Will Momtok Survive This?

The ultimate recap and finale of The Secret Wives of Mormon Wives TV Show. Did Taylor & Dakota break up? Was Whitney's interview with The Squeeze sincere? I'm covering all members of the cast and am giving you the dirty details of these messy relationships and their friend dynamics. Can Momtok survive this? Let's talk about it.

If you or someone you know is experiencing a mental health crisis or having thoughts of suicide, help is available. Reach the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline by dialing 988 for 24/7 support. You can also contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255 or the Crisis Text Line by texting HOME to 741741. Don’t hesitate to reach out, support is always available. 

For those facing domestic violence, assistance is just a call away. In the U.S., you can reach the National Domestic Violence Hotline for 24/7 support by calling 1-800-799-SAFE (1-800-799-7233), or by texting START to 88788. For those who cannot safely call or text, live chat is also available at thehotline.org. You deserve a healthy and loving relationship.

Thank you so much for listening!

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Transcript

Hi. Hello. And welcome back to another episode of the Unrelatable podcast. I know what you're thinking. Hannah, how long are you going to write out the secret lives of Mormon wives?

Well, don't worry. This is the last episode that will be fully dedicated to this series until season 2 comes out because there is no way that we don't get a season 2. But I know I I miss our Thursday conversations. I don't know. Maybe you have enjoyed the last few episodes, but don't worry.

This will be the very last one that is dedicated to this TV show. Now it is peak brain rot. I know. It is. But I watched it, and a lot of you guys did too.

So what does that say about us? I think it I think it says that we need a day off work. We need some time off. We need to relax. I don't know.

So, anyways, in this episode, I am bringing you a partial recap of the show. This was requested by some of you that didn't wanna spend your time watching this show, which is, you know, makes a ton of sense. And so what I did is when I watched the TV show, I wrote down highlights from each episode. And so I will be giving you my first impressions of the woman. I'll be recapping Whitney's only interview that she just did with the Taylor Lautners on the squeeze podcast.

And then, finally, I will be summarizing my final impressions as of today of the woman, the show, my thoughts, my feelings about the show with a few new ones. I have a few new opinions that may differ from my last two episodes, and I have so many notes. I could not I I don't even know how this episode I don't even know how long this episode is going to be. I hope it's not gonna be 3 hours long. And it is also day 2 of hurricane Helene.

Now, the waves haven't hit landfall yet, but I am in the most Western part of North Carolina in the mountains. And so we've been having intense rainfall that started earlier this week, and it's just going hard. We're we are right in the flooding zone. And so we've already gotten, I think, 6 inches of rain or something. So, hopefully, we don't get any any landslides because we are in in the Blue Ridge Mountains.

But, anyways, the reason why I'm saying that is because it's pouring rain. And so if my mic picks that up or if there's ever any thunder or anything, sorry about that. You know? Wish that this wasn't the circumstance. So if you're in Florida, stay safe.

Again, it hasn't hit landfall yet, so we're not really sure to the extent of things of of how it's going to affect everybody. But stay safe out there. And lastly, we will be addressing several sensitive topics in this episode, including mental health, domestic violence, and suicide. Now, these topics will be talked about and brought up very randomly as they do pop up sporadically in the season. And since I'll be following this timeline of the season, I'll be addressing them as they come and go.

And so they will be coming up randomly. And so, yeah, feel free to listen to a different episode if you're not in the headspace to listen to discussions on those topics at this time. And with that, I just wanted to say welcome back to the Unrelatable podcast. I know that this TV show has been out about 3 weeks now, so I'm going to assume that those of you who have been interested in it have already seen it. But we're gonna go ahead and dive into episodes 1 through 3.

And, immediately, it, of course, kicks off with Taylor, Frankie, Paul. Now, I did recap the first episode or sorry. I did recap the first episode of what happens with her in my last episode about her interview. Does that make sense? But, essentially, the first two episodes in the show really highlight her bad experiences that she has gone through in the last few years.

And these are swinging, getting divorced, getting into a new relationship, being arrested, and getting pregnant. Talk about a list of traumatizing and life changing events that have all happened within the last two and a half years. That is a lot. And so she ends up opening up to her mother about a potential pregnancy scare in this first episode. And her mom's response is, and I quote, you're so stupid.

You're always screwing everything up. It pisses me off. I'm tired of you doing everything to this family. And what I observed was her really checking out while her mom was talking. And it is very clear at this time that she is already struggling with her confidence.

And then her mother goes on to say, you piss me off, and I don't want to talk to you. Is Taylor's mom also a teen mom? Because the in my opinion, I've heard a lot of different opinions on the mom's reactions, saying, well, of course, I would be pissed at my daughter too. But listen, you can be pissed at your child, and you can say that to your friends. In my opinion, these are not things to these are not things to say to your children's face.

At least, I don't feel a healthy dynamic would be comfortable saying you're so stupid. You screw everything up, and you essentially ruin everything for our family. I don't know. Can we think about that for a second? Doesn't seem very pro it doesn't seem very what's the word that I'm trying to think of here?

It just doesn't seem helpful. Maybe from what it seems like from Taylor's response even, Taylor doesn't mind or so she says. But in my mind, I see Taylor, and I'm like, obviously, you are struggling mentally. And, obviously, you haven't had a solid base. And so I can't really say that this parenting looks like it has been working.

I don't know. In my opinion, not cool. I would never talk to my daughter that way. Again, save the anger and reactions out of anger and calling your children stupid. Save that for your friends.

I don't know. Save it for your journal. But saying these things to your daughter, it you never know when it can be the last straw for somebody. And I completely disagree with the conclusion that a lot of people have said of, well, it's tough love and she does suck, and she is ruining her family's life so she should hear it. Don't you already think she's telling herself these things?

Maybe we don't need our mother to confirm our deepest, darkest thoughts. That's just one of my one of my opinions. So then we go on to the quote, unquote, villain of the season. We all know her as Whitney Leavitt. And it gives an intro to her, and she quoted saying, being invited to mom talk was exciting, unquote.

And there seems to be a really big theme during the mom talk talking, you know, will mom talk survive this? This is what mom talk is all about. We love mom talk, and everyone is like, I'm so sorry. What even is mom talk? During the entire season.

At least, for me, I'm thinking, what do you mean? What do you mean will mom talk survive this? What is mom talk? Do I need to know? I mean, obviously, I know that mom talk is essentially mothers on TikTok, whether they show their children or not.

Whether their children is a big piece of their content or not. Their mothers that are on TikTok, they're essentially providing for their family. And, essentially, during the entire season, it seems like Whitney wants to be queen bee. She wants to be the leader of of the gang. And it's just it was just really interesting.

