When The Secret Lives Of Mormon Wives‘ first season premiered last year, it was an instant reality TV classic. The docuseries following the lives of Mormon MomTok influencers was Hulu’s most-watched unscripted premiere of 2024.
“It was so crazy,” SLOMW star Jessi Ngatikaura tells Betches. “I don’t think we were expecting that overnight people were going to resonate with the show.” Due to the immediate success, the show was quickly greenlit for another season, and started filming within a month of the premiere. That means fans only missed out on about six months of the lives of our favorite LDS ladies. Thankfully we had plenty of MomTok footage to consume in the meantime.
During that time, we found out Jen was pregnant with her third baby, Taylor and Dakota called it quits, and new cast member Miranda McWhorter divorced her husband Chase (but more on that later). For the rest of the details, Jessi was kind enough to unpack all the drama on and off screen for us — from villain edits to who still remains friends after all the chaos that ensued over the season.
Has Miranda Officially Rejoined MomTok?
When Miranda McWhorter first arrived on the scene in episode 1 of season 2, the girlies were not impressed. The fellow Mormon influencer was an OG MomToker who broke away from the group after Taylor blew up the swinging scandal on TikTok in 2022. Naturally, the remaining MomTok were suspicious of her motives for joining the new season of SLOMW — was she just doing it for clout? Or had things truly changed for her post-divorce from Chase?
In an interview with People, Miranda swore it had more to do with the latter. “I think there was a lot of fear, guilt, and shame that played a role in that for me, things that I needed to address in my personal life between my marriage, my religion, all of that.”
But what does Jessi think? “I will say with Miranda, she was consistent. I’ll give that to her,” Jessi tells Betches. “It was hard for her to break into the group. We were not easy on her, and she stayed with it, and she had the hard conversations, and she didn’t falter.”
Towards the end of the season, it’s made clear where she stands with the group. “I do think that those of us that were a little harder on her softened over the season and got to see different sides of her and where she’s at,” Jessi admits. “And hearing her side of things, too. She wasn’t ready to come back in season one, but then she got divorced, and things changed, and she was ready to tell her story, and everyone deserves that.”
Were The Producers Behind The Halloween Party Drama?
Jessi takes full responsibility for the chaotic invite list to her Halloween party. “No, our producers are great,” Jessi says when asked if she ever felt pressured to do anything for the spectacle. “They literally just tell us to live our lives… This group has a lot of drama. So if we’re going to a girl’s night, it’ll inevitably just happen.”
While admittedly, she didn’t get the answers she was looking for from inviting exes Chase and Miranda, she did find herself fascinated by the group dynamic. “I had heard so much about Taylor, Chase, and Miranda,” she says, referring to the MomTok swinging scandal in 2022. Seeing them all in a room together was “surreal,” and there was “still a lot of emotion and anger.”
Did she regret stirring up the drama? “With Miranda coming back in the group, I don’t think it would’ve been possible to not have that happen because it would’ve just been always beneath the surface, like underlying,” she says. “I actually think it was needed even though it was messy.”
Did Jen *Actually* Know About The Chippendales Performance, Or Was It A True Surprise?
“She did know about the Chippendales of it all and then just didn’t tell Zac,” Jessi confirms. “So then we kind of got the heat for that. But looking back, I understand that she wasn’t in the right head space to agree to that.”
Though, she would probably do it again. “I think it did bring up important conversations for them to have,” Jessi says. “And now they’ve been to Chippendales, they posted they went together. So I’m like, it was exposure therapy.”
Are Jessi and Jen Still Friends?
Jessi and Jen started the season on rough grounds — accusations of not being “there for her” when things fell apart with Zac — but Jessi says they’re doing better now.
“We’ve talked through things,” Jessi confirms. “Most of us are still really good friends, and I think that’s a testament to our friendships. I’ve had an argument with every person in the group, and we’ve gotten through it, and we’ve been fine.
“I think that shows that these friendships mean a lot to us,” she continues. “And the ones on the outs, maybe it didn’t mean as much to them. But being on reality TV with friendships and relationships is hard.”
Are Jessi and Demi Still Friends?
After a few mentions of “most of us are still friends,” I had to ask: Is there anyone in particular that Jessi has fallen out with? Fans might be surprised to learn that Jessi and Demi Engemann are not the same united besties we see at the beginning of season 2.
“I think that you do see it happen over the season, but Demi and I were really close, and I think you kind of see the evolution of that start to crumble,” Jessi says. “And that was hard for me because we were best friends genuinely. And some things come up that we just couldn’t get through.”
According to Demi, “Multiple things had happened that led to this point.” On Thursday, May 15, in an episode of The Viall Files podcast, the fellow cast member got into the details of the mostly off-camera feud. “I had opened up to all the girls after Vanderpump Villa that I’d been groped, and I asked them not to tell anyone.” She claims Jessi went on to share the details with fellow reality star Scheana Shay before a podcast recording that Demi planned on joining. “I was actually supposed to go out with her to do this podcast, and her and I were in a fight over negotiating contracts for season 2.” It’s unclear where the contract negotiations ended up, but the friendship doesn’t seem to have survived it.
“I think that was the hardest thing, not only having that happen but also having it happen on camera,” Jessi tells Betches. “And now the world’s going to have an opinion, and people will take sides inevitably. But I do feel grateful that I got really close with the other girls, and now they’re some of my best friends. And that’s just life. It ebbs and flows.”
Does Jessi Expect Anyone To Have A Villain Edit This Season?
Last season, Whitney became the season’s “villain” despite many efforts to appear as a delightful tradwife — but Jessi admits she has a bit of a comeback this time around. “She comes in a little softer this season, and I think gets a redemption from us, and that can happen to anyone,” Jessi says.
When asked if she thinks it was due to a “villain edit,” Jessi disagrees. “I will say most of the time it’s deserved,” she says. “You can only edit what you give them.”
Will There Be A ‘Secret Lives Of Mormon Wives’ S2 Reunion?
Jessi hopes so, but nothing is confirmed as of publication. “I feel like our group really needs a chance to hash it out, especially because when you’re going from one season to the next, you see things that people said about you that aired that you didn’t know about,” she says. “And you got to duke it out.”
It doesn’t help that the cast doesn’t get to watch the show before it’s released to the public. Last year, Jessi says they watched the first episode for the first time at the actual premiere. This year, Jessi invited the group to watch it together at her house. “Those of us that are still friends,” Jessi adds. “Hopefully, we’re still friends after because you really never know.”
