Tag: the secret lives of mormon wives

Whitney Leavitt Leveraged ‘Mormon Wives’ to Earn ‘Chicago.’ She’s Not Sure How She’ll Ever Go Back

[ad_1]

Whitney Leavitt’s world is widening.

The 32-year-old is best known for Hulu’s “The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives,” the addictive reality TV series she broke out from as the villain in Season 1, though she’s garnered more sympathy over time. But if everything goes Leavitt’s way, the unscripted genre won’t be her main claim to fame a few years from now. Though Season 4 of “Mormon Wives” drops on March 12, her focus is elsewhere: Monday marked her Broadway debut as Roxie Hart in the ongoing Broadway revival of “Chicago.”

This was always the plan. “I have a distinct memory of being in college with my husband while we were dating, and he asked, ‘What do you want to do?’” Leavitt says, sitting across from me at a Times Square Italian restaurant after a “Chicago” rehearsal. “I was like, ‘I want to be in the movies.’ It was always something I’d thought in my mind, but I had never said it out loud, and I didn’t know how to get there. Like, ‘Where do people go?’”

It’s strange, at first, to imagine a version of Leavitt who was so reticent to admit her dreams. These days, she’s known for her shameless ambition, and back then, she was a fine arts major with a dance concentration. A career as a performer would have been a logical goal.

Then again, despite her coursework and her upbringing as a competitive dancer, Leavitt didn’t come from a culture that expected her to pursue a career at all. She and her husband — Conner Leavitt, also a fixture on “Mormon Wives — attended Brigham Young University, the Mormon Church’s flagship school. “Looking back, I do wish that I would have ventured out to other universities, because it was very conservative,” she says. In 2019, the year after she graduated, a study found that female BYU grads made an average income of $800 per year by age 34. (No, there aren’t any zeroes missing from that stat.) In other words, the world was telling Leavitt to become a full-time homemaker.

And that’s what she was for a number of years. She and Conner had their first baby in 2019.

“I was starting to lose my sense of self,” she says. “Your time is designated so much to this one human being that even when you have time for yourself, all I could think was, ‘What did she eat today? I’m gonna have to get up at this time. I didn’t get this at the grocery store.’ That was my life — and that’s not the life I wanted to live.” So she changed it.

“You can like the life you’re livin’ / You can live the life you like,” Leavitt was singing on stage just minutes ago, rehearsing “Nowadays,” the bittersweet Roxie-Velma duet that leads into the “Chicago” finale. As we walk from the Ambassador Theatre to the restaurant, she gasps, wide-eyed and delighted, “We’re actually getting to eat during this interview? I want carbs!” When we sit down, she apologizes over and over for needing a minute to look at her phone — “Don’t hate me,” she pleads, and she seems to mean it earnestly — which she hasn’t checked since her interview on “Live With Kelly and Mark” before rehearsal this morning. We begin tearing into the free bread basket, and she grins, warning me that she likes to bite straight into the butter rather than spreading it onto the bread. We talk about her career at length over meatballs, and then she heads home to Conner and their three children, who are waiting for her in an apartment on the Upper West Side.

These are the kinds of days she dreamed of back in the throes of early motherhood. During that come-to-Jesus moment when she realized she didn’t like the path she was on, “I was like, ‘Let’s stop groveling,’” she says. “‘Let’s get off our ass and see what we’ve got. I have an iPhone, and I’ve got a free app where I can shake my booty and create funny videos.’” She became a TikToker.

Though Conner always supported her, others in Leavitt’s life were wary of her fledgling social media hustle. “Telling my family and friends, it was just such a joke to them. ‘Why do you want to do that?’ ‘Wow. Good luck,’” she recalls. “And I knew it was crazy. Like, I’m a mom! But they thought it was this childish thing, while I felt like I needed a platform to put myself out there.” And even when the content was silly — dancing, lipsyncing, joking about parenting — it carried meaning for her. During some of those difficult postpartum days, scrolling on TikTok “was an outlet for me,” she says. “I was like, ‘I just want to think of nothing! I just want to look at my phone.’”

Whitney and Conner Leavitt, holding one of their children in an episode of “The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives” Season 2.

Disney/Fred Hayes

Being in movies was still the plan, and Leavitt felt sure that she could get herself there. But in the meantime, she focused on finding any way she could to make money entertaining people. For years, she posted three to five videos per day to figure out what would stick. In the process, she found other Mormon moms on TikTok who were not only building sustainable incomes but outearning their husbands, becoming the rare female breadwinners in their community. As they befriended each other and began posting content together, their audiences grew. The group became known as #MomTok, and their videos evolved into a sensation.

Yet Leavitt felt conflicted about the rise of #MomTok. “The brand deals were nice. They were fun,” she says. (And they brought in a lot of money.) “But my goal wasn’t to be an influencer, right? And that’s what I was becoming.” Still, she figured that staying the course would pay off. “I would get together with these other women who didn’t necessarily have the same goal in mind, because I think that most of them enjoy being an influencer, and there’s nothing wrong with that,” she says. “I enjoyed it because, for one, I loved the camaraderie, but also putting myself out there in avenues where you’re gonna see more of me. Then the reality show presented itself.”

She thought “The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives” would be her big break, and it has been. The show premiered on Hulu in September 2024 and immediately surpassed “The Kardashians” to become the streamer’s most-watched reality premiere of the year. But that success has come at a cost. “We were just excited to get a bigger platform, and that’s also how it’s presented to us. ‘Look at this diamond. So shiny and cute!’ I’m like, ‘It is! Give it to me!’” Leavitt says. All of a sudden, the interpersonal dramas that she normally would have resolved in a group chat or over the dirty sodas the show made famous were streaming on Hulu for the world to see — and to tear her apart.

The early episodes of “Mormon Wives” establish Leavitt as the foil to Taylor Frankie Paul, who founded #MomTok. Paul made headlines in 2022 for revealing that she and her husband were divorcing after she cheated on him with one of their friends — and that the friend was one of many with whom they’d been “soft swinging.” The news snowballed, with Paul’s online audience assuming that other members of #MomTok had also been sexually involved with Paul and her husband. (Every “Mormon Wives” cast member denies this, with the exception of Miranda and Chase McWhorter, who joined in Season 2.) But it also got Hulu’s attention, landing the women of #MomTok their own TV show. If Paul was the show’s scandal-wracked but goodhearted star, Leavitt was its holier-than-thou villain who hated to share the limelight. The other women often met her passive aggression with direct confrontation, leaving her in tears. That pattern didn’t go over well with “Mormon Wives” fans, who have often criticized her for having a “victim mentality.”

Leavitt knows she’s made her share of mistakes on “Mormon Wives.” Her sins against her castmates in Season 1 included skipping Paul’s baby shower, giving Demi Engemann an embarrassing gag gift related to her sexual history, leaving the #MomTok group chat, unfollowing everyone on social media, skipping Mayci Neeley’s business launch event and showing up uninvited to Mikayla Matthews’ birthday party to apologize to Neeley. The kinds of offenses that can feel nuclear and even relationship-ending within the context of a friend group — but that don’t typically earn you death threats. Unless you’re on camera.

“I didn’t watch reality TV. I still don’t. So I went into it very naive,” Leavitt says. “And people forget that before you film, people are talking to you like, ‘You’re about to have this conversation with so-and-so, and she’s pissed.’ It gives me so much anxiety. I’m like, ‘What do you mean she’s pissed? What? Now I’m scared!’ Like with Mikayla’s birthday party, I was bawling my eyes out before walking in those doors. But nobody would have known that.”

As online hate poured in after the release of Season 1, Leavitt was inconsolable. But now she laughs at herself for the same thing her critics jabbed her for. “Sometimes, when something bad happens to you, you only think of yourself,” she says. “‘Woe is me. Me, me, me, me, me. This is why I’m the victim.’”

Now an Emmy-nominated hit with a massive following, “Mormon Wives” films at a breakneck pace; the March release of Season 4 comes only 18 months after the series launched. So Leavitt was angsty and exhausted by the time contract renegotiations rolled around after Season 2, and when she didn’t get what she wanted, she quit. As revealed in one of the show’s signature fourth-wall breaks in the Season 3 premiere last fall, she had asked Hulu for a role on a scripted series and was turned down. She decided that if being a reality TV star wasn’t going to offer a more concrete path toward her artistic goals, the emotional cost had become too high. Leavitt bought a house in Southern Utah, five hours away from production in Provo, and moved her family there. Then producers called to say that “Dancing With the Stars” wanted some “Mormon Wives” to audition, but she’d have to rejoin the show if she wanted a shot.