And right off the bat, we learned that her husband has been struggling with a porn addiction, sending photos and just yeah. All all that jazz. And like I said about my in my episode with Taylor Frankie Paul, about how Nick Viall, who interviewed her, he was kind of coming out exposing somebody as exposing someone's sexuality. And so I kind of have a hard time because I feel like I can't say, you know what? That's wrong of Nick to do that.

And then turn around and do it to somebody else that I'm watching on TV when, yeah, some things do seem extremely obvious. And maybe it was Grindr. Maybe it wasn't Tinder. But I don't know. I just feel I don't know.

I know you open up your relationship to be to speculation, to being entertained, and all of the deepest and darkest possibilities are thrown at you. And I don't know. Don't know how I feel about it because, again, mental mental health here. And so, anyways, let's move on to Demi. I I wrote down in my notes that I like her the most so far.

She seems really chill, really laid back. She seems so far like she is not afraid to communicate. She likes to hold people accountable to their actions. Can she come off a little intense at times? Yeah.

Probably. But I also feel that reality TV emotions get heightened, and you kinda jump into this character. Is that her? I don't know. I I do think she's cool, and I will give you my final thoughts on her later on at the end of this episode.

But moving on to Jesse. Jesse is the one that that owns Jay z Styles, the hair extension company in I think it's in is it in Provo or is it in in the Salt Lake Valley? I don't know. But my first impression was side character for a while. Right?

We'll get into her later. Next is Mikaela. In the beginning, I wish they would have really introduced each character a little bit better. I wish they would have shared about Mikaela's story going through chronic illness and her struggles through that. Because a lot of people's first impressions were, oh my goodness.

She looks terrible. What is going on? Why is she there? And she was struggling with her life at that point. And, you know, it just she was obviously struggling.

And so that's kind of my first notes as I already knew that about her before going into the season. And so next, we go to Macy. Macy came in swinging, and she really narrated the entire season for us. If we didn't have Macy, we would have really had no idea what was going on. She really tied it all together, and I have more opinions about her later.

Layla, she came in very quiet in the beginning as well. She's a little cutie, and I think that's everybody. Right? I didn't miss anyone. I don't think.

If I did, we will no. I think that's everybody. Okay. Oh, Jen. Of course.

Jen, we will talk about later as well. I don't feel like they showed very much of Jen in the beginning. It was more her sitting in on the conversations, and she really comes in, you know, episodes 7 and 8, which we will talk about later on. Okay. So then we get into Whitney deciding to share what's going on in her life and share why she left Utah.

She left Utah amidst her RSV her RSV TikTok that she made essentially dancing next to her baby in the hospital with RSV. And she was essentially canceled for it. And so her and her husband moved to Hawaii and shows them moving back. It shows them getting into their house, and he opens up to her and says, hey. I'm comfortable with you sharing the reason why we've been struggling a lot and our issues that we've been dealing with.

So Whitney rounds everybody up. She gets them on the couch and she tells them and she's she's crying. She's very vulnerable. And she says, the rumors that came out about my husband cheating on me, about him being on Tinder. Well, he didn't, quote, unquote, cheat on her physically, but he was on a dating website send sending photos, which you can't send photos on Tinder, but you can on Grindr.

I've learned this from from, TikTok. So, we just gotta you know, I feel like the thing is is I don't know if the tea the producers probably did want everybody guessing and speculating because they did leave in comments by her husband that were a little interesting. But, anyways, so she shares with the woman, hey. I'm really struggling with this, and nobody really knows how to comfort her. I didn't see a lot of comforting going around.

Not a lot happened. But that might be because Taylor comes in and says, yeah. I have some some big news too. I I might be pregnant, or I think she says I am pregnant. I don't remember.

All I know is that she announces her pregnancy. Whitney becomes really offended and sad because she kind of stole her moment. I definitely agree. Not the right place, not the right time. Maybe the producer said, hey, Taylor.

I want you to share this after she shares it. You know, they kind of like to sabotage they kind of like to sabotage everybody. They set you up. They set you up, and then they film it. And then you get these big these big reactions.

So we then lead on later to Taylor's arrest, which is highlighted at the end of episode 1 and opens up in episode 2. Now it's crazy because these events are literally happening in, you know, in the city where my where my dad lives. I know a lot of you have lived in in these places before. It's just interesting. It's interesting being from Utah and just knowing all of these locations.

All of them. Okay. So, basically, Taylor's arrest happens. We talk about that a lot in in the last episode that I dropped about Taylor Frankie Paul's interview with Nick Vial. And I do have comments on that that I will add near the end of this episode again.

But, essentially, what happens after the arrest is Whitney we meet Whitney's mom. And Whitney's mother actually seems really sweet to me. I haven't heard or seen anyone else's opinions on her mom, but I feel like she actually listens to her. Does she enable her, though? I don't know.

Because I feel as if Whitney has never been told no before. I don't know. I don't know what's giving me that impression. Weird. You know?

I don't know. And I just felt like it was really interesting how the stance is that mom talk is changing everything within the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints. Whitney almost says, you know, we are we are creating a precedence, and we are changing everything. And, that's not true. Nothing nothing is changing.

Nothing is happening. I don't know. Is it really making that big of an impact? I don't know. I don't know if it is as impactful as it is portrayed.

Because they really portray, like, as if mom talk is changing the standards in the religion. And maybe it's more so showing that, hey, everything doesn't have to be as black and white in the church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints as it was when, for example, I was a member. When I was a member, there was not a lot of nuance to things, and it was kind of your in or your out. There was no in between. And I think it's really great that now you can have some different opinions.

You can choose whether to wear your garments or not. I mean, maybe people I don't know. I don't know. We don't even have to get into that. But I see more and more people making decisions that they feel good in their heart with, and, you know, they do what they need to do, whether it's praying to God and receiving answers for themselves, whatever it is.

And then they still go to church. And that's a that's pretty progressive for it's a pretty progressive stance, I guess. And, again, there's there's lots of different nuances here. And I'm not saying one thing is right, one thing is true, one thing is wrong, one thing is false. All I'm saying is that maybe when she was saying that mom talk is changing everything, is that maybe they're normalizing these things.

Normalizing swearing all the time is funny to me because they do cuss a lot, and that's totally fine. Say say whatever you want. And I'm not gonna say, I've never sworn in my life because that's not true. But there there's things that they say that's definitely not something that is taught. You know?

They don't say the church doesn't say, yeah. Just cuss whenever you want and do this and do that. There are rules. There are standards. And so it is interesting.

And I do see why a lot of people have been offended that this might change the way that people see them and their religion, and they might have to defend themselves and say, no. I don't drink coffee or, no. I'm not a swinger. And, realistically, I was actually surprised because I felt like swinging, that was hardly touched upon. It was the smallest little instance of being mentioned.

