A compact wideband multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) antenna for body-centric communication is presented in this article. Initially, an electric field-driven LC metamaterial resonator inspired monopole antenna is developed that exhibits 122.19 % (1.28–5.30 GHz) bandwidth covering 2.4 GHz WLAN and 3.5 GHz WiMAX application bands. Thereafter, the MIMO antenna is proposed, and a pair of meander line structure as a wideband decoupling network is introduced on the ground plane to reduce the inter-element coupling. The proposed antenna holds a reduced mutual coupling and low envelope correlation coefficient over the wideband. To explain the wideband antenna response and its decoupling mechanism, a circuit model analysis is incorporated. Moreover, the proposed antenna demonstrates a robust performance under complex bending and crumpling conditions with an acceptable specific absorption rate (SAR <1.6) during the on-body conditions. Besides, a high data rate link-margin analysis makes the antenna suitable for wireless biotelemetry.