How secretive are the lives of these Mormon wives, really?
The third season of the Utah-based reality show The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives brings only half of the cast back—at least initially. In the first episode of the new season, MomTok member Mikayla Matthews explains to the audience the new dynamic: Group leader Taylor Frankie Paul and recently eliminated Dancing With The Stars contestant Jen Affleck are on a mental health break. Last season’s two most controversial moms, Demi Engemann and Whitney Leavitt, are also out of the picture.
“Recently, we all renegotiated our contracts, but Whitney apparently didn’t want more money,” said Matthews. “She wanted tickets to the Oscars and a scripted role in another TV show. Clearly, she’s not here, so she didn’t get it.”
Though the cast did not roll over, the drama sure did. Season two ended on a cliffhanger with Layla Taylor finding out about Jessi Ngatikaura’s alleged affair with Vanderpump Villa server Marciano Brunette—laying the groundwork for this new set of episodes.
Ngatikaura, owner of hair salon JZ Styles, is among the group’s less problematic members. Fans’ complaints about her are tied to her alliance with then-bestie Engemann, the “villain” of the second season. Coincidentally or not, Ngatikaura’s main character moment came after she cut ties with Engemann, who criticized the quality of her hair services.
But what really happened? In a car scene with Taylor, Ngatikaura explains that she and husband Jordan Ngatikaura were going through a rough patch and decided to take a break—that’s when she was seen out in Los Angeles with Brunette. Hold your horses, everyone—all they did was kiss. That’s what the Utah mom made sure fans understood—despite Brunette begging to differ.
This is the first time Ngatikaura is in the spotlight. Though it is a questionable way to reach the top of the drama hierarchy, it still successfully gave her engagement. To add fuel to the fire, the hairstylist changed her TikTok username to her maiden name, Jessi Draper. There’s no way of knowing if that was simply a publicity stunt, but it certainly made things messier. And at the end of the day, bad publicity is still publicity.
Ngatikaura wasn’t the only one who came back with changes in attitude. Author of recently published memoir Told You So, Mayci Neeley is standing on business this season.
Neeley, who is also the owner and founder of prenatal supplement brand Baby Mama, was once known for being the Switzerland of the Mormon moms: She remained neutral and attempted to stop scandals from happening.
But that is no longer the case. And Taylor’s party put that change to the test. The birthday mom invited MomTok member Miranda McWhorter’s ex-husband, Chase McWhorter, to the function. McWhorter, who is one of the hosts of the podcast OnlyDads, was accused by Neeley of using his platform to hate on MomTok—on an episode, he implied the only reason for Neeley’s following was due to the death of her “baby daddy.”
Does the name Chase McWhorter ring a bell? The podcaster was one of the parties involved in the swinging scandal of the first season—he’s the one who fell in love with his wife’s best friend.
The season seems promising in terms of more serious matters. The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives Season Special, a 100-minute talk show-style episode released in July, explored the real-life struggles of the cast members.
Leavitt’s husband, Connor Leavitt, opened up about his pornography addiction, rooted in the sexual abuse he suffered as a child, and the consequential marital problems that came from such trauma. Affleck shared her struggles with prenatal depression, and Taylor briefly talked about her battle with self-harm and an eating disorder.
Taylor, who was only 23 years old when the show first aired, is one of the youngest mothers in the group. Perhaps due to the big age gap between her and some of the other members of MomTok, Taylor spends a lot of her time on screens meddling in others’ dramas—an instance of this was when she mediated Ngatikaura and Brunette’s affair scandal.
As seen from the reunion special, however, the 24-year-old has a lot to bring to the table. The hope is that producers have come to the same conclusion as viewers and will give Taylor more substantial—in terms of content depth—screen time in this third season.
As the cast evolves and the stakes become more personal, season three appears poised to move beyond the surface-level chaos that initially hooked viewers. Perhaps halving the cast will finally create room to delve deeper into the remaining moms’ storylines. Or maybe it’ll just be a matter of time until the other members of the group come running right back. Whatever the case might be, the million-dollar question remains: Will MomTok survive this?
Only time will tell.