I mean, we hadn't one episode where it was mentioned. And so it was definitely used to advertise the show, and it was definitely used to catapult the massive reaction and everything from everybody that it did. And, hey, they were successful with it. And because of that, they got a lot of viewers. So that's why I think there will probably be a season 2.

Okay. Moving on. Whitney then goes to say, me, Jen, and Macy are the most devout out of the whole group. So then we get into the saints and the sinners where the saints are Whitney, Jen, and Macy, and then the sinners, essentially everyone else. In fact, I think Mikaela is Mikaela part of the Saints?

I don't know if she is. I don't even know if she was actually ever a member. I'm not I'm not too sure. But then, I think this is episode 3, where we start to see some boundaries being crossed amongst the relationships and the friends. And Jesse decides to bring alcohol.

Her and her husband bring alcohol to Jen's in law's house. And Jen's in laws are devout members of the church. Jen is a devout member. Her husband is, and this is essentially, I think it was, was it a party for her husband? I forget what it was.

But I did listen to a podcast from Jesse. And she said that what they decided not to show, what production kept off of the show, was that the reason why Jesse and her husband were drinking in the hot tub was because everybody was going to go to a club after. And so instead of spending upwards of 10 to $20 on drinks, they decided to drink in the pool. And then everyone got in Ubers, and they all went to the club. Because even though they're all devout members, not all of them.

Sorry. Even though, for example, Jen and her husband are members, Jen loves to dance. And so she'll go to the club and she'll go to the club sober and have a good time. Do I think that it was necessary? Absolutely not.

I think that it's a little disrespectful unless unless you ask. And they obviously didn't because it looked it looked really uncomfortable, and it is at the in law's house. Very interesting. It's kinda funny because it seems as if we're watching high schoolers. Oh my goodness.

Can you believe it? Someone brought alcohol. This is crazy. Don't show my parents. Like, you're gonna get me in so much trouble.

Oh, don't worry. Don't worry. I'll be sneaky. You know what I mean? As if we're not all grown adults.

But at the same time, definitely boundaries should be respected. And I don't drink. But if I did, I would absolutely not be bringing it to, like, my family's events and just saying, you know what? It's just who I am. Deal with it.

Whatever. I don't know. I don't know about that. Wouldn't wouldn't be me, but whatever. So then Jen and her husband are upset about it, and they're like, hey.

Our boundaries are crossed. Let's not invite those 4 women. They don't respect our boundaries. They don't in return, not really respecting their boundaries within the religion is how they feel. And they were worried about her baby blessing being not respected.

And so she even though she'd already invited, Demi and who else was it? Jesse, and I think Mikaela, right, and Taylor, she essentially uninvited them. And, you know, I think it's okay. I think that maybe I don't know. I feel like if you don't feel comfortable with having people at an event, okay.

But it can be hurtful to not get invited just because you're not a member. I think they're completely different things. So not being invited because you're worried that someone's gonna bring alcohol and not respect your boundaries. Well, she had already been shown that Jesse didn't respect her boundaries. So, in my opinion, it's a valid concern.

You know what I mean? But, hopefully, I don't know. Is there discernment here? Hopefully, there'd be some discernment of not bringing alcohol, not swearing, not I don't know. Just not doing those things at a baby blessing.

But I'm sure Jen and Zach were fearful of that. So they made us the decision not to invite them. And this caused a lot of drama. It caused a lot of hurt. And this thing is definitely something that does that does happen within the church.

I mean, not being invited to things because you're not as Mormon y as somebody else and and and all the things. But then again, there's also room for people to come to these things at most events. For example, whenever there is a oh my gosh. I completely forget what it's called. When someone's about to go on a mission oh, a farewell.

Okay. How did I forget that? Whenever there's a farewell, which is when a person decides to go on a mission for the church, they end up giving their testimony and speaking about it, and everyone is invited, their friends, their family. Usually, that's not something where people are not included too. Because in my opinion, from what I have experienced is everyone should be welcomed into the church.

I think that the problems that people have are actually with other members. With other members not being active enough for them or other members not being active anymore and things like that because it it's almost like there is the benefit of the doubt given to people that have never been members. But if you have been a member before, you're not given as much as as much of that. And this is not to say that this is for everybody. But these are things that a lot of people I know have experienced.

And so this is just my random thoughts and opinions. You don't have to listen to me if you don't have to agree. I actually I I told you how nervous I was about releasing my last episode about part of my experience about being a member of the church. And I did receive a lot of really good feedback by my friends, by people that I haven't necessarily had a lot of conversations with before. And I felt really good about it.

I was actually surprised with how many listens it got, because it was way more than I typically do. And I also lost a bunch of followers all over it, which is fine. I think it's funny because I didn't lose the followers on my unrelatable podcast account. I lost them on my personal account. So, you know, that's okay.

Probably probably wasn't even following them in the first place. No. Just kidding. Okay. Next is episode 4.

Whitney was upset that Demi was upset. Do I remember what they were upset about? No. But being upset for someone else being upset, you're making it about you, and it's not about you. Flipping it and creating a victim mentality is crazy.

And I just felt that Whitney throughout the entire show can't take accountability. She can't take up accountability. She says she feels ambushed, which I understand if a ton of people are coming at you. She did have a support system. And, also, I don't know.

It just felt like there's so much drama over literally nothing. But, again, being upset because someone else is upset at you is is not cool. It's essentially telling them and guilting them to feel bad for you. It's like if I were to make a mistake let's let's say I do something and it really makes my sister upset. I go to her.

I'm so sorry. I'm I'm so sorry that I did that. Leave it leave it there. Validate their feelings. Say you're sorry.

Leave it there. But instead, Whitney goes, and this makes me feel so bad that you feel bad. And now, you're almost having to you're almost having to comfort the person that hurt you, which is a little manipulative. It's, I don't know. Kinda it doesn't it doesn't make me feel too good.

I don't I don't know if that's taking true accountability. My next note here is that Macy kind of felt a little bit like she was teetering into being an enabler. I know that she just loves to know how everyone feels, but I also feel as if sometimes she would share information amongst each other and maybe stir the pod. And, you know, do I feel like she's not a good friend? No.

A little bit of my feelings in the beginning were a friend to all is a friend to none. But I feel like she really proved herself as a good friend during the rest of the season. And so I kinda felt like that was more of a production thing right there. Okay. Next, we get to the next big event, which is the truth box.

Now, there are hurtful things that happen when the truth box is out. And I didn't write down what they were. I just wrote down people's reactions. And Demi had said something hurtful. I think it was about Taylor being a whore or a slut or something.

And she immediately said she was sorry. She took accountability. Whitney didn't take accountability for what she said, which was really no surprise. But I was feeling sad for Taylor, because she just looked so sad and miserable. And, obviously, at this point, she she had already gone through 2 miscarriages.