“I had a really long conversation with Conner. Like, ‘I don’t know how to feel like myself and do this experience,’” she says. When Leavitt watched her own actions on the show, she saw a woman in crisis, responding to artificial pressures instead of acting on her true instincts. But “Dancing With the Stars” was exactly the kind of opportunity she’d hoped to nab when she first got on TikTok. After a long week of mulling it over, Leavitt decided to confront the anxieties that made her feel like a victim in Seasons 1 and 2. “I was like, ‘You know what? Fuck that.’”

Leavitt returned to “Mormon Wives” with a new attitude. She’d been absent for the first four episodes, and when grilled by her castmates about why she’d come back in Episode 5, aptly titled “The Book of Resurrection,” she was transparent about prioritizing the “Dancing With the Stars” audition over her #MomTok friendships.

“I always knew what I wanted. I’ve never been ashamed of it,” Leavitt says. “I’ve learned as I’ve grown up that that’s sometimes a turn-off for people, but that’s just a part of who I am. And the women knew that. They knew I’d always had this goal in mind. It was a matter of: Give me that one shot. I want to show everyone how much I love doing this and put art out there, so hopefully it leads to more.”

Obviously, her admission caused more drama among #MomTok. But that no longer wounded her the way it used to.

Leavitt instituted a pre-game ritual for every “Mormon Wives” filming session. It’s not exactly prayer — Leavitt still considers herself a Mormon despite that she’s “definitely not as active as I used to be” — but it works for her. “I take a big fucking deep breath,” she says, laughing, “and I have a song I listen to.” (She alternates between “Could Have Been Me” by The Struts and “Golden” from “KPop Demon Hunters.”) “I envision myself at peace. ‘Let me reground myself because I know shit’s about to hit the fan, and I want to be as authentic as I possibly can.’” She stopped trying to avoid the drama — which would be an unreasonable goal on reality TV — and instead focuses on showing up to the drama as her truest self. It makes for good television without wrecking her mental health.

Leavitt doesn’t spend much time anymore thinking about the way her scenes are edited.

“Reality TV is hard, because you have to be willing to understand that there’s a story we’re telling, and you can’t keep everything. We signed up for that,’” she says. “Did I know that in the beginning? No. But I know it now. It’s a story they created —” she corrects herself — “Sorry, not created. It’s a story they put together. So sure, there were parts left out where I was like, ‘Maybe I would have gotten more grace if that was kept in.’ But it’s entertainment.”

Even when she knows she’s at fault, Leavitt is less concerned about viewers’ opinions. “I think the important thing is recognizing it, trying your best not to do it again, but then also being like, ‘Well, I’m a human being, and you don’t have to like me.’” She pauses, then blurts, “Because I also probably wouldn’t like you!”

There are still hiccups. “I’d be lying if I didn’t say on-camera emotions are naturally heightened. I’ve had conversations where I’m like, ‘That was way over the top,’” she says. “Something happened in Season 4 and I messaged one of the women — which everyone’s gonna see, because I lost my shit — like, ‘Bro, I’m so sorry. That was completely out of line.’ When there’s a camera in front of me, I feel an unspoken pressure to perform. I’ve talked about it with some of the women, and a lot of them agree. We’re like, ‘What is that? I would have never freaked out that much, but I did, and it’s not like anybody told me to. I just did.’”

Little by little, she’s working on healing her #MomTok relationships. When asked how she’s doing with the other women today, she quips, “I would say, ‘great’! And then ‘good’ for some of them. And then ‘OK.’ But no bad.” The geographical distance between her and the rest of the cast has helped. Portions of Season 4 were shot while Leavitt was in L.A. competing on “Dancing With the Stars” — because, of course, she did end up getting cast, as did her castmate Jen Affleck.

Whitney Leavitt and Jen Affleck after learning they were cast on “Dancing With the Stars.”

Disney/Fred Hayes

Leavitt’s opportunism was paying off. Early into her run on “Dancing With the Stars,” she found out she’d been cast in her first feature film: a Christmas rom-com called “All for Love.” Then, just a day after she’d privately told her dance partner Mark Ballas that Roxie Hart would be a dream role, the producers of “Chicago” reached out to ask if she’d like to audition. “I was like, first of all, fuck yes. Secondly, I need to learn how to sing right now.”

Leavitt started taking vocal lessons and learning monologues. Though she was never asked to do a dance audition, she and Ballas planted a covert one on national television when they competed with “Cell Block Tango,” one of the most iconic numbers in “Chicago.” They made it to the semifinals of “Dancing With the Stars” before they were eliminated, with many online speculating that the timing of “Mormon Wives” Season 3 and the reveal of her unabashed pursuit of the audition pushed viewers to vote against her. Still, the cards were stacked in her favor: She was widely being discussed as the most skilled dancer on her season, and her in-person “Chicago” audition was approaching.

Then came the whirlwind of Leavitt’s life. She flew from L.A. to New York for her audition two days after her “Dancing With the Stars” elimination on Nov. 18. The official offer to play Roxie came the next day. The day after that, she found out that ABC had arranged for her and Ballas to professionally tape the freestyle they’d hoped to perform as “Dancing With the Stars” finalists — set to a mashup of Frank Sinatra’s “My Way” and the “Mormon Wives” theme song — paired with a lengthy interview on Alex Cooper’s popular podcast “Call Her Daddy.” Leavitt then spent two weeks shooting “All for Love,” headed back to Utah to get her family packed for the winter and moved to New York to start “Chicago” rehearsals a few days before Christmas. In the six weeks since, while learning all her lines, songs and choreography, she has been intermittently followed by camerapeople documenting her “Chicago” experience for Season 5 of “Mormon Wives.”

It’s a lot. And it doesn’t seem to be stopping anytime soon. When I ask Leavitt whether she’s in talks for any unannounced projects, she bats her eyelashes and takes a nibble of the Nutella focaccia pizza she’s ordered for us to share. “Maybe,” she says. “Maybe another movie. Not a rom-com. A thriller.”

Her dreams are getting more specific now. “We need another ‘Step Up,’” she tells me. “It needs to be a limited series. But can we mix it with a bit of ‘American Horror Story’? A little more edgy, and not so campy.” A Ryan Murphy project is at the top of her wishlist, she says more than once, and she saw him when she attended the premiere of “The Beauty,” but her gut told her it wasn’t the right time to introduce herself. “But I said hi to Ashton [Kutcher],” she says, “who thought I was a different Mormon wife. That’s OK. We all kind of look alike.”

Mark Ballas and Whitney Leavitt during the “Dancing With the Stars” Season 34 semifinals.

Disney/Eric McCandless

The experience of shooting “Mormon Wives” Season 5 in New York away from her castmates has been “very lonely,” Leavitt says, “but they’re all gonna come to opening night. I’m excited to see everyone. But then I gotta get up the next day and do the show again. Am I even gonna be able to get together with them before my next show?”

If it’s this tricky for Leavitt to schedule a hang — and crucially, a filming session — with #MomTok even when they’ve traveled across the country to see her, her future on “Mormon Wives” looks murky. “They’re following me while I’m in New York, but I don’t know how that would look for future seasons. It wouldn’t make sense. People want to see the group together,” she says. “Part of me is like, ‘I can’t do both,’ because both are so time-demanding. Even filming Season 5 has been really hard.”

“And I need to crush this role,” she continues. “I want producers to come. I want writers and directors to come. And I want them to be inspired, to be like, ‘Let’s create things together.’”

So I ask: Besides her friendships with her castmates, which she could theoretically maintain even if she left “Mormon Wives” — “And I would,” she cuts in — what does she gain from staying now that she’s booking the roles she always dreamed of?

For the first and only time during our nearly two-hour interview, Leavitt falls silent.

After a full 10 seconds, during which I assume we’re both picturing headlines about her exiting “Mormon Wives” to join the Murphy-verse, she answers truthfully: “I don’t know. Because this is what I wanted, and I wasn’t shy about sharing that. So at what point do you move on to the next journey?” She and Conner “keep going back and forth,” she says. “That’s where it all started, so it’s kind of sad. But maybe that’s the best thing.”

