries to hide it from everybody, but four or five times a day she bends over like a baby and cries’.

Fortunately in December 2017 Ami was officially declared cancer-free, though she has to undergo medical checks for the rest of her life, as doctors didn’t find the cause of her cancer: ‘It’s going to be a part of my life forever. But I want to encourage people to enjoy every moment and walk every moment with God because he knows what it’s about. Never give up faith’.

Estranged Family

According to Ami’s family, they have not been able to see her for almost four decades since her departure from Texas in the early ‘80s. Earlene apparently travelled to Alaska to see her daughter in 2016, her efforts were wasted as Ami was vacationing in Hawaii with her family at the time.

Still hopeful of seeing her daughter once again, the Branson matriarch sent a message to her daughter in 2017 through Radar Online: ‘Right now I would say, ‘I love you very much. I have always loved you’. I want to see you before I die!’ At the time the 84 years old woman had frail health, due to a stroke she suffered in 2012.

Earlene Branson declared the cause of Ami’s estrangement was her daughter’s husband Billy: ‘We thought that he would provide for Ami, that he would keep her in school, and never keep her from seeing us.

And we never saw her again!’

Ami’s older brother Les Branson, blamed Billy for his sister’s distant attitude towards her family: ‘Billy started acting very controlling of Ami from the very beginning. I realized that Ami never spoke, Billy did all the talking. She would just kind of sit there beside him smiling. I didn’t realize it then, but she wasn’t allowed to speak. She couldn’t speak without his permission!’

Unfortunately, Ami’s mother Earlene died in 2018. Although Ami was allegedly heartbroken by this, she didn’t attend the funeral.

Net Worth

Reportedly, Ami Brown has an estimated net worth of over $500,000 as of mid-2020, as a result of her appearances in “Alaskan Bush People”.

Physical Appearance

She’s a woman of white ethnicity, with grey hair and blue eyes. According to old photos, in her youth she had blondish-brown hair and gorgeous features. Her weight and height are unknown, but she’s noticeably slim.

Interesting Facts

Ami’s husband Billy was born in an economically privileged family. However, he lost his family in a ‘plane accident, and lost his riches when he was tricked into emancipating.

Her husband’s first wife was named Brenda, and they married when Billy was 16 years old.

Texas’ laws allowed the union between Ami and Billy, despite her young age.

During her stay in California to treat her lung cancer, her family rented a Beverly Hills mansion apparently valued at $2 Million.