And at this point, she is fully pregnant. And so, you know, she is going through this difficult relationship with her boyfriend, and she's pregnant going through a big life transition and on a TV show. But it just it was crazy because Whitney was super upset at Taylor because the public forgave Taylor. They forgave Taylor for her or quote unquote forgave Taylor. She essentially said she was so upset at her because she didn't get away with her RSV video as quickly as Taylor, quote, unquote, got away with swinging.

And Taylor expressed, what what are you saying? You have no idea how much hate I get. You have no idea how many people hate comments, videos, terrible things were said about me. But you're upset that I was forgiven, and it was just really, really interesting. And instead of Taylor being offended, Taylor said, thanks for telling me how you feel, and I will do better.

You know? And Whitney wasn't really expressing a lot of her a lot of her feelings. And so Taylor expressed, you know, I don't understand how you can expect me to work on work on our friendship if you don't say anything. And Whitney says, I don't care. And so it's really interesting because Whitney, this entire episode has this massive power struggle between caring too much and then saying she doesn't care.

It doesn't really align. Her words don't align with her actions, which is a big red flag. It's a big red flag. And she says it. She says it all the time.

I don't think I'm wrong. I would do it again. And she even says that in her in her interview with the Taylor Lautner's, she says she has zero regrets. Kind of interesting. Kind of interesting.

I respect I respect not having regrets in the sense of I didn't know better. And so I forgive myself and the mistakes that I've made, and I wouldn't go back because then I wouldn't have learned that lesson. But I don't know. I have some regrets in my life. You know, I wish I would have maybe done things a little bit differently, and I don't think it's bad to to say that.

I don't know. This is when everyone gets in a big fight. And Demi ends up following Whitney into the bathroom. Whitney's balling on the floor. Jen and, I think, Leila and Mikaela, are they the ones that are comforting Whitney while she's balling?

Anyways, Demi follows her and says, shut up to her and all these things. And I I like Demi most of the time. In fact, I really like Demi. I think she's cool. And she does end up apologizing, but she does kinda berate Whitney for a little bit.

And I don't think kicking someone when they're down is necessarily good. I also think sometimes, if you can tell that it's just not getting through someone's head, they're just not gonna get it. They're not gonna get it. And Whitney usually doesn't end up getting it. And she even says, I know when I'm effing in the wrong, and I'm not effing in the wrong.

So this whole season is essentially about Whitney not feeling included, and then, you know, being upset at not feeling included. So then what does she do? She leaves the group chat in episode 5. She says everyone is competitive, jealous, and rude to each other. And it's you you can't make this up.

You can't make this up. She says, I don't think there'd be mom talk if I wasn't there. And in my opinion, again, Whitney can't take accountability. We'll talk more about her later, especially in regards to her interview with the Lautner's. So we're just gonna move on from her in a minute.

Okay. Next, we're moving on to Jen. Poor Jen. We we support Jen. We love Jen.

If you wanna learn more about her story, you can listen to it on weekly trash podcast. She really didn't have a lot of her story in in the show. And so I'm hoping that the side that the quote unquote side characters of the show, which were kind of more like Mikaela, I don't know if Macy was really a side character. When I say side character, I mean, people whose stories were not expanded upon. I'd like to know more about Leila, Macy, Jen.

Yeah. So anyways, she comments about her husband, and she says, he's not a nice person if the house isn't clean. First red flag. Okay? We have several, and we'll talk about it later.

But Jen is providing for her family. She basically bought the house. She takes care of their children. She cleans the house. She even pays for her husband to go to school.

Because what did her husband do? He gambled away all of the money that her pair that his parents gave him to go to medical school. But he's not a nice person if the house isn't clean. Yeah. 1st red flag 1st red flag right there.

But then we did have a cute little episode, a cute little moment where Jen and her husband were teaching Dakota how to do baby things. So I really thought this scene was was sweet. They showed him how to do the baby bottle, how to change a diaper, how to clean out boogers because they had a new baby. And so I thought that was really sweet. I really did and and funny.

And so then we hear from Taylor, and she says that she's not going to be pressured into getting married. And this is when we get a glimpse into what will be a lot of the future arguments between her and her boyfriend, Dakota. He wants her to marry him. She is really still fresh out of her divorce. And I think that she wants to be able to make a logical decision without a bunch of hormones running through her, without a bunch of outside pressure, and without feeling all over the place.

But she's constantly being pressured. And I think that she's smart. I think she's smart by saying that she's not gonna be pressured into getting married. So then we learn a little bit about Leila. She ended up getting pregnant at 19 and got married and had the experience of, you know or at least she shares the experience of how traditional it is to stay within a marriage even if it's not working.

And I have seen this so many times within people in my personal life. It's a first it's literally like a one of I can't I mean, I can't say a firsthand. Is it a firsthand experience if it doesn't happen to you, but it happens to someone really close to you? Probably not. It's probably called something else.

But that's something that I find very true. A lot of times, people are pressured to work it out because marriage is seen as something that's very, I mean, very sacred. I think that everyone sees marriage as something that's very sacred. But if there are big red flags, if there's things that are not working, you can't you can't rewrite that. And and so, yeah, she ended up leaving her husband, and she provides for her kids.

She also shares a lot about her mental health struggles on her TikTok, which is really awesome of her. Okay. So I feel like the things that I am sharing are so no, I don't wanna say boring. But I have a note here that has Whitney saying, nobody called me when I left the group chat. You should have called me.

Nobody checked in with me. And I wanted people to check-in with me. Nobody actually cares. I have those kinds of things written down here in my notes. Whitney just seems really insecure, and it makes me sad.

I feel sad for her. I don't think it's I don't think it's normal. I don't think her actions are normal. And I think a lot of these women were forced to grow up really quickly. A lot of them did end up pregnant in their teens, including Macy.

We didn't see Macy's story, but she got pregnant by her boyfriend when she was 19 years old. She had a full ride scholarship to BYU as a pro tennis player, and she was terrified of losing her scholarship. I don't think she ended up losing her scholarship. But at the end of her pregnancy, her boyfriend was in a car crash, and he died. So she had to go through having her baby, essentially, on her own and was fortunate enough to meet an amazing man.

And now, they also have children together. So long story short, I don't even know why I said that so randomly right here. But a lot of a lot of these girls ended up pregnant early. And so they had to grow up really fast. And sometimes when you have to grow up really fast, the emotional intelligence you're in survival mode.

You know, you're taking care of yourself. You're getting things done. And sometimes, you push your emotions aside because you have other people to take care of. And so I feel like maybe that's I don't know if that pertains to Whitney, because I don't actually know a lot about Whitney's Whitney's story. And she seems to have had a supportive family.

