Whenever there’s a scandal involving beautiful people, you can bet Hollywood will come knocking. Such was the case for Utah mom and TikTok influencer Taylor Frankie Paul, whose shocking viral confession resulted in Hulu’s hottest new reality series, The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives.
At first glance, Secret Lives resembles any other glossy and subtly-scripted reality show in the vein of Real Housewives. Yet there’s a kernel of truth and more than a little mystery surrounding these Mormon wives, leading fans to question just how much of the show is truly based on reality. We did some digging to find out.
The TikTok video that started it all
Two years ago, 28-year old Taylor Frankie Paul was just your typical married mother-of-two who was internet-famous for posting under the Mormon hashtag MomTok. She shared videos of her fellow Mormon mom friends and herself dancing, her husband, Tate Paul, and her kids, Indy and Ocean. She liked to joke that her friends Camille Munday and Miranda McWhorter were her “sister wives,” but it wasn’t until a video in May 2022 that we realized how close to the truth that moniker was.
On May 5, 2022, Paul shared a lip sync video of herself holding the keys to an empty apartment. She shared that she and her husband had separated and planned to divorce, but the true shocker was the reason: They’d been “soft-swinging” with other Mormon couples in their circle, and she fell in love with one of the other husbands.
Soft-swinging, for those not hip to the lingo, is a term that means fooling around without penetration. Naturally, rumors about Mormons swinging ignited an online firestorm, and many of Paul’s friends came forward to deny any involvement. A few months later, they got the offer to make The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives in the wake of the scandal, and many of the group jumped at the chance to set the record straight.
What is Secret Lives about?
The new series, which premiered on Hulu on September 6, 2024, follows Paul and her friends as they navigate life post-swinging scandal. Over the course of eight episodes we meet several members of the group, including Jen Affleck, cousin to Ben Affleck, as they try to prove that they’re equal parts sassy and conservative. Most of the MomTok wives try to distance themselves from Paul’s accusation, but she insists the soft-swinging did happen. She won’t name names, but she told Time she definitely didn’t act alone.
“There were a lot of fingers pointed at me, as if I was the only one to instigate and participate, and I don’t know how that would even be possible,” she said. “I wasn’t the only one. It was a group thing. Everyone made their own decisions. We’re all adults here.”
These Mormon wives definitely lean towards “Tradwife” territory, especially in an episode where Affleck gets in trouble with her husband for posing for a group photo with a scantily-clad Chippendale’s dancer in Las Vegas. Yet they’re also hoping to dispel the myth that Mormons are stuffy or ultra-conservative. Thanks to their newfound influencer jobs, they’re becoming their family’s main breadwinners and earning brand endorsements with unexpected products. In one episode, Whitney Leavitt makes a lucrative deal with a vibrator company, and she can’t wait to demonstrate the toys for her friends.
“There’s this stigma that all Mormons are supposed to live the same way or do live the same way,” Paul explained. “The point of our show is that there are so many different ways of living Mormonism. It’s a spectrum.”
So yes, it’s mostly true
Like all reality shows, parts of this show are definitely scripted and most scenarios are clearly set up by producers. But for the most part, the characters are indeed who they say they are, and they really are trying to show young Mormons in a different light. They’re also trying to recover after a friendship-rattling scandal, and they’ve made it clear they’re ready to spill some serious tea when the time is right. We’re here for it!
The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives is currently streaming on Hulu.
Published: Sep 11, 2024 01:14 pm