Inside the Explosive Mormon Sex Scandal Inspiring Hulu's Latest Reality Series | Vanity Fair

A TikTok search for the term “Mormon Swinging Moms Scandal” will yield more videos than one may expect—inching toward 100 million of them, to be exact. The drama that spawned such a glut of content will be explored in Hulu’s The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives, an upcoming reality series about eight TikTok influencer moms, one of whom made headlines for “soft swinging” within their tight-knit religious community—then falling for the man she was sleeping with.

After the Mormon sex scandal, which ended two marriages and sparked one new romance, “their sisterhood is shook to its core,” an official Hulu synopsis reads. “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, which debuts September 6, was announced with the help of its eight stars—many of whom shared the news by coopting various viral trends. Wearing matching black leggings and crop tops, the cast promoted their unscripted venture by reciting the Nicole Kidman AMC ad, dancing to Tinashe’s “Is Somebody Gonna Match My Freak?,” and even directly addressing the swinging elephant in the room.

At the center of the scandal isTaylor Frankie Paul, a now 30-year-old TikToker and mother of three with more than 4 million followers. Paul sent shockwaves through her Utah #MomTok community in June 2022 after a now viral livestream in which she revealed that she and her husband, Tate (whose account is now private), were getting divorced after she engaged in “soft swinging” within their married friend group.

According to Paul, although she and her husband had an “agreement” that intimacies could be shared outside of their union, she did “step out of that agreement” by going “all the way” with someone in the circle. In addition to her own disclosure, Paul implicated other members of MomTok: “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,” she said.

While the indiscretion was initially “a one-time thing,” according to Paul, she and her then unnamed extramarital partner “had feelings for each other.” The following month, she introduced her new boyfriend and now husband, Dakota Mortensen, as the guy she “cheated with,” on TikTok.

After documenting the fallout from her swinging scandal, Paul endured some legal woes. In February of 2023, she was arrested on suspicion of misdemeanor charges of assault, criminal mischief, and commission of domestic violence in the presence of a child. (Last August, she pleaded guilty to aggravated assault while the remaining charges were dropped. Under the plea agreement, Taylor was sentenced to one day in jail and ordered to undergo substance-abuse and domestic-violence evaluations, according to The Salt Lake Tribune.) Upon her return to TikTok in March 2023, Paul posted, “It’s been a minute, missed you guys.” She and Mortensen welcomed their first child together, her third, in March 2024.

So, who else will appear in The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives? The cast includes Mayci Neeley (@maycineeley), whom Paul lauded as the one friend who “stayed by my side” after the scandal. Neeley and fellow costar Mikayla Mathews (@mikaylamatthews) recently posted a TikTok of themselves thirsting over Glen Powell while on a movie date with their husbands; Matthews captioned the video, “POV: Your biggest regret this year was taking your wives to Twisters.” Meanwhile, Demi Engemann, 30, (@demilucymay_), whose name is pronounced “Duh-Me,” often posts about the age gap between herself and her 46-year-old husband, Brett. Jennifer Affleck (@jenniferaffleckk) has made content about meeting her husband on a Mormon dating app. Jessi Ngatikaura (@_justjessiiii) centers much of her page on the promotion of her hairstyling business. Layla Wessel (@laylaleannetaylor) has detailed her recent nose job.

And at least one of the show’s cast members has also acknowledged the Mormon sex scandal. Whitney Leavitt (@whitneyleavitt), who is currently documenting her pregnancy with her third child, previously denied swinging in her own marriage, but encouraged others interested in the pastime to “do you.” We’ll see what other revelations make for juicy content when the series premieres this fall.