The name on everybody’s lips is currently…Whitney! And by Whitney, I of course am referring to Gen Z’s favorite redheaded Mormon wife, turned TikTok sensation, turned reality star, who is currently making her Broadway debut in Broadway’s longest running musical: Chicago. But Whitney Leavitt was not always the Internet’s sweetheart, in fact back in November of 2025, fans of Hulu’s The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives disliked her so much, she was voted off of Dancing With the Stars in the semi-final round. So how did she do it? How did she go from losing out on the mirrorball, to breaking Chicago’s all-time ticket sales record? Well she has luck, talent, and a whole lot of reality TV to thank.
Now I won’t deny that I was a passenger on the “Vote Whitney Off of Dancing with the Stars” train a few months ago. But as a fan of the show, I was personally irked that Whitney, who graduated from Brigham Young University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance, was deemed equal competition to stars like Dylan Efron, who began his dance journey at the beginning of the season. But that is just the nature of the show. However fans of The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives jumped proudly onto the train soon after Season 3 dropped in mid-November. If you’re not a fan, the long story made short is that Whitney supposedly “rejoined” MomTok to get the Dancing with the Stars deal, whereas Jen Affleck, her fellow Mormon Wife, had claimed that Dancing with the Stars had been her dream her entire life. When they both became contestants, Jen was voted off of the show before Whitney, and Whitney was accused of being a “mean girl” for “stealing” Jen’s dream. Having earned consistent high scores with her partner Mark Ballas for the entire season, Whitney was almost guaranteed a spot in the finale, yet she was eliminated on November 18th, just 5 days after Secret Lives Season 3 was released.
Less than a month after her elimination, Whitney was feeling anything but down on her luck as it was announced on December 1st that she would make her Broadway Debut as Roxie Hart in February of 2026, an honor she probably would not have gained if it were not for Dancing With the Stars. Personally, I had a chance to see Whitney with fellow UBHC Board member Gio, and it is hard to deny the star quality she possesses as Roxie. From her first entrance where the audience (primarily consisting of millennial women) literally erupted into screams, to her curtain call; everyone seemed absolutely elated to be there. And tickets aren’t exactly cheap right now either, those around us in the orchestra had paid on average $400 a seat for premium tickets (our tickets were a gift). Singing and dancing is not enough to nail the role of Roxie: Chicago relies on its Roxie Hart to have the audience in the palm of her hand, as she’s not exactly an angel. Even as she encounters her sweet husband Amos, the smooth lawyer Billy Flynn, and the illustrious Velma Kelly, the audience has to root for Roxie to come out on top-which is why the role is often played by a celebrity…that means somebody everyone knows ;)
For our show, Whitney presigned every Playbill in the audience, saying on her Instagram “I’m so thankful for all the love and support you’ve shown me. As a small thank you, I’ve signed every playbill for today’s show. It truly means the world to me.” As a fact check, that is over 1,000 playbills to sign, a monotonous task for a woman leading a Broadway show and raising 3 kids under the age of 7. This day was a turning point in my perception of Whitney, she seemed truly humble and grateful, this was a dream she had her entire life, and that is something she and I share. If I had the opportunity to sing and dance for the world, wouldn’t I do everything in my power to get it too?
The 4th Season of Secret Lives released on March 12th, and it gave viewers an inside look into what was happening behind the scenes of Dancing With the Stars. Many began to point out how Whitney saw the show as something her and Jen shared, while Jen referred to it as hers, singular. After her elimination on Halloween Night, Jen sent her husband Zac to get lunch with Whitney, because she was “too scared to face her”. Eagle-eyed fans of the show had qualms with this: Whitney opened her family’s home to Jen for Dancing With the Stars, and now Jen was too scared to face her, or even call Whitney a friend. Many were quick to bring up a since-deleted social-media live, where after Jen was eliminated she made it a point to say how she would not be supporting Whitney in the rest of the competition. And suddenly, the ever-turning TikTok tables were back in Whitney’s favor. As fans flock in droves to see Whitney in Chicago, Jen’s TikTok comments are…let’s just say less than supportive. We will never truly know how much of the story is edited together by reality producers desperate for drama, but the Internet has run away on a new train, Jen is the new “mean girl” of the group, and Whitney is an angel. And from her record breaking sales, to her Instagram bio, which currently reads simply “Luckiest girl in the world”, it begs the question: was she ever a mean girl, or does the media just hate to see a woman with goals winning?
I personally agree with Whitney in Season 4 of Secret Lives, where she preaches forming her own opinions on people, rather than following others. But it is extremely hard to deny how quickly the tides of the Internet changed in her favor. You can go see her for yourself in Chicago at the Ambassador Theatre, or watch The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives on Hulu. Oh and remember Mark Ballas? He’ll be her Billy Flynn from April 6th to May 3rd so don’t miss out on their performances…and all that jazz ;)