Seeking Sister Wife: Signs Garrick Merrifield Is A Clout Chaser (& Has Ulterior Motives)

Summary Garrick pursues polygamy on TV with ulterior motives, self-promoting his construction business and showcasing his talents for personal gain.

Garrick presents himself as a ladies man, driven by attention and the desire to amass wives, rather than focusing on emotional care for his partners.

Garrick's search for wives lacks authenticity, choosing incompatible matches and pursuing clout over forming genuine connections for his polygamist goals.

Seeking Sister Wife alum Garrick Merrifield has shown himself to be a clout chaser who is pursuing polygamy on TV for the wrong reasons. Garrick has been with Dannielle Merrifield for 15 years, and for the first 11 years of that, they were married and monogamous. Seeking Sister Wife viewers met Dannielle and Garrick in season 3 of the TLC show when they were courting a Brazilian woman named Roberta. Dannielle and Garrick are religious polygamists and believe that God has called them to seek that lifestyle.

Dannielle and Garrick got officially divorced so that Garrick could propose to Roberta and bring her to America on the K-1 visa. During the time they were dating Roberta, they briefly dated a potential sister wife named Lea, which upset Roberta, who didn't want to expand so soon. Dannielle and Garrick were devastated at the end of Seeking Sister Wife season 4 when Roberta decided not to come to America after Garrick sent her a large sum of money. In season 5, Garrick and Dannielle have been dating a 25-year-old Brazilian woman named Nathalia, to whom viewers watched Garrick propose.

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Garrick Owns A Construction Company

Garrick Loves To Self-Promote

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Garrick seems to be pursuing his polygamist lifestyle on TV with ulterior motives. Instead of putting the focus solely on his and Dannielle's pursuit of a sister wife, Garrick manages to do a lot of self-promoting. The Beuna Vista, Colorado, resident owns Merrifield Custom Builders and tackles custom home projects of all kinds. On the show, Garrick and Dannielle have been building their dream home, and have gone out of their way to mention that Garrick is the one designing and building the property.

Garrick and Dannielle are contructing their ideal property to suit their motivation to expand their family in the polygamist lifestyle.

Garrick also tries to plug his construction company whenever possible on the show and has worn Merrifield Custom Builders merchandise in several scenes, and so have his friends and family.

Dannielle and Garrick also like to mention that Garrick's business does really well. Garrick seems to be trying to get publicity for his construction business, which only satisfies his personal gain and distracts from the main focus of the show.

Garrick Wants To Portray Himself As A Ladies Man

Garrick Enjoy The Attention

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While Garrick asserts that his drive towards polygamy is what God wants for him, it's clear that Garrick believes himself to be something of a ladies man. Garrick loves posing in between Dannielle and whoever they are dating as if to show them off in a smug way. Garrick is also hell-bent on having five sister wives and he does not stop to take the feelings of who he is currently with into consideration. Garrick has blinders on and appears to be motivated by self-serving principles rather than the religious pillar he speaks about.

It appears as though Garrick revels in the attention he gets from pursuing polygamy and having attractive women want to be in his life. If he did care about the process and taking care of his wives, he would have seen the number of times he's hurt Dannielle and her potential sister wives' feelings by being relentless about adding more wives. Garrick is driven toward amassing wives and showing them off on TV and is not as interested in putting in the time and effort it takes to make sure each of his partners is cared for emotionally.

Garrick Isn't Trying To Find Compatible Love

Garrick Is Looking In The Wrong Places

If Garrick were trying to be authentic in his search for wives to live a happy polygamist lifestyle, he would choose more compatible matches. Roberta did not speak English and relied on Garrick for money. While Nathalia doesn't yet seem to be interested in Garrick's money, she could still have the motivation to come to America. Garrick is not giving his relationship with Natahalia time, so there is a lot he could be missing regarding her intentions. Also, again, he is choosing someone who doesn't speak English.

Garrick was caught lying in Seeking Sister Wife season 5 when Nathalia saw a dating app notification on Garrick's phone, signaling that he was still active on the app. Nathalia thought he stopped the dating apps upon starting a relationship with her and Garrick played dumb like he didn't know he was still visible (via TLC.) Moreover, he told Nathalia he would delete the app entirely, which upset Dannielle who had asked Garrick to do that months prior. Garrick seemed to consciously know he was still visible on dating apps, which means that his motives had been shady.

Garrick does not seem eager to make formative connections and is pursuing young attractive foreign women to make himself look and feel better.

Were Garrick to be genuine in his polygamy endeavor, he would be trying to match with women in America, women in the right age group, and women who would fit into him and Dannielle and their family's lives. Garrick seems to be on the show for clout and recognition because if he were being authentic, he would try to find better matches for his polygamist goals.

Garrick Designs Jewelry & Wants Recognition For It

Garrick Wants His Talents Known

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Another questionable thing that Garrick does that challenges his authenticity is his jewelry-making. He designed a necklace that he had crafted for Dannielle and Roberta. Dannielle helped Garrick self-promote on several occasions by bragging about the fact that Garrick designed it. Dannielle and Garrick had a third one made after things didn't work out with Roberta, and Dannielle gave it to Nathalia. Garrick wanted his talents to be known and for his wives to be models for his jewelry design. Furthermore, Garrick designed his custom engagement ring for Nathalia and let Seeking Sister Wife viewers know he was behind it.

Garrick shamelessly self-promotes his business and jewelry design on the show, which distracts from the point of his and Dannielle's narrative. Garrick also chooses poor matches and seems to be more focused on his image of having many wives rather than focusing on the family and emotional element. Garrick does not seem to be on Seeking Sister Wife for the right reasons, and may only be chasing clout and recognition.

Seeking Sister Wife airs Mondays at 9 p.m. EST on TLC.

Source: TLC/YouTube