What is MomTok? Drama about the secret lives of Mormon women, explained

Taylor Frankie Paul divorce announcement.
Photo: @taylorfrankiepaul/TikTok

Two years ago, 28-year-old Mormon influencer and mother of two Taylor Frankie Paul jumped on TikTok to tell her 3.5 million followers that she was getting a divorce after hanging out with her friend group in Draper, Utah, ” “gentle swinging”. Paul claimed to have fallen in love with one of the husbands she had sex with, and other MomTokers took pains to deny her involvement. Of course, the whole story blew up, and now Paul and some of her Latter-day sisters are starring in a Hulu show. The Secret Lives of Mormon Womeninspired by this ordeal. They threatened to “spill all the tea” about what really happened for over a year, and the show has already chronicled plenty of drama. Now that the season finale has aired, a second season with all cast members is reportedly in the works. That’s how we got here.

Paul was previously a regular on Mormon MomTok, where she posted mostly dance videos, with occasional appearances from her then-husband Tate Paul and their two young children, Indy and Ocean. She also performed choreographed routines with a group of like-minded Mormon TikTok moms, including Camille Munday and Miranda McWhorter, whom she often referred to as her “sister wives.” Of course, that was before May 2022, when she revealed via one of her lip sync videos that she was separating from her husband, which she described as “an unfortunate announcement.” Using audio from Miley Cyrus’ “Malibu,” Paul presented what looked like a new set of keys sitting in an empty house. The text in the video read: “In my 20s, I got divorced, started therapy, and lived alone for the first time with two small children.”

In a second video, Taylor hinted that there was more to the end of her marriage. A video of their moving boxes included the cryptic text: “My life is falling apart. And I can’t even talk about why… without taking them all away.” Meanwhile, fans on Reddit noticed that some MomTokers unfollowed Taylor and liked comments that suggested she cheated.

In a livestream on May 25, Taylor claimed that she and her husband had an open relationship and had an arrangement with other couples in their circle of friends. In her video, she was careful not to name any names, but reported that she and her husband were “swaying gently,” which, in her words, meant no one walked “all the way” together unless their spouses were in Space. “The whole group was intimate with each other,” she said in the video, which was quickly sent out republished online.

However, Taylor said It violated the group’s soft swapping policy. “To be honest, like all of us, we had an agreement and I got out of that agreement,” she said, admitting that she went “all the way” with someone in the group.

“It wasn’t like I was going around meeting my friend’s husband. It was like we were at a party, I got argumentative and we were messing around alone rather than with the whole group,” she said. Taylor insisted it was “a one-off thing” but also admitted that she and the unnamed man “had feelings for each other.”

Taylor said she was “ostracized” by her friends after the incident, but added that “no one was innocent.” She also claimed that there were other people in the group who had “feelings,” presumably for people who were not her spouses. “There are currently three divorces in our circle of friends,” she claimed. “One person actually has nothing to do with this situation, but two of us are getting divorced.” As for who exactly is involved, she said the “majority” of MomTok is not involved and most of her TikTok friends have supported her .

Taylor also said that she and Tate had a good relationship. She told fans that there were other reasons for the divorce, saying that the incident was “the tip of the iceberg.”

After Taylor’s video, fans began speculating that other MomTokers must have been connected to the drama. A number of MomTokers denied the rumors, including Miranda McWhorter and her husband Chase, who posted a video denying being involved in the swinging and claiming that Miranda had a fight with Taylor because Taylor spread the rumor, Chase has feelings for her. Taylor responded with another live video in which she explained that Chase and Miranda told her to tell fans that they were not the couple involved. She also claimed to have a good relationship with Miranda. Camille Munday, who Taylor previously said was never part of the Swing Crew because she and her husband brought “too much drama,” posted a comment on a completely different influencer’s account saying that she and her husband didn’t swing. Mayci Neeley, Whitney Leavitt and Victoria Zalic have also posted videos saying they were never involved in swinging.

Following the drama, Taylor posted an Instagram Story thanking her family for “being so supportive during this time” and saying she was “overwhelmed.” She appeared to address rumors that she had been sent a cease and desist letter, adding: “After speaking to my legal team, I have the right to share my story if I want. However, I feel like I have shared a part and will not share anything else from now on.”

Clearly she didn’t stop sharing. Taylor spent a few months posting updates about her life as a newly single mother and controversial TikTok sensation before a new man, Dakota Mortensen, appeared in her videos. Despite speculation that Mortensen is the man she was “swinging with all the way,” she explained in a later video that he slid into her DMs shortly after her swinging drama ended.

In 2023, Paul was arrested for assault and domestic violence after she admitted to police that she threw a wooden playset and metal chairs at Mortensen, one of which hit her 5-year-old daughter. She pleaded guilty to one of the charges and agreed to a plea deal in September. In a video released after the settlement, she described the incident as “hitting rock bottom” and said it “caused me to seek help that I wasn’t getting at the time,” adding that she felt “guilty “Ashamed and embarrassed”. ”

Also in September last year: Paul and Mortensen announced they were expecting a baby together, and since then their account has shifted heavily toward pregnancy and postpartum content.

Taylor also posted a few reunion videos with a group she calls Mormon MomTok, although her old friends Miranda and Camille haven’t appeared on her feed.

Pretty much everyone Taylor posts with now. Film crews appear in many of her videos that purport to show her friend group’s “reunions.” So it looks like they pretty much didn’t record the friend group implosion until it made it to TikTok, although commenters have expressed disappointment that it’s not the OG crew. In addition to Paul, the cast includes Whitney Leavitt, Layla Taylor, Demi Engemann, Jessi Ngatikaura, Mikayla Matthews and Mayci Neeley. There is also Jen Affleck, a woman who claims this married to Ben Affleck’s distant cousin, but appears to have no verifiable connection to his family.

Although Leavitt and her husband spent some time commenting on the revelation that he was secretly on Tinder throughout their marriage and he also claims to be addicted to porn, everyone on the show denies being involved in the swinging (except Taylor).

Actually a lot. Even without rumors of them making out with each other’s husbands, the Mormon women of Utah had plenty of reason to feud — the show’s first season focused largely on Paul’s battle with Leavitt for the MomTok Queen Bee crown. Leavitt left the group chat at the end of the season, reportedly with plans to go into homesteading (yes), but Hulu is reportedly on track to greenlight a second season. As of Deadline, pre-production is already underway in Utah. The lemonades can only get bigger from here.

This post has been updated.