This time away from Utah has also given Leavitt some much-needed space from her “devout, exact obedience” to the Mormon faith she grew up with. “I still have those same core values and standards,” she says, but “my 30s have been the first time I’ve questioned things.” Her oldest child is six — two years away from the age of baptism in the Mormon Church. Leavitt still wants to go through with that tradition, but she also wants to raise her kids to think for themselves. “They may grow up and be like, ‘Well, what do you mean?’ I don’t drink alcohol, right? But they might be like, ‘Well, I want to drink.’ And I’d be like, ‘OK.’ That’s the journey I’m on right now.”

The journey has also led Leavitt to consider how — and whether — politics should factor into her life as a public figure. “Of course I have opinions. Of course I hate what’s going on right now. It’s really sad and it’s disturbing, and it makes me angry,” she says, referring to ICE’s ongoing raids in Minneapolis and nationwide. “I do want to use my platform for good. I just don’t know what that looks like. I don’t know if posting on my Instagram story [helps]. I feel like I actually need to do more.”

Whitney Leavitt as Roxie Hart

Emilio Madrid

Back at the theater, where I watched Leavitt chatting and getting feedback from her “Chicago” castmates and choreographers, she seemed just like the no-holds-barred version of herself she debuted in “Mormon Wives” Season 3 — but warmer, happier. It’s easier to be your best self in a production that depends on your success than it is in one that zooms in on your darkest moments. And that sounds obvious, but it’s something Leavitt has had to learn in real time.

Even now that the pain of becoming a reality villain has subsided, it hasn’t stopped feeling bizarre. “I don’t feel like I did anything that bad. You would think I had brutally killed someone from the commentary you hear online,” she says, laughing. That’s part of what makes Roxie, who does brutally kill someone at the beginning of “Chicago,” such a delicious alter ego for Leavitt.

Leavitt may not be a murderer, but she sees herself in Roxie’s ambition. “Sometimes when I’m playing her, I’m like, ‘This hits a little too close to home.’ She’s like, ‘Please, no pictures!’ But …” In character, Leavitt shimmies one shoulder and gives a sly grin, like she’s posing for a photo anyway. “We might share that in common.”

What has Roxie — whose crime turns her into a celebrity until a new murderess steals the spotlight — taught Leavitt about fame? “It’s not something that you can rely on,” she says.

It’s true, Roxie’s star status is fleeting. But as her story ends, her career on the stage presses forward. (And “Chicago” itself is the longest-running American show in Broadway history.)

So Leavitt has also gleaned a few lessons about endurance. “Roxie’s always known what she wants, and she was never afraid to say what it is,” she continues. “She’s curious. ‘Oh, you did it that way? I’m gonna try too.’ I can relate, because I’m still learning in this industry. I’m like, ‘OK, that’s who I need to suck up to? Great. I can do that.’”

You can see the gears turning in Leavitt’s mind as she says of Roxie: “She’s a villain, but she gets to be a hero. She took circumstances that were out of her control and was like, ‘How do I keep this going?’” Listening to her speak — a Broadway lead who two years ago was just a TikToker in Utah — it isn’t hard to believe that Leavitt will keep going too.

[ad_2]

Selome Hailu

Source link

February 4, 2026
Mormon Wives’ Jessi Ngatikaura Gives Marriage Update Amid Cheating Rumors

[ad_1]

The Secret Life of Mormon Wives‘ Jessi Ngatikaura recently opened up about her marriage to husband Jordan amid a cheating scandal. During the Season 2 finale of Mormon Wives, Marciano Brunette claimed that he and Ngatikaura had an affair at Vanderpump Villa. At present, Ngatikaura revealed that she and Jordan have reconciled and are improving their relationship as they are taking therapy sessions.

Jessi Ngatikaura shares update on marriage with husband Jordan

In a conversation with E! News, Ngatikaura revealed where her relationship with husband, Jordan, currently stands. She said, “We are back together. We’re trying to work on it. Relationships are not perfect. I think a situation like ours, it’s going to take time. It’s not going to something that’s just amazing overnight.”

She further revealed that they’re working on their relationship and have started therapy. They are dedicated to sharing their journey with the audience, with the aim of helping those facing similar difficulties. “We’re in therapy. We have our ups and downs, but we’re just showcasing our story, hoping it can help others and that they can relate to it ’cause it’s real,” she added.

Earlier, there were rumors that Ngatikaura had cheated on her husband Jordan with Brunette during a difficult phase in marriage. In an interview with PEOPLE, Ngatikaura confirmed these rumors, revealing that she did have an affair. She admitted that the couple “both made mistakes for sure.”

She said, “Mine being the affair and his being the emotional abuse, but I think it takes two to tango. And having that toxic dynamic definitely got me into the mindset of where I was and why I did what I did.”

Ngatikaura admitted that mistakes happened on both ends, but coming out clean about it publicly led them to take a positive step in their relationship. “I wish I never had, and I hope Jordan feels the same about how he treated me for a while. But yes, it took both of us to get there. I think having it come out publicly was a good wake-up call for us because it got us help,” she explained.

[ad_2]

Shazmeen Navrange

Source link

November 13, 2025
The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives Recap: It’s Making Me Uncomfy

[ad_1]

How many things does it take to make a trend again? Three? I’ve decided that for now, two is close enough, because I’m certain it’s happened more times and I just missed it. What I’m referring to is MomTok’s tendency to wear garments that are basically like “FUCK MEN” while also dating men and living their lives fully immersed in an oppressively patriarchal culture. Earlier this season, Layla wore an “I SUPPORT A MAN’S RIGHT TO SHUT THE FUCK UP” hat. And in this episode, Jessi sits in the car with her emotionally abusive husband while wearing a tank top covered with “BOYS LIE” patches and appliques. It feels like a “girls only, no boys allowed” sign on a bedroom door. Except these are grown women. So are these sartorial choices a safer way to express feelings without having to face the consequences of, I don’t know, telling a man to actually fuck off? Are they a baby step on the road to a more productive and life-enriching feminism? Or are these just brand deals and I’m reading too much into it?

Boys do lie, though, especially when they’re named Dakota. Jessi pledges to tell Taylor about Dakota sexting Taylor’s “almost family member” if he doesn’t do it himself. And so far, he has not. He and Taylor chill in bed, looking at all their Stagecoach pictures. She’s so glad they’re all getting along and even tells him she’ll always love him. You can already see exactly how this will be edited for an intro supercut for The Bachelorette.

I’m getting ahead of myself, though. It must be hard for the moms to keep all these timelines straight, especially with multiple seasons being filmed and aired in rapid succession. For instance, they just filmed the season-two reunion, where they could only talk about what happened months ago, but in “real time,” they’re living out a totally different mess in public and online, much of which could spoil season two — and this is all occurring toward the end of season three. It hurts my head!

After having to film with Nick Viall, Whitney and Conner take their kids to the park to blow off some steam. They talk about how shocked they were to see the receipts on display, specifically Demi’s messages to Marciano and her recorded conversation with Jen, where she provides Jen a detailed script and acting coaching. To me, that recording will always say more about Demi’s character and motivations than any other receipt we have seen as of yet. It’s so transparently manipulative! In light of all this new information, Whitney feels she needs to talk to Demi to better understand the whole situation.

But before that can happen, we must tease MomTok’s new “LGBTQ allies!” core brand tenet. Mayci is buying apples at the grocery store because Jacob says she eats too much Del Taco. In the middle of the produce aisle, they discuss Jacob’s gay cousin and how Mayci and Jacob aren’t like other Mormons. So MomTok will host a pride event to show they’re allies to the community, especially in light of Utah’s shitty House Bill 77.

In what feels like a slightly more authentic conversation, Jen meets up with DWTS pro, Ezra. Like Jen, he is also Hispanic, from Utah, and grew up Mormon. Unlike Jen, he is gay, and when his parents found this out, they pulled him out of dance. He eventually left Utah and the church, and stopped talking to his parents. Then later, his whole family left the church and now his mom has a pride tattoo. After telling this whole story, Ezra says to Jen, “God doesn’t give you something you can’t handle … wanna film a TikTok?” Impeccable stuff. Any underperforming MomTok members should be ready for an elimination vote at the next board meeting because Ezra is here and ready to PERFORM. He’s fun and raw and living out most, if not all, of the MomTok brand tenets. Who cares if he’s not a mom? Many of the best Real Housewives aren’t wives. Semantics!

