“Mormon Swinging Moms Scandal” is one of the more unlikely viral hashtags of 2024. Still, in the year of tradwife internet furores and increased interest in all things American conservatism, it’s cracked over 120 million.
Mormon drama has been one of the biggest hits of 2024. In July, the controversy around a profile by The Times about Mormon mom influencer and the unofficial face of the tradwife movement, Hannah Neeleman, rocked the internet.
At the start of August, Anne Hathaway announced she’d be “making bubblegum from scratch” (cc Nara Smith), starring in a “Trad Wife” thriller based on a forthcoming novel from cultural critic and Mormon specialist Caro Claire Burke called Yesteryear.
Interest in Mormon women has never been higher, and now, Mormon mums are getting their own TV series.
A Hulu series titled The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives will unpack the drama between eight TikTok ‘mumfluencers’. Here’s everything you need to know about the drama, and where to catch The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives in Australia.
What Is The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives About?
The Hulu series The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives features the stars of a TikTok Mormon sex scandal that ended two marriages and sparked a new romance. Deadline breathlessly described the docuseries as being about: “Faith, friendship and reputations are all on the line. Will #MomTok be able to survive and continue to give the rulebook a run for its money, or will this group fall from grace?”
The eight-episode series will be released in early September, and the eight stars have been enthusiastically promoting it on TikTok.
What Was The Mormon Swinging Moms Scandal?
@taylorfrankiepaul In order: me @victoria.zalic @camille_munday @laylawessel @miranda__mcw @maycineeley @whitleavitt ♬ SexyBack (feat. Timbaland) – Justin Timberlake
Taylor Frankie Paul is a now 30-year-old mother of three and a TikTok influencer with 4 million followers. In May 2022, she announced her divorce. In June 2022, she rocked the #MomTok community in a viral livestream in which she announced her divorce from husband Tate and disclosed she’d been engaging in “soft swinging” in their married friend group. Divorce is a no-go in the Mormon Church, and unsurprisingly, “soft swinging” isn’t common parlance. The scandal lit up MumTok.
What happened? Paul and her husband had “an agreement,” but Paul admitted to having stepped “outside of the agreement” by going “all the way” with someone in their inner circle.
@taylorfrankiepaul Just major life adjustment with a lot of loss
♬ original sound – taneee
Paul went on to implicate her entire friend group in the swinging scandal in an attempt to clarify her position.
“The whole group was intimate with each other,” she alleged, “It wasn’t like I was going around hooking up with my friend’s husband. It was, like, we were at a party, I got belligerent, and we went and messed around by ourselves rather than the whole group.” Mormon orgies are TikTok catnip and the drama went viral.
Meanwhile, it was the start of a love story for Paul and his new beau, Dakota Mortensen. She said a “one-time thing” turned into a romance, and one month later, she introduced him to her TikTok fans (a modern-day meet-the-parents). The two are now married.
The new trailer gives us a taste of the drama to come, with one scene showing the influencers talking about the experience stating, “It was like swapping in front of each other, standing next to each other,” she says.
In another scene, Paul is captured stating, “We were raised to be these housewives for the men, serving their every desire… I’m like, ‘Fuck this!’”
Who Is Taylor Frankie Paul?
The drama hasn’t stopped for Paul, and she’s since been entangled in some legal woes. In February 2023, she was arrested on suspicion of misdemeanour charges of assault, criminal mischief, and commission of domestic violence in the presence of a child. In August 2023, she pled guilty to aggravated assault, and the remaining charges were dropped. She was sentenced to one day in jail and ordered to undergo substance abuse and domestic violence evaluations, according to The Salt Lake Tribune.
Who Else Will Star In The Secret Life of Mormon Wives?
@taylorfrankiepaul Replying to @douggrahmann I will not be sharing this one @Dakota Mortensen ♬ original sound – 
Who are the other key Momfluencers, and what do they typically post about on TikTok?
The Momfluencers group is similar to other influencers you’ll come across on TikTok. They post about nose jobs, family and their relationships, and, for Mayci Neeley and Mikayla Matthews, a mutual thirst for Glenn Powell.