But, again, we never know everything. I just feel bad that she is so insecure. You know? She wants to be chased. She wants to be that person where she leaves the room in a fit of rage, and people come and follow her.

But it's just not the best way to communicate. Okay. So, Demi. We learn a little bit more about Demi. Her husband is 46 years old.

She's 29, and his name is Brett. And I don't know if you watch Salt Lake City Housewives, but his ex is actually Angie Harrington from the Housewives. And he was also on the show, the bachelorette, when Clare was the bachelorette. So he has had a lot of experience with reality TV. And he does show up well on the TV show.

He does show up really supportive and kind and and all that jazz. I think that they're everyone's favorite favorite couple. Okay. So then we go into Taylor and Dakota again. And Taylor's explaining that Dakota's ready.

He's ready to move forward in their relationship. He's ready to get married, and she's not there yet. So she starts to explain the trust issues that she has. Well, 3 weeks into their relationship, he sends her a text saying, I'm gonna go hang out with my guys, sends a photo with them. Well, later on, she finds out he had actually hooked up with someone.

And she was angry. She was angry at him, and she doesn't feel healed from the lies. And she was absolutely bawling. She was talking to Macy about this. And Macy is someone that she has trusted about Dakota and has talked to about him.

And Macy openly says how much she does not support their relationship. But, yeah, they end up talking in front of okay. Sorry. This was a conversation with Macy and Dakota. They're all sitting on the couch, and he immediately shifts blame.

There's not even the validation. There's no validation. There's no, I understand where you're coming from. You've been through a lot in these past few years. You already have been married and divorced, and I have broken your trust.

No. He immediately shifts blame saying, you self sabotage. And it is it is crazy. He basically is like, it's your issue because you're not in it. And he says, you know, that Taylor said that they could still hang out with other people and date others.

He tells her that the way that she's treating him is insane. But I feel like he is treating her insane. He didn't comfort or validate. She's literally bawling. If your partner sees you crying, sees you bawling, and their first instinct isn't to immediately comfort you, they don't have your best interest in mind.

And in my opinion, they're acting out of selfishness. It's not a normal response to have. You can't you can't put me in front of even a stranger and tell me not to go comfort them if they're bawling. You know what I'm saying? I don't know.

It's it's interesting. Then he goes on in episode 6 to call Taylor's mom and say or maybe his mom maybe her mom called him. But, essentially, he said, tell your daughter she needs to commit to me or it's over. Mhmm. And after seizing seeing this season, you know, I feel like I have a lot more information about Dakota.

I feel now that the, you know, with the arrest, Taylor peed her pants when when during this altercation that her and Dakota had. She was running into the garage. She said she was trying to get away from him and was throwing things, you know, lots of and then lots of her reactions during the season. Almost disassociating, saying, I don't trust you. No.

I don't wanna get married. I won't be pressured into doing this. And even a lot of time responding really calmly, it all screams to me domestic abuse. Same with Jen's situation. Her husband absolutely does not have her best interests in mind or in his heart, and we will get into that in a little bit.

But, you know, the night of Taylor's arrest, it really sounds like it was reactive abuse. And I know the charges already went through and whatnot, but I wanna talk about what reactive abuse is. Next month is actually domestic violence awareness month. And so I find it fitting to share this because I believe that it just completely sounds like she experienced reactive abuse. And then she was, of course, the one that got arrested.

But what reactive abuse is is someone who is being abused will eventually reach their breaking point and lash out at their abuser in return. And if someone is being physically or verbally abused, their fight or flight response might kick in to help them protect themselves. And this is from an article. It says, if they are unable to flee, they might fight back against their abuser by attacking them physically or verbally. They may resort to yelling, screaming, insulting, or even assaulting their abuser.

And it says self defense is more of an accurate term. That's important to understand that someone who has to resort to reactive abuse is not the instigator. Rather, they are a victim who is being reacting. They are a victim who is reacting to being abused and the term reactive abuse reactive abuse can therefore be problematic because it does label the victim as an abuser. So a more accurate term to describe this behavior is self defense.

But, unfortunately, this reactive abuse always works against the victim because the abuser can use it as leverage. And so signs of reactive abuse are uncharacteristic behaviors, which we've seen from her so much, provocation, which is when the abuser cumulates in private or public, name calling, insulting, gaslighting. He gaslights constantly. And they do this all in order to get response from the victim. Another sign is self defense, confusion, not knowing why they reacted that way, being confused by their own actions, which we see as well.

Then there's guilt and feeling ashamed. Taylor has so much shame. She carries so much shame. She carries so much guilt. This is why I maintain the opinion that her mother her mother constantly guilting and shaming her doesn't help.

It doesn't help. And I wouldn't be surprised if this is added to Taylor's experience and her hard times going through life. I don't know. I don't know. I wouldn't be surprised.

The next one is doubt. You doubt your own reality and fear. Reactive abuse is then used against you. Again, next month is domestic violence awareness month. So this is something that is 100% applicable and 100% important to have conversations about.

I just felt like I had to talk about it right there because it is important. Okay. Back to the show. Jesse has a labiaplasty. Little twist in twist in events right here.

And she shows them. And I had actually never heard of that before. And I didn't realize that your labia potentially hangs out lower after you give birth. Nobody told me this. Nobody thought that was a good thing to mention.

I'm all for women getting surgery postpartum. I am all for women putting their getting getting whatever they wanted whatever they wanna get done. You're telling me that that this woman is going to grow children, have children, bear children. Their body is going to completely alter and change. And then you're gonna go and shame someone for getting, you know, some liposuction or some fat removed or, you know, their labia little tuned up, give a little tuning to the labia.

You know what I mean? No. 100% do it. Do it. Do it.

Did it done. Okay. This is when we get into Vegas. Vegas is where we have a not great incident. We have a really not great thing happened between Jen and Zach.

And so when they start talking about their trip to Vegas, Jen starts to kind of kind of ask questions to Zach. Because I think in her mind, she's concerned that she's going to end up going to Magic Mike or be tricked into going to the show Magic Mike, which is a performance. Obviously, I think everyone knows what Magic Mike is or the Chippendales. I forget which one they went to. I think they went to the Chippendales.

But Zach was essentially, like, do you wanna go to that? And Jen said, no. But I think it's funny if if we ended up going to 1. And he said, being divorced and taking care of 2 kids would be kinda tough. So I guess you make that decision.

And then he goes on to show her his poker outfit. Yeah. Talk about a superiority complex. I sorry. Are you kidding me?

You're going to sit there and tell her you're gonna divorce her for going to Magic Mike or the Chippendales, but you're gonna go gambling? 100% gambling is not okay as a member. Like, come on. Are you kidding me? Come on.

So she gives him $25100. He basically begs her for money to go gambling. That's people's rent. That's double a lot of people's rent. And she does say that she's having a hard time with him and that she needs some help.

