Season Five of The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives just released on Disney+ but Alice just watched it so you don’t have to. The show is a perverse look at how far TV is prepared to go now – and what danger (both physically and mentally) they’re willing to put their stars in to get a top rating show. This show needs to end.
Trigger Warning: Family Harm, Addiction
OPINION
Update: Since I wrote this piece, on Wednesday Sept 16, Mikayla Matthews announced she was quitting the show. Bravo. “The ONLY reason I’m leaving the show is because I was told a certain person was coming back,” she wrote. “I told [production] before agreeing to do [season] 6 that I wasn’t going to film if that certain someone came back. Because it’s UNETHICAL and kids are involved.” The makers of the show have been a bit murky about Taylor Frankie Paul’s involvement in the show moving forward, but it appears she is most certainly back for the new season (six) which is currently being filmed. “I filmed [season] 6 cause that person was not there.. then we were told she was coming back,” Matthews continued in her post. “I said great, then I will not be participating, god bless and goodbye, haven’t filmed a day since.” Well done to Mikayla for taking a stand.
It’s a bizarre and horrendous thought – that once, this was viewed as a ‘fun’ show.
The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives seemed to be pitched as a fizzy little show about a group of women who were breaking the stereotypes of what it meant to be a Mormon Wife. That this was ever the case, when the first episode began with a violent encounter between a young couple, captured on police officer’s body cameras, seems… appalling?
But now, the show has plundered down into new lows. It’s unhinged – completely reckless and irresponsible television. How far are networks prepared to go to make “entertaining” reality television. Because this show is certainly not entertaining – it’s downright disturbing.
You’ll very likely have heard the headlines around what happened earlier this year – you can head here for Sarah Lang’s recap. In an absolute nutshell though, the unofficial lead star of the show, Taylor Frankie Paul (she had a soft-swinging scandal that blew up on TikTok) was named the new lead in The Bachelorette, airing on ABC. But, just days before her season was about to air, it was cancelled after Taylor was charged with domestic violence against her ex-boyfriend – and father of her youngest child – Dakota Mortensen. Shockingly – as Disney, ABC and anyone who had watched TSLOMW knew, it sadly wasn’t the first time. Taylor was still on probation. Making things even worse, TMZ leaked a video filmed by Dakota of that earlier altercation, which had not been seen by the public. It made for very disturbing viewing.
Somehow, after that assault, the pair went on to have a child together and their on-again, off-again relationship became a major plotline of most of the seasons of TSLOMW.
In Season Four the makers of this show – Hulu/Disney – seemed to really turn up the heat on Taylor Frankie Paul. Her relationship was clearly toxic and hugely destructive, and taking its toll. Taylor seemed to be having a hard time staying away from this man – she’d tell the other women this and would make promises to them and herself about staying away from him.
But then… what do you know, the producers of the show would have him turning up at events or getaways that made absolutely no sense for him to be at – well, besides causing some serious drama for the show, of course.
During that season there’s one particular event – a trip the wives make to an LA mansion as two of the cast members appear on Dancing With the Stars. It makes absolutely zero sense, as Dakota and Taylor aren’t together, but – against her wishes – Dakota turns up. Absolute chaos ensues. It is evident this is far from being a healthy relationship – but it seemed Hulu/Disney willingly put it into a pressure cooker.
The season ends as Taylor heads away to start filming The Bachelorette. We know, watching this, that she is doomed. She’s been arguing with her mother – taking an extremely emotional trip to find out information about her father whom she only met a handful of times. He battled with addiction, which he ultimately succumbed to. Taylor seems to be numbing the pain by distracting herself with men – one man who she met on a Tiktok live who she flies out to Utah, and then, yes, her on-off relationship from hell.
The night before she leaves, Dakota stays at her home, and she misses her flight to LA, as we watch him completely gaslight her. It’s nauseating.
But if you thought it couldn’t get any worse, along comes season five.
Season Five: A Complete Sh*tshow
The show begins with a black screen, and a short snippet of text. ‘Great’, I naively think,’ this is going to be a trigger warning, advising viewer discretion about some of the topics that are going to come up in this season’. I’m expecting a full warning and a list of places to go/call/message for anyone who is experiencing family harm or finds any of the events in this show triggering…
Except that moment never comes.
Instead, the text simply reads:
‘In May 2026, The Secret Lives cast returned to finish filming interviews following a 2 month production pause…’ Then, another two words slowly fade up onto the screen: ‘…without Taylor’.
I went back and forward through the opening and closing credits of the episode over and over again to check I wasn’t missing anything – but I saw nothing.
There seems to be absolutely no care for the cast of this show, and apparently, no care for the viewer at home watching either.
After a few quick takes from the girls, who are obviously still reeling, still in the middle of the escalating drama, there’s a montage of headlines, news clips, tik-toks, all about the furore around The Bachelorette and Taylor.
And, fairly quickly, the show reveals what happened on The Bachelorette – and puts to bed any rumours that Taylor’s season may ever one day air.