Anyway, it’s time for Whitney to sit down with Demi to get to the bottom of what Demi really meant by “eggplant, water, clam” emojis, among other post-reunion pressing questions. Demi has answers for everything. Flirty texts? It’s how she talks to all her friends. Her pet name for Marciano? A “funny prank” her daughter made up. Marciano FaceTiming her daughter in the first place? An accident. Talking to Marciano if he’s her abuser? A trauma response and also a plan to prevent the sexual assault from “coming out.” Any other questions? Bret knows everything.

Whitney returns to the hotel after hearing Demi out and immediately reports everything to Conner, as it’s not adding up for her. He points out that Bret wanting to order DoorDash food to his wife’s abuser is “odd” (a very diplomatic way to put it!), then goes on to say if Whitney came home and reported she was assaulted, he’d do everything in his power to keep this person away from both her and their kids. Whitney ultimately thinks Demi is not being 100 percent honest with her, and also likely not being honest with herself. Conner ultimately wants to err on the side of believing the person who said they were inappropriately touched but the story isn’t adding up. If you’d have told me during season one that these two would have the most measured and mature response to really anything, I’d have done a hearty chortle. But my favorite part of being a reality television fan is being proven incorrect! People are complicated.

Back in Utah, the Swig sponsored beverages are flowing at the MomTok pride event. Taylor eats funeral potatoes while Jessi feels sick to her stomach knowing Dakota is there doing bumps of caviar and wooing his baby momma back. Everyone, including the podcast bozos who busted their way onto the guest list, is well behaved. Mayci pops over to Joseph (Jacob’s cousin) and is all like, “I [production] was JUST wondering: was it hard to come out to your family?” Mayci compares his coming out journey to her telling her parents she was pregnant out of wedlock while at BYU. Mikayla asks about any changes at BYU with the pride flag law as if BYU was flying pride flags in the first place. When Mayci and Jacob get home, they plant a pride flag in their yard because MomTok needs to use their platform for good and be more active allies for the LGBTQ community. Okay, so … y’all are going to be supporting progressive candidates and measures up and down the ballot from here on out, then, right? RIGHT?!

Earlier in the episode, Jace and Mikayla went to a couples therapy session. It’s the same therapist who tried to refer Mikayla to a sex therapist, so I assume it’s an interim situation. They rehashed their struggles around vulnerability and disparate sex drives. Jace was concerned Mikayla wouldn’t have the motivation to work through this stuff, but the therapist reminded them that building a better relationship as an example for their kids could be a powerful motivator. This seems to work. While discussing their birth plan, Mikayla tells Jace for the first time that her abuse started even earlier than at 15 — that there were other instances when she was six, but she felt like she had to protect her abuser. Jace’s heart hurts so bad (same!) and he says his job is to create the first safe space for her. If Jace ends up taking an evil (or even just classic shitty man on this show) turn, so help me god.

Speaking of classic shitty men on this show, Taylor learns about Dakota’s discretions. Her therapist told her she was going to get news of something really hard. Is this normal? I’ve never had a therapist who also acts as an oracle. The therapist tried to get Taylor and Dakota to come in so he could tell her in a controlled setting. This did not happen because Taylor was about to leave for Los Angeles, so Dakota told her immediately about his dalliances with [basically-a-family-member]. I totally get Demi’s daughter’s name being censored out, but a friend of Liann’s mother, who is presumably a grown woman? Surely the TikTok detectives will figure it out soon enough.

Alas, it’s a mess and Taylor is mad she’s going to have to disassociate while filming Jimmy Kimmel. She had a glimmer of hope last week, and now she has nothing. But soon, she will have no less than five limousines full of suitors vying for her hand. And that’s to say nothing of the most important thing she has: SISTERHOOD.

VULTURE NEWSLETTER

Keep up with all the drama of your favorite shows!

[ad_2]

Olivia Crandall

Source link

November 13, 2025
Mormon Wives’ Jessi Ngatikaura on Marciano Affair, Jordan’s Abuse & Where She Stands With Demi: ‘The Truth Always Comes Out’

[ad_1]

Jessi Ngatikaura has conflicted feelings about her affair with Vanderpump Villa’s Marciano Brunette finally coming out on Season 3 of The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives.

“It’s a mixed bag of emotions. I’m ready to share it so there’s no more speculation, and I can just be honest,” she tells StyleCaster. “Because I am such an open book, it’s hard not to talk about it. But also, I’m nervous because I have no idea what the audience’s reaction will be. It was such a vulnerable thing to share. It’s embarrassing. I’m also sharing a lot about my marriage and the dynamic I’ve had.”

Jessi, who has been married to husband Jordan Ngatikaura since 2020, met Marciano while filming Vanderpump Villa Season 2 in 2024. After months of speculation, she finally confessed to having an emotional affair with him to cast member Layla Taylor in The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives Season 3 premiere episode. “The minute Layla told me, I was like, ‘Hey, we just have to come out with it,’” she said. “Because I see it on reality TV, where people run from things, and the truth always comes out. You can’t have secrets when you’re being filmed. I would look worse if I denied it, and then it came out again later.”

Photographer: George Chinsee. Design: Sasha Purdy.

As for why she never considered continuing the lie, Jessi credited her Secret Lives of Mormon Wives co-star Taylor Frankie Paul, whose swinging scandal and arrest were main storylines in Season 1, for giving her the courage to take accountability for her infidelity. “I honestly took Taylor’s lead,” she said. “She went through so much in Season 1 and 2. Because of that, I was like, ‘Well, she paved the way for me to do this publicly.’ I actually leaned on her a lot.”

But Jessi’s affair with Marciano isn’t the only revelation to come from The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives Season 3, which also sees her open up about the emotional abuse she’s faced from Jordan in their six-year marriage. That’s also not to mention her falling out with castmate and former best friend Demi Engemann, whom she accuses of convincing Marciano to lie about them having sex during their affair.

The day before the premiere of The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives Season 3, Jessi sat down with StyleCaster to break down the season—from where her marriage with Jordan is now to the last time she talked to Marciano to why she’s done giving Demi second chances: “I’ve learned my lesson.”

Photographer: George Chinsee. Design: Sasha Purdy.

We see you call Jordan from the car to tell him that the affair came out. What was the conversation once you got home?

At first, he was like, “We have to quit the show. We’re not talking about this.” We stayed up all night. I got no sleep, and it was just like, “OK, this is coming out, so first and foremost, we need to tell our family and friends, and we need to figure out what we’re doing.” I told him, “I want to share my story because it’s already been talked about on camera now, and if I don’t, it’ll be told without me.” And it was the same for him. Then he calmed down and realized, “OK, you’re right.” We just need to be honest. That’s the decision we came to that night, and then the next morning, cameras came back over, and we continued that conversation.

What led to the decision to open up about Jordan’s emotional abuse during your marriage?

We weren’t going to talk about it at first. In the first couple of episodes, you don’t see me talk about that. It’s mainly just the affair. But then what happened was on the St. George trip, Taylor was like, “You’re just so jokey and laughy, what’s going on?” I broke down and told them what was going on, and that wasn’t planned. When I got home from that trip, there was a scene of him yelling at me, and that also brought it to the surface. Then it was impossible to hide, because a lot of people will see, if he could do that on camera, what’s happening behind the scenes? It was unavoidable, but it was good, because you couldn’t tell the story without the full piece. It needed to be every aspect—the dynamic of our marriage, how I was feeling, why I was even in the headspace to do what I did.

Photographer: George Chinsee. Design: Sasha Purdy.

Did Jordan know you were going to talk about it?

No, he didn’t. But luckily, not luckily, he ended up yelling at me on camera. So it was unavoidable. Even though I did what I did, it was like, “OK, well, now you’re showing your behavior.” It’s out there. You can’t deny it or run from it now. Our marriage wouldn’t have gotten better, and there wouldn’t have been any changes if this hadn’t all come to light. In a weird way, I’m grateful for it, because it forced us to get into therapy and take a look at what each of us was doing.

So you and Jordan are still together?

We’re still together and working on things. We’re in therapy constantly, and we try to do the best we can to learn. This airing is going to be scary because not only did we live through it, but now we’re going to have to hear opinions, and the world will know. I’m sure we’ll need more therapy.

I see it on reality TV, where people run from things, and the truth always comes out.

How did you come to the decision to stay together?