And Taylor then comes over to Jen's, and she is feeling so fed up, so exhausted. She's always fighting with Dakota, and she's like, I don't want him to come. I left him at the place. I left him at my house. He shows up at Jen's house anyways.

And you can tell that he has so much frustration inside of him. He feels lost. He feels confused, and he's crying. And this whole this entire time, Zach and Jen are kinda mediating, and then they end up leaving and let them talk. But Taylor just looks like she's dissociating this entire time.

And he just says, you know, I love you. I love you too much. I care way too much. Saying I love you too much, any sort of too much is a red flag because that's just dismissing the behavior and saying it's because I love you too much. It's because you do this to me.

You know what I mean? And that was another big red flag for me with Dakota and Taylor. The reason why Dakota and Taylor were at Jen and Zach's is because they were all driving together to Vegas. So, you know, on their way, Jen is still concerned. And so then Jack says Jack.

Zack and Jen is Jack. Zack says to Jen, you're a big girl. You can do whatever you want. So he essentially is making it seem like it is her decision, but she's still super nervous about if she ends up going to Chippendale's. Taylor ends up opening up to Jen, and she tells a story of her and Dakota's fights.

And Jen says, you know, what's hard is you feel like you're walking on eggshells with Dakota. She says, because I felt that way with Zach. Every 2 days, it's something else. It's something else they're fighting about. It's something else that he's upset about, and Taylor says, yes.

Exactly. And they say that people think that they're being controlling or overly protective, and it's their fault. It's completely 100% their fault. Being controlling, being overly protective, all of those things are not they're not what you need to be doing. And both of them are 100% showing these things.

And so, yeah. Jen then continues to say, Zach can be controlling and judgmental. Jen literally says that. She says, his issue is that he loves and cares too much. Again, it's just not good.

And these conversations made me, like, actually kind of upset and feel sad. And I don't know. It just was not great. It did not feel it did not feel good. And so then we skip over to Whitney.

And I don't wanna focus a lot on this, but, essentially, she goes to a homestead with her husband to learn about homesteading. She complains that no one has reached out to her, and that she has no friends. Alright? Sad day. But, again, you don't leave a group message if you want to have conversations.

You have conversations if you wanna have conversations. Okay. Then Jess in Vegas ends up planning a surprise, and this is really when Jesse becomes more of a main character. She plans a surprise. All the girls get in this I think it was a limousine, and they go to what?

Chippendale's. Jen immediately starts freaking out. She's on her phone. She's texting Zach, and she's like, I'm screwed. I'm screwed.

And she says, please don't call him. I don't want him to stress out. And the entire time they're meeting the boys, she's so uncomfortable. She won't even look their way because she's so uncomfortable. And while they're there, Leila adds shimmer to all of the Chippendale's men's bodies.

And she's single. You know? So Jesse got the VIP package, and they all went back and they met the men. And, again, Jen is looking at the floor. She's so uncomfortable.

She doesn't wanna be seen interacting. Mikaela's uncomfortable too. Jen expresses, you know, she's already feeling guilty. And now we're taking photos with them. She's essentially panicking the entire time.

She says, this is disrespectful to my husband and our marriage. And she said if they came to dance on her, that Zach would divorce her. She said, I would be a divorced woman. Yep. Those are those are that yep.

That is that is the love that Zach has that Zach has for her. And, again, if these things I mean, I've never been to a show like that. But if these are things you just agree in your marriage, it's like, no. Let's not do that, then okay. Fine.

That's great. But it's very controlling to say, you're gonna be a single woman if you do this. You're gonna do this. You're gonna do that. You're gonna be alone.

I'm gonna leave you. You're the worst. You are you are insensitive. You're this. You're that.

That is extremely controlling. Let someone make a decision, not because they're scared of how you'll react, but because they have the agency to make that decision. Does that make sense? Taylor also ends up texting Dakota saying that they're at the show, and she says, I'm in trouble. Today, I'm in trouble.

Tomorrow, I'm in trouble. I'm always in trouble. So she's having the same experience as Jen. And then Mikaela says her husband is also pissed. And just goes, I'm stuck here with a bunch of sad moms.

Yeah. It's it's yep. I don't know. I mean, little insensitive. It's not I mean, I don't I don't know if it's insensitive because it's true.

But don't say I'm stuck here. Don't do that. Like, you surprised them. You know, you knew this was gonna happen. Demi then says, you have fun with your girls and wear what you wanna wear and still be loyal to your husband, which I agree with Demi.

We then get into Jen's situation even more. She calls her husband, and she's shown saying, like, please, can you please stop for a second? Please think about me. Think about my character, and think about me as a human being. I did nothing wrong in this situation.

She tells the girls, he doesn't want me to be married if I do stuff like this. Or he doesn't want to be married to me if I do stuff like this. So then we just continue. It we continue with Jen spiraling with her husband berating her, and and she's defending herself saying, I'm a good person. I've done nothing wrong.

You know, I should have known. And she doesn't even end up going to the show, which is the crazy thing. She doesn't even attend the show. Those women end up leaving. Taylor, Mikaela, and and Jen.

They leave because their partners, basically I feel like their partners basically threatened them threatened them into leaving. And Zach then texts her. I'm done. I can't do this anymore with you. And it's just it's just gross.

And Demi's opinion is my opinion. Demi says, it's gross of him to threaten divorce while she's carried his babies, raised them, and is helping him get through medical school. And she asks Taylor. She says, are you miserable? I couldn't be in a relationship like this.

And Taylor says, yes. She says, I'm miserable not only in my relationship, but in life in general and all these issues I've created. And then they all go to bed, and Jen's Jen ends up leaving the house at 2 AM. Zach says to basically go find him, like, to go get him or I think he says, or the marriage or the relationship is over or something. So they're literally in Las Vegas, and Jen has to go in the middle of the night to go find her husband.

And he doesn't say that until after he's done gambling all night long. Yeah. Lots of lots of double standards. And a few other things that he ends up saying to Jen. I don't love you anymore.

You're disgusting. Yeah. That's everything that he said. The women are all talking about it, and they're all saying, you know, this is controlling. Jesse says that she's sad for them.

Well, Dakota shows up to the house that the woman are staying in. Because, you know, Dakota and Zach end up going to Vegas with them. As you know, they were gambling. Taylor doesn't wanna see him, but he shows about the house anyways. And he runs upstairs saying he wants to talk to her.

She's trying to sleep in bed, and he says that he's overreactive. He says he's sorry. And she's crying. And she says, this problem is just so much deeper than us, and I'm tired. She said, this is the time where you should be patient with me, and she's sobbing.

