Mormon Wives stars Jessi Ngatikaura and Whitney Leavitt break silence on Demi rift ahead of series reunion

Evening Standard

Jessi Ngatikaura is at the centre of The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives season two. Now, she’s breaking her silence on the fallout with former friend Demi Engemann and the rumours surrounding her marriage after that explosive finale.The show follows a group of Utah-based Mormon influencers known collectively as “MomTok,” whose picture-perfect content includes baking, parenting, beauty and traditional values — all filtered through a reality TV lens.Now streaming on Disney+, the latest installment picks up after SLOMW became the platform’s most-watched unscripted premiere of 2024.  Speaking with The Standard, Jessi opened up about the tensions that defined the season — from her fractured friendship with Demi to the speculation surrounding her marriage in the wake of the finale’s biggest revelation.

Transcript

00:00We have to address the fallout with Demi. It was such a big plot point I suppose for this season.

00:05Where are things standing and also was it really the comment about your business that really

00:10was the straw that broke the camel's back? Yeah it's so hard because I think everyone's gone

00:14through like a friendship breakup but to do it publicly with people's opinions is like so weird

00:19because it's like I know how I felt she knows how she felt but now we add in the internet's opinions

00:23and everything it's hard. I would say that we had just like a few things happen over the course of

00:27a few months and like each one made us a little bit weaker and I think that it needed to happen

00:33because emotions were so high and we probably needed a break to like cool down and think about

00:38what each of us did and I think actually the show airing was good because we both got to see our

00:42actions and kind of like reflect on should I have done this differently? Should I have said that

00:46differently? So things are not like perfect and I don't think we'll ever be what we were but I do

00:52feel like the group as a whole is moving towards a more civil place and I'm really excited to see

00:56that because I do feel like in future seasons I would love to see MomTalk stay together and not

01:01constantly be up and down. I think viewers want to see that. I think they want to see you guys

01:06a bit more united. I do too so let's hope. Now at the end of the season we were left with a huge

01:12mic drop with the Marciano situation I suppose for yourself. How was it watching back and reflecting

01:20on that whole situation but also how have things then been at home off camera? Yeah that was

01:25obviously crazy. The good thing about reality TV is you kind of referenced it that like you film it

01:30months ago and then it comes on so obviously that situation I was already aware of so I knew it was

01:35coming but watching it back and then seeing opinions and people talking about it was weird and the

01:41hardest part is not being able to fully speak about it till the next season comes out so I will say

01:46there's more to that story. It's a lot bigger than you know what just is shown right there but reality TV

01:51is so hard on like any relationship friendship anything like that so I think the next season

01:57I'm kind of excited to show a more vulnerable side of me a bigger piece of my marriage and

02:02hopefully something that people can relate to. And I have to ask were the girls talking about this

02:06moment before it was revealed or was it just a complete bombshell to you guys as well? No yeah it was a

02:11complete bombshell yeah to everyone. Oh wow. Have things genuinely improved between you's or have you just

02:17mastered the art of keeping everything on the camera? No I feel like they genuinely have like

02:22we get together a lot and I think it's because like I separated myself from the group and um and

02:29then in turn felt ostracized and like kind of left on an island and I so I feel like with Jen the

02:35beginning of season two she was starting to feel like that so I relate with her on that and then

02:38even with Demi now she feels that way and I mean things are you know slowly getting better but

02:44with Demi I can we've just related with each other on that and have built a relationship.

02:49And what can we expect then for the next half of the season? A lot of craziness um a lot more

02:55answers. Yes and I would say it's a season unlike any other that we've had so far yeah like very

03:00different. Yeah I agree.

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