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Style Note: Due to the cast of SLMW referring to themselves as Mormons, the term will be used throughout the paper instead of Latter-day Saints. 

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In 2024, Hulu released The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives (2024) after the TikTok mom group, MomTok, got into major controversy when Taylor Frankie Paul talked on live about the group being involved with “soft-swinging” (Frankie Paul, @taylorfrankiepaul, TikTok, 2024). With the group being primarily Mormon women, the internet blew up with speculation about which members were involved (Cohen, The Cut). Due to all the drama, Hulu, a premium streaming service in the U.S., decided to create a reality TV show about the women of MomTok. SLOMW’s became one of the most popular TV shows and still ranks 55 in the top 100 most popular reality TV shows in 2026 (IMDB, 2026). 

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SLOMW’s in the beginning followed eight of the members of Momtok: Frankie Paul, Demi Engemann, Jennifer Affleck, Jessi Draper, Layla Taylor, Mayci Neeley, Mikayla Mathews, and Whitney Leavitt. Throughout the seasons, Engemann left, Leavitt and Affleck took hiatuses from the show and, in season two added Miranda Hope to the main cast. One aspect of SLOMW’s is that it’s about Mormon mothers. Mormons are a part of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, which was founded by Joseph Smith in 1830 (EBSCO research, 2026). 

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I’m interested in studying how SLOMW portrays Mormons because I’ve seen discourse online about how accurately they portray the church. Due to the church’s reputation of being male centered and polyamory, a show about a group of Mormon’s mom influencers in a “soft-swinging” scandal interested me. Particularly how religion presents itself in their lives off the internet. Through analyzing the show, this study will find how the cast portrays themselves as Mormon women. 

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An analysis of SLOMW revealed how the main cast represents the Church of Jesus Christ’s beliefs and practices. This study analyzed SLOMW impact on how Mormon women are presented on reality TV. The analysis used thematic analysis along with representation and feminist theory. This study aims to fill the gap in reality TV studies by looking at a show heavily impacted by religion and how the format of reality TV affects representation and feminism around religion. 

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‍RQ #1: How does the Secret Lives of Mormon Wives portray Mormon women?

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