And she says that she has so many trust issues because of what she did, but also how many lies that people said when she was going through her situation. And that she was vulnerable during that time with the swinging scandal and everything that she let Dakota into her life really quickly. It was 2 months after the swinging happened where she let him in. But then her guard went right back up because of all of his lies. And she says to him, you know, we're both very broken, and I don't know how 2 broken people can be together.

And she says, I was so proud of her for this. She wanted him to keep his mouth shut and to support her while she was at the end of her pregnancy. Like, finally, Come on. She's, I think, literally 8 or 9 months pregnant right now. And the stress and the hormones are so bad for the baby.

So yeah. Please be quiet, and let me let me have our baby. Okay? So then we get to I think I'm just going to essentially recap the last episode. Macy decides to tell Taylor about this message that she got.

And it says, I accidentally slept with Dakota before I knew that him and Taylor were together. Well, we find out later that Jenna is going to, quote, unquote, speak her truth in season 2. This just causes Taylor to say that she's actually going to take a break from Dakota. So she takes a break from him since Vegas. She gets her nursery all set up, and she says she'd rather co parent than live with a liar.

And he walks in unexpectedly and says, Macy would do that to me. See, he can't even take accountability here. It is crazy making. And he gets so defensive, and he's fidgety. He's attacking.

And she even says, like, did you forget? Give me an explanation. Explain it to me. And he flips it on her. He flips it on her.

She says that if it ends up all being true with Jenna, that she's not gonna stay in the relationship. And he says, yeah, vice versa. And it's just wild because then Dakota and Macy end up having a conversation finally, and he tells her that she's self sabotaging their their relationship. Or not self sabotaging, that she is sabotaging their relationship. And he's always pointing his finger at her.

And she says, you know, I'm just the messenger. And I would rather tell her before she has the baby rather than after when she has her baby and you guys are happy and you have the high. And she just says, you know, I'm not loyal to you. So this is when my this is when I really started liking Macy. And I realized, like, okay.

She really is a good, loyal a good loyal friend. And so then, of course, we get back to Jen and Zach. Jen says that they've been praying a lot, and she asks him for a year off in between medical school. She wants this time to figure out their marriage, and she's worried that if they leave, they're gonna jeopardize her income because she'll be leaving mom talk. And right now, you know, she's the one that's providing, and she's the reason he can even go to medical school.

And his response is, I don't really care. Being fully in control of the relationship, he is in control of everything, while she's actually the one providing for everything. And so, again, their dynamic is so toxic, and I just feel bad for her. And I hope she's okay, and I hope she's safe. To really wrap up the end of this, because we are an hour in, and I haven't even talked about oh my goodness.

I haven't even talked about Whitney's interview. Maybe I'll split this up into 2 episodes. I don't know. Macy launches her baby I think it's called baby mama or something. It's essentially prenatal, postnatal gummies, multivitamins, and whatnot.

And Whitney is one of her best friends. Whitney doesn't show up. And then with Mikaela has a birthday party, and Whitney shows up to that. Macy's upset. You know, she says the one time I needed the support from you, you weren't there for me.

Whitney says, I wasn't in the space. And I just don't feel like Whitney is a good friend, and it looks like she really let Macy down because she ended up attending, you know, Leila's divorce party. She attended Mikaela's skating party and then doesn't attend her one of her best friend's events. I feel like Whitney wants everyone to chase her, and she doesn't ever take accountability. I don't know.

We end up wrapping up the episode or, I guess, the whole season with Taylor having her baby. Jen says that she's gonna leave mom talk, and Zach is just always upset. That's essentially my my last my last comment here. And some of my final thoughts. I think this is funny.

I've seen a lot about this where people are like, okay. How come all these women can't drink coffee, but they do ketamine? And, again yeah. Totally. 100% doesn't doesn't make a lot of sense.

Right? But it is a mental health treatment, and we can talk about that more later. I mean, I do talk about that in my first few episodes of this podcast. But I do feel like it's good that it the stigma for different modalities of medical medicinal treatments for mental health are being used, and they are being, you know, facilitated. And I think that that's actually a really good thing.

But I do think it's funny how they're like, we don't drink coffee, but we did ketamine the other day as if it's just, like, so casual. I do feel like Ketamine being used as therapy is probably more popular in Utah than other places. But yeah. So, yeah, the laughing gas, they they did end up using laughing gas to get their Botox treatments, which is wild to me because I'm I've gotten Botox done once, and it's just like the tiniest little prick. Like, it's not it's not painful or anything.

So it's just it was just silly. I wonder if that's something they actually do or if they just did that for the TV show to be polarizing. You know what I mean? And then my last final thought that I wrote is that Taylor's mom can't comfort, and she only reprimands her. And, again, not not the type of parenting style that I would want to have for my children.

But that might just be me. Okay. Next, we are going to talk about each we're gonna conclude my opinions of each person on the show, and then we will get into Whitney's interview. And I'm gonna wrap this up quickly for you. Okay?

So Jesse, shouldn't have drink at Jen's. She should respect boundaries, especially at people's homes, and she crossed the boundaries of Jen's in laws. I would have also felt really uncomfortable if I was in that same position. But regardless of that, I ended up liking her. I felt like Jesse was the kind of the mom of the group.

She has beautiful hair. And, yeah. I have no other comments. She was pretty unproblematic. Demi was my favorite from episode 1 and still is.

I do feel like she took accountability and had sincere apologies, which is respectable. You know? I love her look and her TikTok recently though has been a little spicy. She's been coming off a little, you know, a little hot. And I don't know why, but it seems like her and Mikaela really hate Whitney.

Kinda feels extreme. Not sure, though. Maybe they're all doing it for season 2. Part of me is, like, this is all planned. You know?

But it's hard to know. It's really hard to know. Macy. Macy felt like a people pleaser from episode 1. But, like I said, she happily surprised me for holding her own against Dakota.

Her and Dakota went on a drive at the end of the season, and she let him know how she felt. She doesn't like him, but she doesn't think that he's emotionally intelligent, which he's not. And she is pretty freaking emotionally intelligent. And I feel like she does hold people accountable kindly. Demi could work on the kind part a little bit.

I mean, again, personality differences. But Macy does forgive as well. Mikaela met her husband at 16 and he was 21 and got pregnant and married. How did we skim over that? How did we just how do we skim over the fact that she was 16 and her husband was 5 years older than her when they got pregnant and married?

Doesn't sound very normal. But okay. Because no one's given us any other contact. So I guess that's all we got from that. But, yeah, again, she's had a chronic condition that's been very serious for the past 2 to 3 years, and they didn't touch on it at all.

So I hope to hear more about that in season 2. Leila, she says it. She loves it. Plastic surgery. She loves it.

She's had her nose done. She's had liposuction. She's had a boob job. She's had her chin done, fillers and Botox. And she is super, super, super young.

