Secret Lives of Mormon Wives on swinging scandals, friendship fallouts and religious backlash

From allegations of infidelity to swinging scandals, The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives affords a glance right into a model of Mormon life far faraway from conventional public notion.

Set in suburban Utah, the TV sequence follows a gaggle of Mormon ladies – most of whom rose to fame on TikTok and have become MomTok influencers – as they handle scandals, confront marital breakdowns and conflict over every thing from enterprise ventures to social gathering invites.

However beneath the sensational plotlines is a extra complicated story in regards to the evolving dynamics inside a tight-knit group.

The group of Mormon moms have been making content material on-line for the previous 5 years however say the idea of actuality TV nonetheless feels very new to them.

“I’ve heard that ultimately folks discover ways to play the fact TV recreation however that is not us but, we’re nonetheless attempting to determine it out,” Jessi Ngatikaura tells the BBC. “So that you’re attending to see the actual us.”

What began off as a pastime has now change into a job and the ladies converse brazenly on the present in regards to the sum of money they make from actuality TV and model offers.

“It’s completely our job now however we selected this and we might all stroll away any time if we did not need to be a part of it,” Jessi says.

Whitney Leavitt explains that “naturally dynamics will change when there’s extra money and household concerned and undoubtedly some folks get aggressive” however reassures me the group are nonetheless buddies off digicam.

Throughout the 2 seasons of the present, Jessi and Whitney have had difficult storylines play out – Whitney is introduced because the villain in season one and on the finish of season two it’s alleged Jessi has had an affair.

The pair converse candidly in regards to the influence having your life watched and commented on by hundreds of thousands of individuals worldwide has had on them.

“It has been exhausting coming to phrases with the actual fact we have now no management over the narrative and you do not ever actually recover from it,” Whitney explains. “However you must settle for that and let it go.”

Because the present follows the lives of 9 buddies, it is easy to see how a few of them could create extra drama for themselves with a view to assure some display time however Jessi insists that is not the case and nobody “performs up however naturally feelings are heightened”.

“We’re really recording 4 or 5 days every week so we do not know what’s going to make the ultimate edit.”

Jessi says her explosive Halloween social gathering was not manufactured by producers and there’s simply “naturally a lot drama that we needn’t create extra only for the present”.

Given the depth of drama and filming calls for, the presence of sturdy aftercare is crucial and each ladies reward the manufacturing for its responsibility of care requirements.

“There are at all times therapists readily available and at first I used to be like why are Taylor and Jen having remedy on a regular basis and now I am having 5 or 6 hours of it every week,” Jessi confesses. “I’ve discovered it is helpful even in case you’re not going by a tough time.”

Whitney additionally accessed some aftercare in season one after being introduced because the villain of the present.

“It completely sucked being the villain and I used to be indignant, had a number of resentment and was actually unhappy. There have been so many overwhelming feelings for me however I used to be proud that as a substitute of operating away I stayed and had these exhausting conversations I did not need to have,” Whitney says.

Whitney was one of many members of the MomTok group that Taylor Frankie Paul publicly revealed was concerned in “gentle swinging”, one thing she denies and brought on a rift to kind of their friendship.

The open discussions round intercourse, marital affairs and alcohol on the present has brought on some backlash from the Mormon church.

“When the primary trailer got here on the market was some backlash from the church as a result of they had been scared however really we’re displaying you ways we dwell the Mormon life and all of us dwell it otherwise,” Whitney says.

Jessi provides the docudrama exhibits how “we’re all regular and on a regular basis women, not folks sporting bonnets and churning butter such as you may suppose”.

The ladies say that not solely has the church come to simply accept the present, they’re additionally serving to younger ladies take into consideration their religion otherwise.

“We have undoubtedly influenced folks to query their religion, dive deeper into it or be extra sincere about it and I’ve had messages from some folks saying that they are becoming a member of the church due to me,” Jessi says.

Whereas their faith performs an essential a part of their life, they’re eager to inform me that they aren’t the face of Mormonism.

“There are Mormons who nonetheless get upset about it however we’re simply displaying our model of it and I believe that is empowering as hopefully folks can relate to our tales and struggles.”