We always said it was a 90-day separation. At the end of that, we evaluated where we were at. For me, being separated was really hard, but we were also filming a TV show on top of it, so it was a real separation, but we were also forced to be together, film, and talk about this with our friends. There wasn’t a chance to let the emotion sink in. For me, I want to know I did everything. If it works out, great, and if it doesn’t, at least we know I gave it my all, because we have two kids, our families are really close, and we’ve been together almost six years now, so that’s a scary thing to let go of. I decided to give it one more chance, and it’s been going better. There are always ups and downs, but hopefully we can just continue.

What was Jordan’s reaction to Marciano complimenting you and calling you beautiful?

That was crazy. He didn’t love it, for sure. But I also didn’t love my behavior. Watching that back, I was way too friendly to Marciano, but I was in a weird headspace. I was separated, thinking I was probably gonna get a divorce. There were still unresolved feelings of Marciano. Not that I was still feeling anything crazy, but I hadn’t seen him since it ended, and it brought back emotions. Also, I was trying to get to the bottom of the Demi stuff and the lie she told about me, so I needed to be friendly and nice. Jordan didn’t love that, but he also understood, because I was honest with him. It was also closure for me.

Photographer: George Chinsee. Design: Sasha Purdy.

When was the last time you talked to Marciano?

It was in May, so six months ago. It was right around the time we were wrapping up filming. Right before and throughout filming, I felt like I needed to keep in contact with him for the answers I needed about all the Demi stuff. But over time, I just got to the point where I was like, if Jordan and I are gonna try again and get back together, I can’t continue to talk to him, even if it’s innocent. So I just blocked him. I’m sure, with the show coming out, I’ll hear something. But I haven’t heard from him directly.

How did you tell your kids?

My kids are five and two, so at the time of our separation, they knew we were living apart, and my oldest would ask, “Where’s Dad? Where’s Mom?” He didn’t quite understand. That’s definitely a conversation we’re probably gonna have to have with them when they get older, and maybe when they watch the show or they hear about it. I just didn’t know how to tell a five-year-old and a two-year-old, so luckily, they were young, and I didn’t quite need to.

You can’t have secrets when you’re being filmed.

What’s your relationship with Demi now?

Non-existent. We have our ups and downs. I really was trying to make it work, because we’re co-workers, and it’s so awkward to have to film with someone you either don’t like or you’re yelling at each other. I really wanted to make it work. But since that all happened, there’s just been a few more things where I’m like, “I’m just gonna pump the brakes. I just don’t know if this was the right relationship for me.” There was a small time [I considered reconciling.] You’ll see in the last episode, where we come back together and try to put our differences aside. For a couple of months it was good. But again, people always show you who they really are. It very quickly turned, and for me, I was like, “OK, fifth time is the charm. I’ve learned my lesson enough with you.”

Photographer: George Chinsee. Design: Sasha Purdy.

What was your reaction to some of the lie detector answers coming back as inconclusive?

I always tell everyone that doing a lie detector test is so scary. You have a blood pressure cuff. You go numb for five minutes. You get lightheaded. You have all these wires. I was nervous. My heart’s probably beating so fast. I don’t know if that affects it, but there was the one question that said, “Was there any other physical contact outside of kissing?” It was inconclusive. It’s because, in my head, I was like, “We didn’t have sex.” But I forgot he would put his arm around me, or we would hold hands. I guess that stuff counts.” I just wasn’t thinking. Then there were two more like, “Did you ever lie about Marciano? Did you ever lie about Demi?” At the time of the test, I was like, “I’m being honest. Everything’s coming out. I’m not lying.” But I forgot I had lied for six months about Marciano by trying to keep this secret. And then for Demi, I lied for her after Italy by acting like everything was fine—no inappropriate things happened, and clearly that was a cover. I answered them in the moment, not remembering I had a history of lying about it. I’m just glad I passed the important question, which was we didn’t have sex.

What was Jordan’s reaction to the lie detector test coming back as inconclusive?

He questioned it when he watched it back. He’s like, “Why was that inconclusive?” But I explained it, and honestly, I proved myself as much as I could. I know the truth, and I could go crazy trying to make everyone believe it. I’m not gonna sit and try to force it. I’ve already taken a test. I can tell you the answer, and I have to just let go and let God at this point, because there’s always gonna be people who don’t believe me. I think he believes me now.

Would you come back for Season 4?

I’ve really enjoyed doing this show. Even though it’s hard, it’s like therapy in a way. You’re being forced to talk about your feelings. I’m guilty of numbing it down, pushing it under the rug, not talking about my feelings. These are some of my best friends. I would hang out with them, regardless. If we’re already talking about our lives. Why not have a camera there?

The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives Season 3 streams on Hulu.

[ad_2]

Jason Pham

Source link

November 13, 2025
The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives Season-Premiere Recap: Two Kisses, That’s It

[ad_1]

That the premiere revolves around Cialis-induced semen found in some barely famous bro’s underpants is a sign that MomTok has never been weaker.
Photo: Fred Hayes/Disney

The time has come to convene an emergency meeting of the MomTok board of directors. Never in the storied history of MomTok have the core brand values been this desecrated. Female empowerment is at an all-time low.

Brand-health alarms should have gone off when the first words of this season were spoken by Nick Viall and cranked even louder the first (or even the fourth) time Jordan used the word “emasculating.” Maybe if all MomTok members past and present united, they could have prevented the premiere’s main character from becoming the Cialis-induced, blackout-produced semen found in some barely famous bro’s underpants.

But MomTok has been running on a skeleton crew stretched to their limits, attending influencer events and feeding the algorithm. So here we are. But I have faith the ladies will turn it around as long as they don’t appoint Taylor’s mom as interim CMO. Faith is very important to the MomTok brand. It is also important to me, because I believe in the power and resiliency of Emmy-nominated reality-television franchises the same way people from Wisconsin believe in the Green Bay Packers.

After a glorious reveal of the updated intro theme — now with more horny fire! — we kick things off in Provo at Taylor’s house. Dakota swings by to pick up Ever because he’ll be watching him while Taylor attends a two-week therapy retreat. Hoping we get more details on this because I’m dying to know the amenities and practices on the menu. “Therapy retreat” could mean “repeatedly doing ayahuasca in the Peruvian Amazon,” or “checking into an inpatient drug and alcohol rehab,” or “sitting silently in a meditation center.” It could also mean “doing a lot of yoga and trauma-informed talk therapy with some nice scenery,” and this is most likely the case. Separately, what a joy to enter this season knowing Taylor and Dakota theoretically do not end up together. A brief respite for all involved!

On the other end of the spectrum, we have the Minky Couture influencer event. Minky Couture makes blankets, and we do not need to get into how blankets can be “couture” because I have learned that living in Utah requires a willingness to suspend disbelief. Mikayla and Mayci walk us through the state of MomTok. It’s bad. Taylor and Jen are both on a mental-health break. Miranda is TBD. Demi left MomTok during that ultimatum last season. Whitney left MomTok (again) because she didn’t get the Oscars tickets and scripted-series role she wanted during contract negotiations. If you think this means we will be free of Whitney and Demi this season, sorry! Remember: MomTok is always a clique, usually a brand, and never an accurate cast list.

Anyway, the remaining MomTok members, Layla and Jessi, have a rendezvous in the parking lot of the Minky Couture event. Layla is pressed to tell Jessi what she learned when the producers set up that little meet and greet with Marciano from Vanderpump Villa. Jessi comes clean immediately and lays out facts she will repeat on loop throughout this episode: (1) Jessi and Jordan have been struggling and separated in September; (2) Jessi was drinking in Los Angeles and kissed Marciano twice; (3) Jessi and Marciano had an emotional affair, texting for two weeks after; and (4) Jessi told Jordan everything right away, and they’ve worked through it.

Jessi freaks upon learning that Marciano told Layla they also had sex, which she insists is false. So, naturally, Layla calls him on speaker. He reports live from the gym that he remembers — and I think the exact quote is important here — “I took a Cialis … I had cum stains in my shorts, but okay, whatever you say.” Correlation does not imply causation, my guy! Marciano’s details feel like the equivalent of saying “I took a Dramamine … I didn’t throw up” to imply that one survived a particularly turbulent Disney cruise. Whether he’s lying or not, Jessi calls Jordan right away, and he says that if she brings the cameras home, he’s done with the show.

