‘Mormon Wives’ Stars Debunk Religion Misconceptions, Talk About ‘Swinging’

Taylor Frankie Paul and Mayci Neeley, two of the stars of Hulu‘s docuseries Secret Lives of Mormon Wives appeared on Thursday’s episode of The View to debunk misconceptions about the religion.

The reality TV series, which hit the streamer on Friday, dives into the lives of Mormon TikTok influencers who are part of #MomTok, a group of dancing Utah women who found themselves broken during a 2022 “soft-swinging” scandal.

Fellow momfluencers Mikayla Matthews, Demi Engemann, Jennifer Affleck, Jessi Ngatikaura, Layla Wessely, and Whitney Leavitt round out the cast.

When asked about the biggest misconceptions of Mormonism, Neeley said, “One thing I always say to everyone is that we’re not polygamous, which is so funny, because she was swinging,” she laughed, referencing Paul.

“But we were in LA, and our makeup and hair artist came in, like ‘Oh, we thought you guys would be wearing bonnets,'” Neeley shared about a recent experience to which “The View” co-host Joy Behar asked if the cosmetologists had confused them with the Amish.

“We’re like the modern Mormons,” Neeley continued. “Not everyone is so cookie-cutter. You can be Mormon and wear a tank top. You can also be more of a trade wife. You can do it all.”

Paul, who was at the center of the “soft swinging” scandal that ended her marriage to Tate Paul, also used her appearance on The View to explain what the term really means.

“We opened up our relationships playing games, being intimate all in front of each other. So we weren’t like, full-on switching, per se,” she said, clarifying that the “soft” term was “assigned” to her situation.

“I would have called it just inexperienced people married very young,” Paul added.

The women also spoke about their upbringings which they both agreed were “not very traditional”

“The way I was raised in California is very different than Mormons in Utah,” said Neeley, who’s an Orange County native.

Paul said of her Salt Lake City, Utah, upbringing, “I kind of did what I wanted, but still went to church on Sundays, and I think that was a message we wanted to share on the show because everyone does live different lives.”

“You see a devout member, and then you see someone that left the church. We don’t all fit in the box. People think these women are just one way we want to share that there’s these different ways, and we don’t want to represent the church, but we’re just telling our story,” Paul said.

‘Mormon Wives’ Star ‘Disappointed’

Newsweek spoke with Matthews on Monday where she admitted to being “disappointed” that her journey with an undiagnosed chronic illness was excluded from the series.

“It was definitely frustrating,” she said. “I did know that my story wasn’t going to be in it because I was asked questions about the drama. What was disappointing for me is that I’m not really in the series at all.”

“You can see I’m very disassociated when I’m filming because I was just in so much pain every day,” she continued. “I had full-body nerve damage. I couldn’t really focus on anything except for my skin just hurting all the time. Also, I had the mental aspect of going through steroid withdrawal and being on medications, which is so horrible for the chemical imbalance in your body.”

Matthews also said she’d be “scared of stepping foot in church” after the release of the series.

“I haven’t been going to church for a long time, but I always say to my friends who are going, ‘I couldn’t imagine going to church after everything,'”

However, she does think that the series has already made an impact on modern-day devout Mormon women.

“I do think it has already sparked a little bit of an important conversation in the church around sex or the gender roles. So I think for me, at least, it’s going to be a positive thing – but I would definitely be scared to step foot in the church.”

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