It’s revealed that three of the SLOMW women (Mayci, Mikayla and Jessie) visited Taylor on The Bachelorette when she’d narrowed it down to three men (this happens every season – those closest to the lead get a chance to weigh in on their choices).
Of the three left standing, there was one man the three of them were hoping she wouldn’t choose – Doug Mason.
They voiced their concerns that he seemed to really only be in it to boost his DJ/rap career – but also that he had a lot of disturbing similarities to Dakota. (A former drug addiction, physical similarities, the same home town and the same initials?!). Of the three, he was also Taylor’s mother’s last choice.
Meeting up for the first time since The Bachelorette, Taylor left the girls floored when she said she’d chosen Doug as her winner – and despite the pair having conversations prior to the finale that if he was the winner, they’d take it slow…he proposed. And she accepted.
Taylor was now engaged.
But wait.
Taylor then revealed that yes, she bookended her Bachelorette experience by sleeping with her ex-boyfriend, Dakota. Yes, after sleeping with him the night before she left for the show, the very night she got home – now an engaged woman – Dakota came over once again.
“Obviously we’re texting,” Taylor says to the girls. “‘When are you coming home? When are you going to be home?’ I don’t know how it led to it, but he came over.”
Mayci quickly says, “So you cheated”. To which Taylor says, “I don’t like the word cheating.”
To make the situation even worse, they discuss how Dakota now has a girlfriend. Taylor also reveals that Dakota got her (Taylor’s) initials tattooed on the inside of his bottom lip. Oh, and he also sent her a video of him having sex with another woman.
And… somehow, it gets even worse.
“I’m in love with someone else,” Taylor then tells the girls.
That someone else is Ben Lambert, a musician who Taylor met through a Tiktok live and dated right before she went on The Bachelorette.
She’s come clean to Ben about Dakota.
Next thing, everyone’s off to New York for Whitney’s opening night of Chicago on Broadway.
Taylor – who we know loves to self-sabotage – has invited Ben. Although she’s absolutely not allowed to be seen with anyone in the lead-up to The Bachelorette, she has him holed up in her hotel room. We watch the pair talk about marriage and the possibility of having children together.
This show is… insane? At what cost are they prepared to make a reality show that gets eyeballs? Taylor is clearly, clearly in a terrible space and has been for years. This show – and The Bachelorette – has exacerbated her struggles tenfold. Not only does she appear to be in a toxic, violent relationship with someone who is constantly gaslighting her – but this show is gaslighting her too, willingly putting her in harm’s way. These people have children. It’s negligence.
A lot of other stuff is brewing away with other women on the show – from Miranda who is furious after her ex-husband (and father of her two children) who has been charged with a DUI and possession of cocaine. She also discovers that her best friend, who she opened her home to a year earlier, free of charge, was actually sleeping with that ex-husband behind her back during that time.
Then there’s Whitney Leavitt and Jennifer Affleck who have an ongoing feud that only escalates in this series. Plus, there’s a disturbing scene with Jennifer and her husband, who seems to also dabble in the dark arts of gaslighting, listing off things in his life that he’s allegedly done so that she can live out her dreams (none of these ring true).
Jennifer then says: “I feel like if you truly wanted me to achieve this dream and goal of mine, you would just support me.”
To which he replies: “I have supported you in every dream and every single thing you have asked.”
Jen: “You literally said, ‘If you do acting, if you’re in a relationship with someone, I want a divorce.”
Zac: “You’re right.”
He then doubles down on his entire message. And also reminds her how he’s the most tired he’s been in his life because he’s been looking after the kids for the last couple of days while she’s been away working (like the majority of the TSLOMW husbands, he no longer works)
The show doesn’t even begin to get into Jessie Ngatikura’s marriage, despite one throwaway comment, “I asked Jordan for a divorce this morning” – who, shortly after filming halted, winded up splitting from her husband.
Yes, there’s a lot of troubling things happening with all the women, but Hulu/Disney just can’t seem to get away from having Taylor as the centre of the show. It seems the production team of this show are perversely stuck in a cycle – relying on her for the success of this show, but, actively destroying her in the process.
The result is a mess – and a terrifying look at how far these companies are prepared to go to make a buck.
Where to get help:
- Need to talk?: Free call or text 1737 to talk to a trained counsellor.
- Healthline: Call 0800 611 116, available 24/7
- Shine: Call the Shine helpline on 0508 744 633 if you’re experiencing domestic abuse
- Safe to talk: a 24/7 confidential helpline: 0800 842 846, text 4334, webchat safetotalk.nz or email support@safetotalk.nz.
- Shakti: 0800 742 584, provides culturally specialist, confidential support services to women and their children of Asian, African and Middle Eastern origins
- Women’s Refuge: 0800 733 843 (females only)
- Barnardos 0800 227 267
- If it is an emergency or you or someone else is in immediate danger, call 111.
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