But those contracts are ironclad! The very next morning, the cameras are up and at ’em at the Ngatikaura household. Jessi and Jordan “discussed it more” and “agreed” to share this story (own the narrative). Jordan says he feels broken, asking himself if he can live with “lingering disrespect and emasculating feelings.” Jessi thinks it’ll be healing that Jordan can get comfort from his friends and family now that this is out, but she’s nervous to tell MomTok because it’s yet another scandal, and they’ve been trying to get away from all that. I, for one, think this is perfectly aligned with the true consumer perception of MomTok (scandal!), even if it does not match what appears in the MomTok brand guidelines.

Jordan invites Dakota over for some guy time since he’s the only one Jordan knows who’s dealt with this level of relationship struggle in public. Jordan says it’ll be hard to explain it to his oldest daughter and that it’s “super emasculating.” Dakota hugs Jordan and advises him to pray to a higher power of his choosing and focus on his family since everything else is outside of his control. I’m tempted to make a joke about these two bozos solving the male-loneliness crisis, but I find it genuinely endearing that Dakota is whipping out his recovery toolbox to help out a friend going through it.

Those feelings left my body immediately once Zac showed up on the screen. He and Jen are living in Arizona, focusing on their marriage and doing a lot of therapy. Fresh from a session, Jen explains how everyone knows about postpartum depression, but not prenatal depression, which was what she was experiencing last season. They’ll be driving back to Utah in a few weeks to have their new baby there. Jen is stressed because she has some tough conversations ahead, including making amends with Jessi for saying her husband has a small weiner. Oh, no, not more fuel for Jordan’s “emasculation” fire. I do not like where this could be heading.

Back in Utah, Jessi has Mayci and Mikayla over to detail the Marciano sitch. She gives her whole spiel and adds further information about how Marciano blacked out and fell asleep on her bed while she was up all night panicking about the consequences of her (presumably intercourse-free) actions. Even though Jessi reminds them that horny guys get pre-cum in their undies on the regular, especially while on drugs, Mayci and Mikayla are skeptical after leaving. They think something feels off. What feels off to me is Mayci making a joke about how “these things happen” when you drink alcohol, and how Jessi shouldn’t have left the church.

At Layla’s birthday dinner, the girls discover that a mole among their dwindling ranks has been sneaking information to Demi. Their tip-off was Bret doing drive-bys while Mayci and Mikayla were at Jessi’s, and Demi texting them right after to gossip. Jessi thinks Layla and Miranda are the two most likely suspects. Layla offers to show her phone logs as proof of her innocence. Miranda doesn’t even know what planet she’s on. Whatever Miranda’s reps negotiated contract-wise, good on them. She puts on cute little outfits, gets full glam done, smiles and nods, then collects her check.

Once the girls’ dinner transforms into Layla’s full birthday party, things escalate into madness. Harbinger of mess Liann is there because “she had a business event in the area.” Okay, sweetie! Jordan continues yapping about being emasculated and being less of a man for staying with his wife. Chase from the Halloween party shows up to stir the pot. His mere appearance causes a full meltdown for multiple attendees. Not a single soul in attendance is happy to see this man besides Layla. He has a podcast that I will not name here because I refuse to give straight-dude chatcasts free publicity. All you need to know is that he regularly drags MomTok and its members.

On one hand, if Layla wanted to bone this man’s brother, surely she could have set up a double date instead of inviting MomTok enemy No. 1 to this contractually obligated event. On the other hand (unless there was some wild producer manipulation), Mayci and Mikayla were given a heads-up at JZ Styles that he was on the guest list. We saw it earlier in the episode. On a third hand, a reminder that this birthday party is to celebrate Layla’s 24th birthday. Twenty-four!

Jessi tries to resolve the situation between Layla and Mayci/Mikayla, which is what pushes Jordan over the edge. Her getting involved in the drama “makes him feel like he has no value.” He cries in the snow as Dakota pulls up in his Tacoma to ferry him to safety. It’s all a textbook case of how the real villain of this show remains the Mormon church. You take repression and traditional gender roles and an obsession with purity and perception, then smash all of that into the algorithm economy, throw a Cialis into the mix, and we end up in places like this one.

And it appears we shall embark on many similar journeys this season. We’ve got more secrets! More toxic men! More discussion of the mole! Taylor promising to make someone’s life “a miserable fucking hell” yet again! But MomTok is sisterhood. So everything will be fine. And if it’s not, all the better for the content machine.

VULTURE NEWSLETTER

Keep up with all the drama of your favorite shows!

See All

[ad_2]

Olivia Crandall

Source link

November 12, 2025
The Secret Life of Mormon Wives’ Jennifer Affleck Reveals Her $22 Hack for Improving Stretch Marks

[ad_1]

All products and services featured are independently chosen by editors. However, StyleCaster may receive a commission on orders placed through its retail links, and the retailer may receive certain auditable data for accounting purposes.

Jennifer Affleck is booked and busy. From filming The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives season 3 while pregnant to giving birth to her third child to basically hopping straight from the delivery room to the studio to train for Dancing with the Stars season 34, what can’t the star do? StyleCaster chatted with Affleck to see how she’s been adjusting postpartum, how she’s gearing up for DWTS, and which beauty products help her feel her best.

When the reality TV star isn’t spending quality time with her family, standing on business on the small screen, or sipping a dirty soda, you can find her practicing self-care. “Something that I do every day to feel good is also my self-care routine, and that looks like through normal things like taking a shower, doing your hair and makeup. But one thing I’ve incorporated throughout the years and throughout motherhood is Bio-Oil
,” she shares with StyleCaster.

The multi-hyphenate partnered with Bio-Oil to promote the brand’s third annual “Labor of Love” campaign, which spotlights the unsung heroes of childbirth: Labor and Delivery staff. September is America’s busiest birth month, making it the perfect time to celebrate the ones who offer invaluable support and care to moms during one of life’s most beautiful moments. As a mother of three (shoutout to the Affleck family’s newest addition, Penny!), teaming up with Bio-Oil on this particular initiative was a no-brainer.

Jennifer Affleck-Approved

Bio-Oil Skincare Oil

Best for: Face and body
Suitable for: All types, tones, and textures
Helps with: Minimizing the appearance of stretch marks, scars, and other marks, hydrating and moisturizing skin, and improving the appearance of uneven skin tone
Key ingredients: Vitamin A oil, vitamin E, chamomile oil, sunflower oil, and lavender oil
Other benefits: Clean, vegan, cruelty-free, non-comedogenic, paraben-free, and 100% recyclable

Bio-Oil products are at the center of Affeck’s self-care routine because having healthy skin is key to feeling and looking confident. “I think hydration is super important or like looking hydrated and moisturized. I think that’s super important. I really stand by when you feel good, you do good, and when I do my self-care routine, I feel good,” she adds.

If you’re new to the magic of Bio-Oil’s Skincare Oil
, Affleck found the product to be most helpful throughout her pregnancy when applied to her belly after showering every single day. She also lathered it all over her face at night and before doing her makeup in the morning while she had Penny on the way. “Now that I’m post-partum, just everywhere because your girl’s dry everywhere.” Pro tip: Don’t forget your feet! “My feet get so dry during pregnancy and postpartum. I feel like people forget about their feet a lot, but not me. I apply it there every single day and then put it on my socks,” she says.

While Affleck is prone to eczema and dry skin (which can intensify during and after having babies), she knows she can always count on Bio-Oil to tackle both. She also notes that it’s helped improve the appearance of her stretch marks. I don’t know about you, but I’m completely sold. Who doesn’t love a do-it-all, multipurpose product (especially in this economy)?

What other essentials earned a spot in the star’s self-care regimen? When asked for her top three desert island products, Affleck, of course, mentioned Bio-Oil
, with a Dyson hair tool and trio of blushes trailing right behind. The last two items come as absolutely no surprise, since the MomTok member has become known for her signature full, bouncy, voluminous hair and vibrant, glowy, sun-kissed cheeks. Even over Zoom, she looked stunning, and I knew I couldn’t leave the interview without getting the exact names of her tried-and-true hair and blush products, as I know I’m one of many who will have whatever Jen’s having.

