Exec Producers Discuss Returning to The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives

With its premiere in September 2024, The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives exposed the personal lives of Utah-based TikTok influencers who had been mired by a swinging sex scandal. In doing so, it not only revealed the reality behind the facades posted on social media, it also exposed the different ways the women grapple with their religion and the roles expected of them.

Season two, out now on Hulu, continues to see the women deal with the fallout of the scandal and other problems that arose during season one—marital difficulties and internal fights about loyalties—all without judgment or placing blame. “That’s what the show really aims to do,” explains Georgia Berger, an executive producer and talent manager at Select Management Group. “It’s not necessarily trying to justify any of their actions. It’s just trying to show all sides of it. The lifestyle, the community. The good, the bad. They don’t want to shy away [from reality, especially when] online, social media is known to create ‘perfect’ lives. We and these women wanted to show that what you see online is not always the full picture.”

Season two also continues to explore the women’s faith and how they engage with their roles as members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Season one was mainly about introducing the religion “because [for] a lot of people, what they thought they knew about the Mormon community and the church was more FLDS, which is fundamentalist,” Berger says. “So, it was about introducing everybody to Mormon culture. Season two feels a bit more relatable. It doesn’t matter what religion you’re in; they all have similar themes or common misconceptions, and it tackles it in a way that feels more relatable and less about specifically being Mormon.”

“There’s a [moment] where they’re sitting around the table discussing what they believe, how frequently they go to church and the extent of their belief system,” notes Danielle Pistotnik, also an executive producer and talent manager at Select Management Group. “Even though they’re Mormons, the thing I like about that is it’s a conversation that all of us have with people that we’re really close to. I was raised Jewish and all my friends are from different walks of life. We sit down and we have these conversations. That makes the Mormonism of it all feel a lot more relatable to most people.”

Though the women make their living on TikTok and know what it is like to receive backlash, the debut of the show caused “an amplified version of what they experienced before,” Pistotnik says, with plenty of comments from people within their own community criticizing the way they engage with Mormonism to people from outside the community casting judgment. Despite that negativity, though, ”it’s felt so positive. The girls are excited, the team is excited, everyone watching it seems excited. And 3 percent of the haters online do 90 percent of the comments. We’re used to it over here. It doesn’t really matter that much.”

That being said, Pistotnik, Berger and the rest of the behind-the-scenes team take their duty of care seriously. Jen Affleck, one of the moms in the cast, dealt with marital issues that came to a head during the first season. She decided to step back from filming.

“When we decided that Jen had to focus on her own mental health, whatever that may be, that was a decision that was just obvious,” Berger says. “For us, as managers and producers, making sure that the talent and their well-being first and foremost are OK” is paramount.

That also applies to those adjacent to the women on the show. Miranda McWhorter was not part of season one, but she was part of the initial swinging sex scandal. She did decide to join for season two. “Our producers had spoken to Miranda about potentially joining for season one, but the one thing that we always really want to make sure with our cast is that they’re all really comfortable,” Berger says. “For some people, like Miranda, who had a very big secret aired online, she was a little hesitant to give up control of her own story and wanted to control that narrative through her own social posts. But after seeing season one, there’s a lot more trust built.”

The show has been a major success for Hulu, with season one’s premiere becoming its most-watched unscripted season premiere in 2024 after three days. Season one also became the first Hulu unscripted series to appear in Nielsen’s streaming ratings. It’s not just the power of Hulu that has driven this success—it’s the very women on the show, who know exactly how to market themselves online.

“They’re geniuses,” Pistotnik says. “I see the videos that they post every single day, and, if that was any other influencer, that would be their biggest, craziest video. And then the way they do it together—two people who don’t like each other will get together, make a video and poke at it. They just know exactly what to do.”