Demi Engemann, 30, will appear alongside her 46-year-old husband Brett. Engemann frequently posts about their age-gap relationship. Meanwhile, Jennifer Affleck (no relation to Ben) will appear. She and her husband met on a Mormon dating app. Jess Ngatikaura uses social media to promote her hairdressing business, and Layla Wessel has discussed her recent nose job.
Notably, not many of them have addressed the Mormon swinging moms scandal.
Only Whitney Leavitt, who is currently pregnant with her third child, has addressed the swinging scandal directly. She denied swinging in her own marriage but advised followers to “do you”.
What Exactly Do Mormons Believe?
Mormons have been at the centre of many dramas in 2024, with interest in the lives of Mormon women, in particular, at a fever pitch. This has left many asking what Mormons actually believe.
The Mormon faith is a branch of Christianity with a complex and controversial history in the United States.
According to the US Public Broadcasting Service, the Mormon church was founded by Joseph Smith. Most Mormons consider a prophet, which is one of the biggest differences between Mormonism and other Christian religions.
Along with the Bible, Joseph Smith transcribed The Book of Mormon. Mormons believe Smith received a vision from an angel who showed him a book inscribed on gold plates. He then transcribed it, creating The Book of Mormon, an alternative history to other Christian texts.
Another unofficial component of Mormonism has historically been secrecy. Joseph Smith’s ideal version of Mormonism would be all Mormons living in the same city provided for by their Church. He referred to this as the City of Zion. While this proved difficult to achieve, there is a general policy within the religion of Mormonism that precludes members from discussing the practices of their faith outside of the Church. Only Mormons are allowed in the Latter-Day Saints Church. According to a Mormon website, Temple Hill, Oakland, CA, sometimes even members of the Church can access the temple with “special recommendations of worthiness.”
Do Mormons Practice Polygamy?
It is important to note that the Mormon church has not sanctioned polygamy since the 1890s. However, while the majority of Mormons do not practice polygamy, polygamy is still supported by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS), according to ABC News.
However, it has a long association. This is because the founder of Mormonism, Joseph Smith, sanctioned the practice in the 1830s. This practice made Mormons targets for violence in early Mormon settlements. Since then, the practice has persisted; in 1852, Latter Day Saint leaders announced plural marriage as an official Mormon Church practice.
Of course, since then, attitudes around polygamy have changed, as have attitudes around the role of women. In 1878, The United States Supreme Court ruled that polygamy was an “odious practice”, and in 1887, The United States Congress passed the Edmunds-Tucker Act that made polygamy a federal offence. While Mormons pushed back, in 1890’s LDS Church President announced the Church would no longer sanction plural marriage.
Despite this, the association between Mormonism and polygamy has continued.
In 2017, Mormon leader Lyle Jeffs was arrested. That same year, polygamist families who were part of the FLDS were evicted from areas around Utah. This was following studies that showed communities in these regions were struggling with a health crisis caused by recessive genes caused by a lack of genetic diversity in communities where the practice of polygamy was high.
Watch ‘The Secret Lives Of Morning Wives’ Trailer
The Secret Lives Of Mormon Wives trailer has dropped, and it’s hinting at a feminist message for the show. It opens with the women recounting the written and unwritten rules of Mormonism as they apply to women. “I love the Mormon Church, but there are a lot of rules we have to follow,” says xxx. The Mormon wives are painted as religious pin-up girls, “we are raised to be these housewives for the men, serving their every desire.” Then, Taylor Frankie Paul abruptly interjects: “I’m like f*ck this.” We’ve been expecting a lot of raunchy tea from these Mormon-swingers. But will it come with a surprisingly feminist message? Get a taste via the trailer.
Is There ‘A Secret Lives Of Mormon Wives’ Release Date For Australia?
All eight episodes of The Secret Lives Of Mormon Wives will be released Friday, September 6th, on American streaming platform Hulu and on Disney+ in Australia.
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- Meet The ‘Mormon Wives’ Of Your Next Reality TV Binge
- Unpacking The ‘Ballerina Farm’ Article Backlash
This article originally appeared on Marie Claire Australia and is republished here with permission.
