Reality TV has been rising for the past thirty years and has proven to be a popculture phenomenon. Society has seen the rise of reality TV shows like “Love Island” and the brandishing of another “The Real House Wives” as some of the top shows on live television. Hulu has sparked commotion online with its newest reality show, “The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives.”
“The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives” introduced the day-to-day life of being a Mormon. The show’s group of women gained popularity on Mormon “Momtok,” the part of TikTok dedicated to Mormon moms, creating content as a group. The show introduces us to Taylor Frankie Paul, Whitney Leavitt, Layla Taylor, Demi Engemann, Jessi Ngatikura, Jen Affleck, Mayci Neeley and Mikayla Matthews.
In 2022, the group of moms and their partners were the face of a Mormon “soft-swinging” scandal. According to the American Psychological Association’s Committee on Consensual Non-Monogamy, soft-swinging is defined as, “Relationships where people are romantically exclusive to one partner and mutually seek out other sexual relationships together. People in these relationships sometimes engage in sex as a couple (e.g., group sex) or swap partners with another couple.”
Paul would go on TikTok live to explain her part in the 33-minute live, stating she and her now ex-husband, Tate Paul, were soft-swingers and their impending divorce was due to her breaking the boundaries of that designation.
“The agreement was … as long as we were both there and we saw it and we knew it, it was OK, and the second it goes behind without each other, you’ve stepped out of the agreement,” she said in the video. “And I did that.”
This scandal would drag many “MomTok” members into the drama due to public speculation about who was in the swinging group. The drama was centered on the first episode of the reality series, starting the eventual division in the group.
After the show became popular, more details came out about the show’s drama, including more falling-outs between the girls. Many “MomTok” followers have pointed out the lack of originalmembers of the group — Camille Munday and Miranda McWhorter, on the show. McWhorter was allegedly part of the swingers scandal with Frankie Paul.
McWhorter would go on the podcast “The Weekly Trash” and explain her absence on the show. Paul seemingly disagreed with McWhorter’s explanation, posting a TikTok stating, “Them: ‘We got offered the show and declined’ How it went: ‘We’ll do the show if Taylor isn’t on it.’” McWhorter later divorced her now ex-husband, Chase McWhorter, after the scandal broke.
Leavitt responded to the public criticism surrounding her conduct on the show, hinting at a falling out with the show’s cast in a TikTok. There, she lip synced the phrase, “fine make me your villain.”
Many fans have speculated on the state of the friend group after the tumultuous ending of season one of the show. One TikToker theorized that the girls are using the drama as a publicity stunt while still being friends. In one comment on the post, Ngatikura commented, “Sorry but no,” and dispelled the theory.
On Sept. 7, Matthews posted a TikTok captioned, “When most of you stay friends after the show comes out.” The video included everyone in the cast except Leavitt.
Members of the group are more outspoken about their feelings from events shown during the season. Neeley expressed her feelings about Leavitt not showing up to her product launch party on the “Dear Media” podcast.
When asked if it was a turning point in their relationship, Neeley said the lack of care shown by Leavitt bugged her. She further commented that Leavitt’s husband texted her husband to extend congratulations to Neeley, but she never heard anything form Leavitt herself.
On the podcast, Neeley would go on to say that while “we’re cordial,” her and Leavitt’s relationship is “just not the same as before.”
The friendship dissented further after Leavitt exposed her text messages with Matthew’s and Neeley. Matthews would post a video in response to Leavitt exposing the messages between the trio. The video’s caption read, “Iykyk. It is clear certain people have been enabled their whole lives, so let's stop giving it the attention she so desperately begging for (this is my last video on the matter cause frankly her behavior is scary and she needs a wake-up call or a full factory reset).”
She would post another video stating, “I haven’t been getting enough attention from my friends lately so I thought I would try setting boundaries and move away too.” She captioned the video with “wish me luck, waiting for them to beg me to stay” and tagged all of the “MomTok” group except Whitney.
Needless to say, season two of “The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives” is sure to be interesting.
