How 'The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives' Became Tok of the Town
Can #MomTok even survive this? That now-viral refrain originated on Hulu’s breakout reality series The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives—and viewers haven’t been able to stop saying it since the show’s early September debut. The eight-episode series was born out of a “soft swinging” scandal that rocked a religious Utah community back in 2022, thanks to a bombshell livestream from TikToker Taylor Frankie Paul.
Paul is our entry point into Secret Lives of Mormon Wives, which delves into the often confusing world of trad-wife TikTok content as provided by her fellow #MomTok influencers Jennifer Affleck (married to Zac, the cousin of Ben and Casey Affleck), Demi Engemann, Whitney Leavitt, Mayci Neeley, Jessi Ngatikaura, Mikayla Matthews, and Layla Taylor. They all sport identical blowouts and get regular Botox injections at the same spot, but the group is harshly divided into opposing factions: the so-called saints, and the so-called sinners.
As Mayci says in the first episode, “Taylor used to be the face of #MomTok, but once the whole controversy blew up, no one really knew what #MomTok stood for anymore. Like, is it just a bunch of swingers or are we just a bunch of Mormon women fighting the patriarchy?” Taylor counters: “Did I ruin your life, or make it better by bringing you clout and content?” The hosts of VF’s Still Watching podcast attempt to unpack those questions in a special bonus episode, which features an interview with series executive producer Jeff Jenkins.
One of the masterminds behind reality shows like The Simple Life, Netflix’s Bling Empire and My Unorthodox Life, Bravo’s Luann and Sonja: Welcome to Crappie Lake, and lesser-known one-offs like Living Lohan, Jenkins has been making TV for as long as some of his newest stars have been alive. Tangling with the Mormon church has paid off. The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives is Hulu’s most watched unscripted premiere of 2024, according to the streamer, unseating The Kardashians. Jenkins, who produced the first decade of Keeping Up With the Kardashians on E!, is demure when asked about beating some of his former cast. “I’m rooting for both shows, you know, but it’s kind of funny or ironic to outrate yourself, in a strange way,” he tells Vanity Fair.
As for why the show has resonated in such a way, Jenkins says that Mormon Wives pairs “a serious exploration of religion” with an “escapist, glamorous, sexy show about young people.” He continues, “We have beautiful young women who are at inflection points in their lives. They’re very likable, really fun to watch, really extroverted, really brave; they take risks—all of the soap opera type of things that we love in a good unscripted show. Then there’s this whole other piece that the ladies are bumping up against, which is their faith. That’s an immovable force. So how do I as a young person invite that into my life without perpetuating misogyny and without passing down trauma to my kids?”
By season’s end, after a lot of soda is sipped and Fruity Pebbles poured (if you know, you know), two cast members’ romantic relationships are on shaky ground. Taylor and her boyfriend Dakota Mortensen, with whom she has just welcomed a baby, spar over his potential infidelity, while Zac threatens to end his marriage to Jen because she wanted to see a Chippendales show during the group’s Las Vegas trip.
Jenkins tips his hat to both couples for exposing some of their darkest moments on camera. “With Jen Affleck, and her husband, Zac, I have incredible respect for both of them,” he says. “It’s a very tender dynamic between them in their marriage right now. Honestly, this is the great part about unscripted television: because now Jen and Zac, they get to watch the episodes, where they are arguing and debating and having conflict. It’s kind of like therapy on crack, because you get to see yourself played back and it’s a really objective way to examine yourself.”
Well, as objective as a reality TV show with scores of editors and producers can be. “My hope is that Jen and Zac will be back if there is a season two, and that they both learned from what they went through and what they shared in season one,” says Jenkins. “That they can keep growing and working through their challenges and stay together and stay strong. To Zac’s credit, and I haven’t spoken to him directly, but I have heard through the grapevine that he is glad that he did the project. He’s watched the episodes, and there are some things he wants to change.”
As for the show’s other on-the-rocks couple? “Taylor and Dakota—it reminds me of Kourtney [Kardashian] and Scott [Disick] when I did the first 10 years of Keeping Up With the Kardashians. You like both of them and you appreciate things about them being together. But at the same time you see, Ooh, these are big, big hurdles. Are they going to hold together?”
From Jenkins’s POV, the second coming of Scott and Kourtney has a better shot at making it work. “In a unique way, Taylor Frankie Paul and Dakota have more of a chance than Kourtney and Scott,” he says, “because Scott—God bless him, I adore him—Scott said day one, ‘I’m never changing. Period. I am who I am.’ Dakota wants to learn and change, and Taylor Frankie Paul wants to learn and maybe change. I hope they make it. I really am rooting for them.”
New drama unfolds daily on the cast’s TikTok accounts—and, rest assured, there is someone out in the world whose literal job it is to stay on top of it all. “That is a paid position,” Jenkins confirms, “to monitor story, what’s going on. Believe me—if we get a season two, the second we get it, we will head out and start shooting again. There’s some incredibly intense, jaw-dropping stuff that we didn’t even get to.”
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