Jennifer Affleck-Approved

Dyson Airwrap Multi-Styler Complete Long

Best for: Drying and styling
Material: Aluminum, ceramic, and polycarbonate
Wattage: 1,300 watts
Dimensions: 1.61 x 1.89 x 10.7 inches
Weight: 1.3 Pounds
Special features: Airflow speed, temperature control, and cold shot
Attachments included: 6, plus a travel case

“I specifically like to first wash my hair. Then I’ll dry it, do the Dyson Airwrap
, and with each curl, I’ll put in a bobby pin or clip, and then I’ll leave my hair with the clips for about 15 minutes, and I find that when I do that, your hair can stay the whole day,” Affleck explains. BRB while I practice this exact routine until my locks achieve Affleck-level bounce, volume, and staying power.

As for her rosy cheeks, it’s time for the grand reveal: “I use like three different blushes every time I do my makeup. So I love blush, like I live by blush. I’ll use the Charlotte Tilbury bronze blush. That’s the blush highlighter. And then I’ll use Rare Beauty liquid blush in the color Joy. And then, Patrick Ta. I love all their colors.” We love a blush layering moment!

Jennifer Affleck-Approved

Charlotte Tilbury Lip & Cheek Glow

Shades: 7
Ingredient highlights: Raspberry leaf stem cell extract and vitamin E
Benefits: Weightless, buildable, multi-use, easy-to-use, and chiffon-sheer color

Jennifer Affleck-Approved

Rare Beauty Soft Pinch Liquid Blush

Shades: 13 (9 in radiant finish and 4 in matte finish)
Other benefits: Vegan, cruelty-free, non-comedogenic, and safe for sensitive skin

Jennifer Affleck-Approved

Patrick Ta Major Headlines Double-Take Crème & Powder Blush Duo

Shades: 15
Formulation: Cream and pressed powder
Finish: Natural and radiant
Ingredient highlights: Patented biomimetic pigments, micronized pigments, and creamy emollient base
Benefits: Hydrating, long-wearing, and two-in-one compact
Other benefits: Cruelty-free and gluten-free

Read on for more from my interview with Affleck to see how she’s doing with the spotlight on her in a new TV show while taking care of her family and herself.

More Questions with Jennifer Affleck

How are you feeling after giving birth, and how is LA?

“I’ve been feeling all the things. I mean, it’s obviously a lot with three babies. Three under three is kind of crazy, but at the same time, I feel so blessed, and just knowing that I have my little family now. And all I’ve ever wanted to be is a mom, and so it’s also a very fulfilling, exciting chapter.

LA is great, the weather’s amazing, and yeah, being here is just very exciting. There’s been a lot of cool opportunities recently.”

What have been the most enjoyable and challenging parts of getting back into the spotlight after giving birth?

“Most enjoyable would be having a distraction to distract me from what I could be experiencing, which is postpartum depression. I definitely did have some baby blues the following weeks after having Penny, but luckily, no symptoms of long-term postpartum depression, which I have experienced before, and I think it’s through all the distractions, so definitely love that.

Most challenging would probably be trying to find balance in my life with taking care of three babies and doing my job. I’m trying to find a good in between, and so yeah, for sure that’s the hardest part and will always be the hardest part with being a working mom and a stay-at-home mom.”

When do you feel most confident, and how do you get there?

“I feel the most confident when I’m doing what I love. I think when I’m out of my element or when I am not doing something that I really enjoy, I feel the least confident. But when I’m doing something I love, I feel the most confident. For me, that’s dancing.”

What’s your biggest beauty hot take?

“Not to put down anyone who does filler or all that stuff, but for me, I love the expressions. I feel like the more expressions you have in your face, actually, the more beautiful you look.”

What clothes have you been living in after having the baby?

“For sure, sets. Skims. CSB, they have workout clothes and sets. I’ve for sure been living in those. Amazon sets, like honestly, any set, they’re just so easy, so comfortable. It’s like you’re living in PJs, but you look cute.”

[ad_2]

Katie Decker-Jacoby

Source link

September 11, 2025
Mormons Make Great TV

[ad_1]

As humans, we are deeply flawed. We will lie, cheat, and steal…but most of all, we’ll watch any sort of gruesome reality show because we crave drama that isn’t our own.

Growing up, I remember my mom watching
The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. I knew about Lisa Vanderpump before Vanderpump Rules entered the chat. But I never understood her fascination with a bunch of women fighting on-screen…until I got older.

Last year, I attended
Summer House’s Danielle Olivera’s app launch party, where most of the cast was in attendance. After spending the night unknowingly surrounded by Carl Radke and Lindsay Hubbard (the night before the end of their engagement), Paige DeSorbo and Craig Conover, and more…I had to find out who the hell these people were.

Now, at 26 years of age, I’ve pored through most of the Bravo catalog myself. I’ve caught up on
Summer House, the majority of the Real Housewives franchises, and I was there for Scandoval.

Reality TV has taken over since the Writer’s Strike brought show production to a grinding halt and it’s finally catching up to us. After a slow summer of barely any new scripted shows, it was time to fixate on reality.

The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives aired on September 6 on Hulu. And at first glance, it seemed like a tell-all documentary about the horrors of Mormonism…but actually, it was a reality television show about crazy Mormon women who founded “#MomTok” on TikTok.

Everyone’s watching, but honestly…this isn’t the finest Mormon television I’ve seen. If you’ve already watched
The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives and can’t get enough of the “Bad Mormons,” then here are a few shows that are just as shocking.

The Real Housewives Of Salt Lake City

I think the real reason I wasn’t utterly shocked by
The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives was because prepared for it by this show. Because, sure, there’s nothing scarier (I mean better) than a bunch of 20-something Mormon women making TikToks…until you’ve met a group of disgraced Mormon women double their age with double the drama.

In terms of reality television this show has been through everything in only five seasons: Jen Shah, now imprisoned for fraud, Monica Garcia, who ran an anonymous gossip account about her fellow housewives, Meredith Marks, who has a strange Transatlantic accent…I could go on.

Constant drama, mentions of Mormonism, and many quotable moments, this show makes
The Secret Lives look like child’s play.

Keep Sweet: Pray and Obey

If you want more of a documentary (
shockumentary?), then watch Keep Sweet: Pray and Obey on Netflix. All about the Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints cult that’s led by Warren S. Jeffs (from jail!), you’ll hear all about the male-dominated, polygamist group in this tell-all docu.

The series documents the physical, psychological, and emotional abuse of young women in the FLDS, with a focus on the survivors who have safely escaped. There are mentions of child abuse, sexual assault, and more, so be cautious when viewing — this content may not be safe for everyone.

However, if you want the dark truth about some sectors of the Latter Day Saints sect, this is a good start.

Under The Banner Of Heaven

A mixture of fact and fiction,
Under The Banner Of Heaven stars Andrew Garfield and Daisy Edgar-Jones. It follows Detective Jeb Pyre as he investigates the murder of Brenda Wright Lafferty and her daughter in Salt Lake Valley. Along the way, Pyre (Garfield) starts to uncover the truth about the LDS religion.

It’s one of Garfield’s best roles (and yes, I’ve seen his
Spiderman) as he grapples with his faith while investigating a major murder. It blends fundamentalism, ethics, and the Mormonism in a way that has you questioning what’s real and what isn’t.

Based on Jon Krakauer blockbuster of a novel, it’s a great fictional take on the FLDS that will have you binge watching the entire show in one night.

Murder Among The Mormons

Your classic true crime documentary:
Murder Among The Mormons follows Mark Hofmann, one of the most notorious forgers in American history. In an almost unbelievable tale, the three part series combines a deep excavation of LDS and murder.

Hofmann faked documents relating to the Latter Day Saints religion, including letters “from” Joseph Smith, Lucy Mack Smith, and David Whitmer. When Hofmann was close to getting caught, he set off three bombs across Salt Lake City, Utah to kill three people.

It’s a bizarre tale that turns deadly, but is an easy binge watch for you and your friends.

[ad_2]

Jai Phillips

Source link

October 1, 2024
Mormon Wives’ Taylor Frankie Paul Was Almost on RHOSLC — Why She Wasn’t Cast (Exclusive)

[ad_1]

All products and services featured are independently chosen by editors. However, StyleCaster may receive a commission on orders placed through its retail links, and the retailer may receive certain auditable data for accounting purposes.

She was the name on everyone’s lips on the first season of The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives, but before she became one of the faces of Hulu’s controversial new reality show, Taylor Frankie Paul almost starred on another reality show set in Utah: Bravo’s The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City.

