It wouldn't be a reality TV show without a chosen villain, and in The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives, that person seems to be Whitney Leavitt. After a series of arguments and clashes with the rest of the #MomTok group, Whitney announced she was leaving at the end of the first season. Now that she's watched it back, it looks like she is less than pleased with how she's been portrayed.
The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives is a new show on Hulu and Disney+ following the Mormon friendship group behind the #MomTok TikTok trend and the viral swinging scandal that rocked the Mormon community in 2022. In a TikTok livestream, group member Taylor Paul announced that she and her husband were getting divorced because she had caught feelings for another husband while 'soft swinging'. It broke up a marriage and caused tension in several friendships, but it put the Mormon mums firmly on the map.
As its origin story would suggest, the new series is filled with an immense amount of drama, from tense group holidays and boozy pool parties to cheating scandals and friendship fall outs. Throughout the show, Whitney was accused of 'treating her friends like toys' by Jessi Ngatikura, attempting to act as group leader and often talking badly about her friends behind their backs. She also left the group chat and asked for space and then got upset when she was no longer invited to plans.
Since the show has aired, the internet has largely concluded that Whitney was the one in the wrong. With viewers calling her 'a villain', 'annoying' and 'delusional' and accusing her of 'stirring up too much drama' and being 'so avoidant and so gossipy'.
As such, Whitney has taken to TikTok to clear her name. In a video posted last week – set to Amy Winehouse's 'Me & Mr Jones' where she can be heard singing 'what kind of f*ckery is this?' – Whitney said she had just finished the season and captioned the post, 'huh that's not how I remember it.'
Taylor then commented, 'Oh noooooooo👀.' And Whitney replied, 'You also knowing the truth but not saying anything 👀👀👀.' In the comments section, a viewer called Whitney mean and she responded, 'Please name ONE thing I said that was mean lol 💅.'
In another video, she lip-synced along to a TikTok video that says 'Fine, make me your villain'.
Has Whitney actually left #MomTok?
Before the show aired, having already left the group (and the group chat), Whitney told The New York Post that she'd wait until the show was out before deciding whether to return for a second season. Now that she seems less than pleased with the edit, will she return to prove people wrong? Or has she lost all faith in the producers? We'll have to wait to see.
Is Whitney still friends with #MomTok?
As for whether Whitney is still friends with her co-stars, it seems like they are in touch on a very loose basis. Mayci Neeley, who she was closest to on the show, told Variety, 'She's [Whitney] not really close with anyone.'
Meanwhile, Whitney told Distractify: 'I don't really know, and I don't really feel welcomed in, like, the whole group as a whole. But again, like, some I've reconnected with, and just some I haven't.'
She also posted a TikTok featuring screenshots of her iMessage thread with Mayci in an attempt to explain why the pair are not as close anymore – and why she is not the one to blame. However, fans in the comment section were having none of it. One wrote, 'Give us nothing' and another commented, 'Whitney fighting for her life to redeem herself after the show aired.'
Mikayla Matthews recently posted a TikTok of the whole cast bar Whitney and Jennifer Affleck dancing in front of a billboard with the caption, 'When most of you stay friends after the show comes out.' Unsurprisingly, fans have taken this to be a dig at Whitney.
One fan commented, 'I love this and that Whitney isn't in it. We need seasons 2, 3 and 4 now. We are all addicted.' Another wrote, 'Not the dig at Whit, plsss we need a season 2 NOW!'
Nikki Peach is a writer at Grazia UK, covering TV, celebrity interviews, news and features.