Sex, Lies and a Swinging Scandal: Behind the Scenes of 'The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives'

Transcript

00:00You would have to have been buried under a mountain of quilts not to have heard the phrases

00:08soft swinging or fruity pebbles in the last couple of weeks.

00:11Yep, Hulu's new reality show The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives has landed hot and fast.

00:16And it's caught the attention of the public like nothing I've seen in years.

00:20In fact, I can't remember the last time I was this excited to put fresh faces on the

00:25cover of a magazine.

00:26Mormon Wives is major female friend drama set against the backdrop of not-as-conservative

00:32as we thought Mormonism.

00:33There's sex scandals, TikTok stars competing to be a queen bee, and there's a cast member

00:39who's distantly related to Ben Affleck.

00:43Or are they?

00:44The show has all the makings of classic reality TV guilty pleasure, but there's a lot more

00:49than meets the eye than just noisy reality TV drama.

00:53Although there's nothing wrong with that.

00:54One of the reasons Mormon Wives is so compelling is because it's rare to get a glimpse into

00:58the lives of religious communities, especially when they're nothing like we might have imagined.

01:04In our cover story, the stars talk exclusively to Us Weekly and question whether their lives

01:09would be quite so dramatic now if their formative years hadn't been so restricted by religious

01:14doctrine and rules.

01:16For example, one character, Whitney, grapples with whether to accept a sponsorship that

01:20would have paid her $20,000 for promoting a sex toy and talks about inspiring other

01:25women to not be ashamed.

01:26The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives is also a story about sisterhood, supporting each other

01:30and subverting the conservative patriarchy and giving themselves independence by becoming

01:35breadwinners.

01:36We talked to all of the show's cast, its producers and some folks from behind the scenes,

01:41including one of the attendees of the soft-swinging parties, for this deeply reported package

01:47on the show that is capturing the zeitgeist.

01:49I would love to know what you think.

01:52Catch the full story on usmagazine.com or on newsstands now.