“I was actually interviewed for it, and I was told I didn’t have enough drama in my life, so I didn’t get it,” Taylor told StyleCaster in a joint interview with her Secret Lives of Mormon Wives cast mate, Mayci Neeley. “But that’s OK because now I have this show.”

However, Taylor suspects that the lack of drama in her life wasn’t the only reason she wouldn’t have made a good Housewife. “There was an interest there. That’s why I interviewed, but I also don’t think I would have fit in. They’re known for having really big houses—very extravagant. I’m not really extravagant.”

Disney/Pamela Littky

Though Taylor and Mayci haven’t watched The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City, they have met a couple cast members around the SLC area. “I met Jennie [Nguyen]. She was on it for one season and then got kicked off,” Mayci said. Taylor added, “I met one who was kicked off as well. Dark long hair? I think I met her too.”

Mayci continued, “I’ve seen another one at an influencer event. I think it was Meredith [Marks]. Dark, long hair, and she’s still on the show. There are two that look really similar to me, and I can’t tell them apart. [Secret Lives of Mormon Wives co-star] Jessi [Ngatikaura] does some of their hair, so she’s more the girl you’d want to ask.”

Taylor, Mayci, and Jessi are three of eight cast members on The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives, Hulu’s Real Housewives-esque reality show following a group of Mormon (and ex-Mormon) TikTok moms—known as #MomTok—as they navigate friendships, marriages, pressures from the church, and the drama that comes with everything in between.

Though Bravo didn’t think Taylor had enough drama to be a Salt Lake City Housewife, Hulu (and fans) certainly disagree. The first season arguably revolved around Taylor—who has the most followers in MomTok—and the fallout of her “soft swinging” scandal, which went viral in 2022 when Taylor revealed in a TikTok that she and her then-husband, Tate Paul, were swingers. The controversy led Taylor to file for divorce from Tate that same year and eventually meet her now-boyfriend, Dakota Mortensen.

If her life wasn’t dramatic enough, Taylor was also arrested in 2023 for domestic violence following a fight with Dakota, who she welcomed a baby with in March 2024. But the drama didn’t stop there. The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives Season 1 finale ended on a cliffhanger with Mayci calling Jenna, a woman Dakota was accused of cheating on Taylor with. Just as Jenna was about to tell her side of the story. The screen cut to black. So what happened next? Well, if The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives is renewed for a second season, Taylor and Mayci assure that the Jenna drama will be the first thing addressed.

Fred Hayes / ©Hulu/Disney

Now that the show is out, have either of you received any angry texts from your cast mates because of something you said on the show that they didn’t know about?

Mayci: There’s definitely drama going on behind the scenes with cast members in the show, but not that specific situation. There’s a lot going on. But I think for some people, watching the edit back was harder than others.

Can you say who?

Mayci: I think you can probably guess.

I want to move onto that cliffhanger. Mayci, what can you say about that phone call with Jenna and what happened after that we didn’t see?

Mayci: I really can’t say anything. My lips are sealed. It has to wait for Season 2, but definitely was a good cliffhanger. Let’s put it that way.

What was your reaction to Mayci calling Jenna?

Taylor: I was fine with it. If you’re a person that has nothing to hide, there’s nothing to worry about there. Anyone that was worried in that situation, it’s kind of like, “Oh, what do you have to lose?”

Mayci: They cut it out of the show, but we had a conversation. She was like, “Yeah, I don’t care if you call her.” That was cut out, so it wasn’t me going rogue just calling Jenna. I had her full permission to do that.

I think a lot of people are wondering who is Jenna.

Taylor: She is so irrelevant to my life, but so relevant at the same time. She was just a girl. It’s not even her. It’s the feelings that came along with it at that time. Basically, Dakota dating both of us, lying and ending up at her house, t makes me feel worthless, unloved, not good enough. I was so open at that time and in such a low time in my life. That’s how you can get me triggered. Just ask me these questions. At the end of the day, it’s just a girl I’m butthurt over. It has nothing to do with her. It’s a timeline issue.

Disney/Fred Hayse

Would you film with Jenna if there was a Season 2?

Taylor: Yeah, I don’t think I’d have a choice, honestly. I would love to. I have some things to say but I’ll just hold that. We gotta wait for if there’s another season.

If there’s someone who’s been talked about the most from the show, it’s Whitney. Mayci, I know you and Whitney were both at The Bachelorette “Men Tell All.” Where do you both stand with Whitney today?

Taylor: I don’t even care if the girl hates me. I like Whitney, and I actually texted her this the other day. I’m like, “I know you’re going through it. I know you’re getting dragged through the mud right now, but you were the one girl that reached out to me when I was at my lowest, and so for that, I will always be here for you.” I don’t really care what she says behind my back or anything because she was the one girl that helped me out of a dark place.

Mayci: I would say we are still… I don’t know. We went to The Bachelorette together, and it was fine. We’re still friends, but she has been doing some interesting things online, which are not cool. I don’t know where I stand with her right now. To be honest, I thought we were chill, but maybe we’re not. I did reach out to her when the show came out to check in on her, and she didn’t respond. But then she’s bringing beef to the internet, so I really don’t know where we stand, to be honest.

What did she do?

Mayci: She was just posting personal texts between the two of us, which is very slimy and not OK to do. It’s really invasive to post personal messages. It was interesting because it really didn’t prove her point. It proved mine when she posted them. Basically, because in my interviews, I said that she wasn’t there. She didn’t text me or call me the night of my event at all, and she didn’t. She tried to post receipts, but she doesn’t show the top date on the receipt. She didn’t text me that night, so I don’t know what she was trying to prove.

Is she a part of the group chat again?

Mayci: Nope.

Does the group chat still exist?

Mayci: Yup. And it’s very active right now. I can promise you that.

I was surprised no one grilled Whitney more about the Tinder story with her husband and whether or not he actually met up with someone. What do you think about that story?

Taylor: It’s hard to say because I’m not in that situation, but I’m a nosy person. I like to know every detail. That’s probably what messes me up in my head. I would have wanted to know a lot more. So when I asked her on film, “Did he hang out with anyone?” I would want to know everything. She was one that didn’t want to know and that’s OK. To each their own. But for me, I think we were all just wanting to know more. Because I think you can kind of navigate your decision if you know more you know. But that’s my personal preference.

Mayci: I’m probably the same with that. She said she didn’t dig too deep into it. That’s her own personal decision. She decided I’m staying with him, and honestly, Connor is a very nice, genuine guy. It was a situation where it’s like, if that’s what makes you happy and you’re good with everything and not knowing, then good for you.

Do you think Whitney would come back for Season 2?

Taylor: It’s hard to say.

Mayci: She changes her mind everyday. I bet this week it’s no. Maybe in two weeks, it’s yes, It depends.

Something else that was talked about so much from the show was the Fruity Pebbles story with Demi. The way it’s shown leaves a lot of room for interpretation. So can you shed light on what the real Fruity Pebbles story is?

Taylor: I’m keeping that one in my sleeve if she comes at me. Because if she ever does, I’ll be like, “Do we want to talk about Fruity Pebbles?”

Mayci: She’s sworn us to secrecy on that one. I’m keeping that one up my sleeve too if I need to. I’ve had family members ask, “Just tell me.” I’m like, “I ain’t saying nothing.”

Have you seen any theories on the internet that are correct?

Mayci: Not yet, actually, I don’t think I’ve seen one where they got it right. There’s this one girl who was like, “They’re Mormons and they’re really vanilla, so it must just mean this.” I was like, “No, baby. That’s not what it is. Not even close, honey.”

Around the time the trailer came out, the church of Latter Day Saints issued a statement on the show. What was your reaction to that?

Taylor: It was kind of annoying because they hadn’t seen it yet. So they’re judging us before they even see the show. But it wasn’t surprising at the same time. For some reason I felt this was gonna happen.

Mayci: I feel like they had to say something because everyone was freaking out online. They had to do something to put out the fires. I did like how they were like, “Come to us for resources in the church.” Because, yes, we’re not trying to be spokespeople or mouthpieces. We’re just filming this show that happens to have a title with Mormon in it. I don’t think anyone’s really worried. It was a little bit like, “OK, we’re judging a book by its cover.” But I think once they watch the show too, they’ll realize, the church isn’t the show, like, it’s sprinkled in. Religion is involved in our lives, but the show is not about being Mormon.

The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives is available to stream on Hulu.

[ad_2]

Jason Pham

Source link

September 11, 2024