*Spoilers Mentioned*
If you thought The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives couldn’t get more unholy, just you wait for season four. The new release showcases a tumultuous time for the cast, from being on Dancing with the Stars to grappling with the throes of toxic relationships. Ten episodes were released on March 12, and I finished all of them within three days. I’m not typically one to indulge in reality TV, but for the Mormon wives, I’ll do anything.
One of the most shocking aspects of the season was revealed in the last episode and discussed for no longer than 15 minutes. Layla Taylor opens up to Jessi Draper and Miranda Hope about her struggles with anorexia and GLP-1 usage. If you are a fan of the show, you may have noticed Taylor’s shocking appearance in the last few seasons; however, it’s clear her eating disorder is acute and taking over her life. She explains to her friends that she started weight-loss drugs because she felt like she had some stubborn baby weight that she couldn’t get off, and it has turned into an addiction. Taylor continued to explain her disordered thoughts and said she weighed 99 pounds and stood at 5’9.
What upsets me the most about the way this situation was handled is the fact that Hulu frequently advertises Ozempic, Monjaro, and Wegovy during the show. So, their call for action at the end of the season finale is as helpful as telling someone with an eating disorder to ‘just eat.’ Naturally, after I finished the show, I stalked all the girls’ Instagrams and found that many of them had brand deals with CalAI, an app that tracks users’ calories with a photo of their food. Draper is one of the cast members with a brand deal, who was also a pillar of support for Taylor.
Another extreme point of action in the competition between Jen Affleck and Whitney Leavitt. Affleck and Leavitt competed in season 34 of Dancing with the Stars, which ultimately destroyed their relationship. Leavitt’s husband, Conner, eagerly took on the role of stay-at-home dad and supported her every step of the way, while Affleck’s husband, Zac, begrudgingly became a stay-at-home dad and made her feel bad about it whenever he could. I hypothesize that Affleck resented Leavitt for having a supportive husband and doing better than her on the show.
Taylor Frankie Paul crumbled hard this season and allowed her baby daddy, Dakota Mortensen, to uproot her life. Paul and Mortensen have the most abusive relationship on the show, and there is even proof of their behaviour online. A three-minute video from 2023, recorded by Morenson, shows Paul physically abusing him with her fists and legs. It escalates when she starts to throw metal stools at him and ends up striking her child, who was an unfortunate bystander in the incident. This footage led to the cancellation of season 22 of The Bachelorette, where she was supposed to star. Of course, it’s hard to say whether her abuse was reactionary abuse or just her typical behaviour, but it’s clear that Mortensen eggs her on. The night Paul was supposed to leave to film The Bachelorette, Mortensen paid her a visit and spent the night, which resulted in her refusing to get out of her bed the next morning. Her mom, sister, and kids flew to Los Angeles without her and hoped she would catch a later flight, which surprisingly she did. When Paul landed in LA, she received a FaceTime from Mortensen, where he urged her to “save a rose for me”.
Season four was full of speculation, rumours, embarrassing behaviour, and sin. There’s so much more that I could talk about, but I don’t want to reveal the whole show. Tune into season four to watch extreme vulnerability, struggles, and the dark side of the Mormon religion. The consequences of young marriage could look like ending up with partners who are awful towards them. Obviously, this is not the case for everyone; however, out of the entire cast, there isn’t one healthy relationship.