'The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives' Star Mikayla Matthews Says Whitney Leavitt's Actions Were Worse Than What Was Shown
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The Secret Lives of Mormon star Mikayla Matthews says Whitney Leavitt may have gotten a good edit on their Hulu show, which has been taking TikTok by storm since its September 6 release.
“They didn’t even show everything that happened with her,” Matthews, 24, told SheKnows in an exclusive interview after the release of the show. “There was a lot of different things that happened that were not shown on the show. I think the edit almost made it look a little bit better than it was.”
Leavitt’s disagreements with other cast members including Taylor Frankie Paul, Jessi Ngatikura, and Demi Engemann were the central storyline in the show, which follows the lives of TikTok influencers in Utah and their ties to the Church of Latter-Day Saints.
A major argument in the show’s fourth episode causes Leavitt to leave the group chat, refuse to attend events with the other women and complain to her husband when she is no longer invited to group activities. By the end of the show, she is essentially no longer in the friend group.
For Matthews, who tells us that she was closest to Leavitt and Mayci Neely before filming began, she didn’t anticipate her former friend would become a reality show villain but, seeing it play out, she wasn’t all that shocked either.
“It didn’t surprise me that much,” she says. “I feel like I’ve seen some of those traits.”
“I’ve always known that she’s likes to be in control but I feel like filming the reality show, maybe things were more heightened and she lost that control and kind of had a flip out.”
“I didn’t expect it to go as bad as it did,” she continues. “There were things I watched on the show that made it look even worse that I didn’t know happened. They didn’t even show everything that happened with her and other people’s relationship as well.”
As for whether a reconciliation with Leavitt is possible, Matthews tells us it’s complicated.
“I feel like, out of anyone, I feel like I’m owed the [biggest] apology, because we were best friends before, but there’s just no accountability at all behind the scenes.”
Since the show’s premiere, Leavitt and Matthews have continued their dispute on social media. After Leavitt posted a TikTok to say that the show is “not how I remember it,” Matthews hit back in her comments, writing, “Sometimes I like to own up to things I do wrong… You should try it.”
Matthews also clapped back again when Leavitt posted screenshots of texts with Neely, attempting to clear her name by showing how she tried to reach out while the drama shown on the show was unfolding.
“I saw her character long before the world did on this show and that’s the last I’ll say on that,” Matthews wrote on her Instagram story. “No one ever deserves to get hate but I will continue to publicly defend my friends on videos that are posted to the public.”
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