An Examination of the Scandal Behind “The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives”

Reality TV can be boring, but The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives is a wild 8-episode ride. The show debuted on Hulu on September 6, 2024, telling the story of a group of Mormon wives from Provo, Utah who launched #MomTok.

Taylor Frankie Paul is credited with starting #MomTok before Camille Munday and Miranda McWhorter joined her as the trio who catapulted this particular group of TikTok users to fame.

However, these two people do not appear in the series. The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives Other famous TikTok influencers joined the cast: Layla Taylor, Mikayla Matthews, Whitney Leavitt, Jessi Ngatikaura, Demi Engemann, Mayci Neeley and Jen Affleck.

TikTok’s #Momtok niche centered around these wives who participated in dances and became influencers during the pandemic, signifying a shift in Mormonism among the younger generation.

Ultimately, #MomTok is about allowing Mormon mothers to come together without feeling judged. They showed off seemingly healthy and perfect lives with their children and husbands.

But the show’s message isn’t necessarily the corny reality show you might expect from a group of Mormon wives. As influencer Frankie Taylor Paul explained in the show’s debut episode, they’re mothers and wives adapting their beliefs to a new platform.

“We were raised to be housewives for men, catering to their every whim. Well, I’m like, ‘Fuck that.’ So I created MomTok. It started with a group of Mormon women making TikToks. There was something liberating about that,” Paul explained.

However, not everything was as it seemed online.

Running a TikTok community comes with a lot of transparency. That changed when Paul announced her divorce from husband Tate Paul.

“In my 20s, divorced, started therapy, living alone for the first time with two small children,” she captioned the video on May 22. Shortly afterward, she shared another video with the caption, “My life is falling apart. And I can’t even tell you why…without taking them all with me,” along with a visual of boxes being moved.

@taylorfrankiepaul / Via tiktok.com, @taylorfrankiepaul / Via tiktok.com

Without much context around the divorce, Reddit began circulating several theories, according to PEOPLE. Within days, she was accused of being a “husband thief” and a “cheater,” among other things.

Taylor Frankie finally went on TikTok Live and revealed the reason for her breakup, and her statement turned out to be much more shocking than anyone expected.

Paul revealed that the two had been participating in soft swinging — a term popularized by Taylor and described by therapist and sex educator Jillian Amodio as “a form of ethical nonmonogamy, as long as all parties are aware and consent.”

“The deal was… as long as we were both there and we saw it and we knew it, it was fine, and the minute that didn’t work out, you backed out of the deal,” she explained in a TikTok video in 2022. “And that’s what I did.”

On the show, she described her and her ex-husband’s situation as more of an orgy, and admitted that she had made out with every husband in their soft swingers’ group. She called soft swinging “when you just make out but you don’t go through with it.” “Honestly, we had an agreement, like everyone else, and I backed out of it,” she said.

“The whole group was very close to each other,” she explained.

“It wasn’t like I was dating my friend’s husband. It was like we were at a party and I got aggressive and we went and crashed it by ourselves, not with a whole group,” she said during a TikTok livestream.

So who exactly joined this “mild” agreement within the group of friends?

@whitneyleavitt / Via tiktok.com

At this point, it’s unclear, as many of them have denied their involvement. According to the Daily Mail , Miranda McWhorter and her currently estranged husband, Chase, have denied rumors that they were soft-swinging. Some have claimed that Miranda and Taylor fell out after the former accused Taylor of spreading rumors that Chase had feelings for her. Taylor also said that Camille Munday and her husband were also not involved, which Munday later confirmed. Other members of the group, Mayci Neeley, Victoria Zalic, and Whitney Leavitt, have also denied their involvement.

Still, Taylor revealed in her shocking TikTok live that three couples in her circle were getting divorced, though one of them wasn’t entirely related to the scandal. She didn’t confirm who the couples were. Taylor did suggest, however, that their fans could easily figure it out.

The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives focuses on the aftermath of the scandal. In the series, the group, with the exception of Miranda and Camille, reunites and attempts to rebuild their group of friends, while Whitney Leavitt takes on a new role as the group’s leader.

In addition to the scandal, the series also comes on the heels of Frankie Taylor Paul’s arrest on charges of aggravated assault, two counts of domestic violence in the presence of a child, child abuse with injury and misdemeanor disorderly conduct in 2023 following a drunken episode, according to the New York Post. As part of a plea agreement, she pleaded guilty to aggravated assault, while the remaining charges were dismissed.

Now that you’re up to date with the drama, let us know what you think The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives now available on Hulu.