As Alaskan Bush People is on hiatus and fans are eagerly waiting to hear that the Discovery Channel will renew the reality television show for a fifth season, Matt Brown is doing something that is about 30 years overdue. Matt, the oldest of the Brown family, is taking care of himself. During a recent interview with People, Matt shared why he vanished from Alaskan Bush People during the reality television show’s final airing. The eldest of the Brown family also revealed some details in his interview that shed a new light on the television family struggling to survive a rough life in Alaska’s wilderness.

Matt Brown’s first three years before moving into Alaska's wilderness.

In order to understand Matt’s interview, one has to suspend one’s critical mind about whether or not the Brown family is really living in Alaska or whether Browntown is just astage set for fans of the reality television show.

Matt’s reality is that he was three years old when his father Billy and mother Ami set out for Alaska. Until then, Matt had first lived with his Brown parents in Texas and then traveled with them across the United States in search for what dad Billy wanted to do. Billy, who married Ami in 1979, had lost his parents and his sister in a plane crash at the age of 16 while living in an affluent Fort Worth suburb.

Matt’s dad was young himself, had been orphaned, and was in search for what he really wanted to do with his life when the Brown family’s oldest son was born in 1983. What Billy did know was that he was not meant to work a nine to five job. After selling his business in Texas, Billy headed with Ami, Matt (then three) and Joshua (then one) on a ship to Alaska.

Matt’s early years in the Alaskan bush

Of course, knowing nothing about Alaska’s wilderness, the young Brown family struggled to survive the harsh conditions of the Alaskan bush. The first winter in Alaska was trying for Billy and Ami Brown and their young children. The family lived in a trapper shack on an island about 50 miles from Wrangell and it was not until 18 months later that the Browns knew that they could survive.

By then, Matt was about five years old and his formative years were set.

Matt’s life today as a reality television Brown family member

On Alaskan Bush People, Matt is the character described by everyone on the reality television show as the one Brown family member that talks, talks, talks, and never stops.

In addition to Matt’s siblings -- including Joshua (Bam), 31, Bear, 28, Gabe, 25, and Noah, 23, Snowbird, 21, and 12-year-old Rain -- the Discovery Channel is doing its part to make viewers aware that the eldest Brown son living in the Alaskan wilderness is the most vocal one.

Matt’s heartbreaking interview

In his interview, Matt said that when it came to opening up to his parents and his Brown siblings about his drinking problem – he did not want to talk.

The eldest Brown son said that even though he had experienced nothing but support from the other Alaskan bush family members, the truth about his drinking struggle was too painful to share. Even though he was able to eventually tell Billy and Ami that he was going into rehab, the reality behind the Reality TV show revealed that Matt was still unable to talk about where he was in his life when it came to returning home to the Alaskan bush. At the end of Season 4, Matt left his parents waiting for him in Browntown without a word that he would not be returning to the Alaskan bush family.

Billy and Ami did not find out that their all so talkative Brown son – who had grown up in the Alaskan wilderness – was not returning home to his people until after the filming of the reality television show had been completed. For now, Matt Brown is remaining in rehab instead of returning to Browntown, the set of the Alaskan Bush People.
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