Whitney Leavitt Wasn’t Trying to Be a Reality-TV Villain
At first glance, the star of The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives, Hulu’s new series about a group of TikTok moms in Salt Lake City, Utah, was Taylor Frankie Paul. She’s the one who “started” MomTok and revealed to the world that some of its members were “soft swinging” with one another back in 2022. But as the season progressed, a challenger emerged: Whitney Leavitt, the only MomToker brave enough to rock a bob in a sea of waist-length hair extensions.
Leavitt, 31, brought drama to almost every scene in which she appeared. She revealed that her husband, Conner, had been on Tinder for the entirety of their marriage (they reconciled and are now expecting their third baby at the end of October). She argued that Paul had been forgiven for the swinging scandal more easily than she was forgiven for posting a video of herself dancing while her baby son was in the hospital with RSV. She told all the girls what the others were saying about them behind their backs, and she was dramatically choosy about which group events she attended (Paul’s baby shower and Mayci Neeley’s prenatal-vitamins launch party were “no”s. Mikayla Matthews’s roller-rink birthday party that she was not invited to was a “yes”). Most controversial of all: She left the MomTok group chat.
Despite getting the villain edit this season, Leavitt is upbeat about her role and the future of the show. Below, she reveals her true friends in the group, the scenes she regrets filming, and whether her family actually ate her pregnancy-test cake in episode eight.
When did you first hear about The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives, and how did you join the cast?
So the title was never solidified, even while we were filming. None of us knew what it was going to be called. But producers reached out to Taylor, Mayci, Mikayla, and I about this show they wanted to create about our friendship and our lives. Throughout time, more cast members joined until we solidified as a cast, and here we are today, two years later.
Did you have any hesitation about signing up?
I definitely wanted my husband to be onboard. I’m not an avid reality-TV watcher, but you see stuff in the press. I wanted to make sure he was onboard to film our personal lives, things that go on that are very vulnerable and personal and private, for the whole world to see. I was onboard from the get-go. Once he was, then I went for it.
How long were you guys actually filming? Some fans were a bit confused by the timelines presented on the show.
It’s so funny, so many people make jokes about how many different looks me and my husband had during the show, but it had been two years. So we filmed the pilot and then about two years later we filmed the rest of the season. So when you watch episode one, it’s kind of all mixed together. That’s why we look so different.
I think you were the only woman on the show not to have the superlong hair extensions. How did you choose your hair, makeup, and looks for filming?
You know what, I’ve tried extensions, and they’re just not for me. I think they’re beautiful, but I don’t know how people sleep on them or wash their hair. I want to just touch my scalp! As a mom, I literally live in pajamas, so I was so excited to sit down and plan outfits together. My husband and I helped each other with it.
I’m curious if there’s anything you regret filming or anything you filmed that you wish had made it into the show.
Oh yes. You’re filming for three months, every day, you’re getting all of this content — of course, there’s so much I wish was in the show. As far as regrets, a mistake I definitely made and brought onto the show was telling Jen what Demi had said about her. [Ed note: Whitney told Jen that Demi said she was “too Mormon.”]
I also regret bringing into that conversation what Demi had called Taylor, which was “white trash.” I wasn’t even there for that, but I did bring it onto the show. I wish I didn’t do that because that bit me right up the ass.
And I really did feel bad — I apologized to Demi, but that wasn’t in the show. There were a lot of apologies said, specifically from me, that we had filmed. I would have loved for those scenes to have been on the show.
You and Taylor obviously had your differences, but I noticed recently that she’s been posting nice comments on your Instagram. Where do you guys stand now?
It’s funny, our relationship is actually better than it was before we started filming. As a viewer, that could sound very confusing. The show does make it seem like I had such an issue with Taylor, but I genuinely didn’t. I think she’s amazing. I’m so proud of her for — I mean, she’s gone through so much, and she’s come out the other end, and she just keeps going.
You referenced this a bit on TikTok, but this season you got the villain edit, which is this classic reality-TV trope. I’m curious if you had a sense that this was happening while you were filming, or were you surprised by how you were presented?
That’s a really good question. Definitely, there were moments that I could feel it. But no one can make you do something or say something on the show; these were choices that I willingly made. As far as leaning into this quote-unquote villain era, I mean, yeah, I didn’t love what I watched of myself either. So much was going on in my personal life. So when the show came out, I thought it was so funny that I had been labeled as this villain, so I was poking fun at it. But I don’t think I’m the villain.
At the end of the season, you and your husband are looking into homesteading. Is that still on the horizon?
My husband and I just sold our first home, and we’re looking for land right now. I don’t want a full-on ranch. Maybe just one cow, a couple horses, some chickens, maybe some goats. My husband said we’ll start with chickens and then we’ll go from there.
The other thing people really responded to was how you announced your pregnancy to your family — by baking your pregnancy test into the cake. I’m curious, did anyone actually eat the cake?
Oh, of course we did! We all definitely ate the cake. Look, I put the lid back on it. I Cloroxed the heck out of it before putting it in the cake. It was clean. I get how people were like, Ew. Maybe people tried to stay away and not eat the pieces surrounding the test, but that cake was good. So yeah, we did eat the cake.
Where do you stand with MomTok now that the show has aired? Are you back in the group chat?
I feel like Taylor and I are great; Mayci and I are great. There will be more conversations, and I’m sure amends will be made and we’ll move on and then figure out what the next drama is.
Is there talk of a second season? Would you participate?
I guess we’ll have to wait and see.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
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