So I hope that, you know, I hope that she knows she's beautiful. And I know that you can think that you're beautiful and still get those things done, obviously. But, yeah, I really hope to hear more of her story as well. Again, she's a mental health advocate on her social media, so I think that's really cool. And then Taylor, I did give a big detailed opinion of her on my last episode, but I do think she's just she's just going through a lot.

She's a she expresses her desire during the entire show to repent and to be an active member of the church. But I feel like she accidentally slipped into a really toxic relationship when she was going through her separation. And I don't wanna put words into her mouth. Obviously, everything I've said in this episode is speculation, whatever, but she just seems like she feels trapped. And, you know, ever since the show came out, Dakota has made it very clear, and he's been very upset at how he's been portrayed.

But you can't edit somebody's personality. You know, you can take things out of context. You can move things around to fit your narrative. We will talk about that with Whitney's interview. But he did say what he said regardless.

And he also blames Taylor for his bad edit because she asked him to be on the show. For a man who I think is in his thirties, he hasn't learned how to take accountability, and that's too bad. And I hope that he I hope everyone gets the help that they need, honestly. Luckily, I feel like she isn't afraid of him. She says how she feels, and it's come up that they are broken up.

But, again, might be a promo for season 2. It's so impossible to know what things are true and what's not true. I just want her to heal so that she can be in a relationship that she enjoys. I want her to heal so she so that when she enters a new relationship, she is stable mentally. Because when you are mentally unstable and coming from a place of desperation, you can latch onto people that are also in the same space as you and that fill those things that you need at that time.

But it might not be the best partnership, and it can make for a dangerous cycle. And, again, I'm not a therapist and whatever. We can't technically diagnose these relationships, but we can see the really problematic patterns and name them. And the difference between her and Jen is I feel like Jen is actually afraid of Zach. And, you know, if he was treating me that way, I would pull Taylor and throw chairs at Zach.

Mhmm. I mean, come on. Jen is the breadwinner. She's providing him with medical school and with gambling money. And he threatens her with divorce.

I don't know. She is so young, and I just hope she's able to see some of the criticism as love and concern. But the way that you have to approach people in these types of situations is just kind of say, you know, I'm here to support you. I'm here to listen. And no matter what you do, I just want you to know that I'm here for you.

You just have to be I don't know. You just have to be careful in those instances because if you give an opinion, you know, that that might be against the husband, she might not feel safe anymore when she needs to come to you. And I feel like that's why she feels safe with Taylor is because they're both kind of in that situation. And so yeah. Finally, let's go to Whitney.

Now this is my opinion of Whitney before before the interview, and then I'll give you my opinion after the interview. I put, Whitney is the Mormon Regina George. And her husband, you know, he unfortunately, they they went through a lot with her husband. And, you know, her husband had a porn addiction, and it was either Tinder or Grind or whatever. But I don't feel like she's ever been picked first, and so she has that insecurity.

I feel like I heard that on a podcast. I've listened to so many, so I'm sorry. I don't remember where he heard that. But she hasn't ever been picked first. Not even her husband picked her first.

And so when her friends aren't, quote, unquote, picking her first, and when she's not being chased, she just has a huge insecurity. She has no accountability and, you know, exposing Demi's secret that Demi had told her with that backhanded gift of the fruity fruity pebbles, not cool. Not cool. You know, she wants to be the head of mom talk, and she acts as if it was her invention by the end of the season. When in the beginning episode, she said, you know, being invited to mom talk was exciting.

And I don't know. She just comes off very jealous of the support that Taylor gets as if Taylor should never be forgiven or be able to change. I don't know how that's reflective of her standards, but whatever. You know, all of these women, they're all in their twenties, and they're all making public mistakes. You know?

And so to condemn someone, to condemn Whitney for the rest of her life when I don't wanna say when they've apologized, but I guess Taylor's apologized. So to condemn someone, you know, when they've apologized is crazy and not our responsibility. And, you know, so I feel like Whitney is being a little bit it's not your stance. It's actually not your it's actually not your responsibility to judge people and to, you know, act like they shouldn't be forgiven. Weird weird concept.

I know. But, you know, to say I don't know. Again, to say that you're jealous of the forgiveness that someone got because of their mistakes, and then to say you're one of the devout most devout members is wild to me. You know, is she aware that being a huge part of being Christian, of being a member is forgiving others? I don't know.

If any of you sympathized with Whitney on the show, please block me. I don't need any friends who are secretly my number one hater. Okay? I don't need you watching my videos, watching my stories, listening to my podcast, or in my life, if you're a hater. Okay?

And it's almost like, you know, those those friends that purposely watch everything you that you that you do. Sorry. I'm stumbling over my words here. They're watching every story, but they don't ever interact. They don't like.

They don't comment. And, you know, you just get these weird these weird vibes. You know, they still wanna benefit. They still want those benefits that being friends with you brings. That's the same energy.

Does that make sense? I'm not sure if I made sense right there. I feel like I was stumbling a little bit, but I have been talking for an hour and 20 minutes now. So let's jump into the episode with Whitney. And I will go through this as quick as possible because my back is hurting.

My back is hurting. I should probably fix my posture here. This might make a sound. Sorry. Okay.

Okay. Now I'm a little bit more relaxed. I have been shocked by the reactions from this episode. Call me gullible, but I felt for her during this interview. And I was surprised by the reactions on TikTok by Demi, Mikaela, and, actually, by just the general public.

Everyone was saying that Whitney did herself a disservice by going on to this podcast. And then it's actually worse for her public image, but I'll expand my personal opinion after recapping what was said to you. She basically goes on the squeeze hosted by Taylor and Taylor Lautner. Yes. Taylor Lautner from Twilight, mister Jacob.

And she said that her husband actually hasn't watched the show yet because he saw what it did to her. And so he drew that healthy boundary, but she did tell him what happened. And so he essentially knows everything that happened. And she said that she did not expect to be the villain. But when she was doing press, she was very confused by the questions that they were asking her.

Because, apparently, which I didn't know this, apparently, when you're doing press, they've already seen the season, and the cast didn't see the season. So they're being asked questions, and she was getting asked questions like, do you have a problem with Taylor? And she was like, no. I I I love Taylor. And she's getting all these questions where she didn't know how to answer them because she would answer them, and then the interviewee or the interviewer would be confused.

And so she decided not to do any more press. She decided not to do any interviews until now, obviously. But mentioned that she was in a very dark place the week that it was released and that she's had an extremely difficult time. And she essentially says they were being filmed almost every day for 4 months, and the camera crew kept their distance. So everyone would kind of get used to having them there.

And she said, unfortunately, so much happened during the season that put me in a dark place. She did say she willingly made those decisions, but that no context was shown as to why. So, you know, a little bit of accountability there, but kind of, you know, you give you you you give out that but, you know, and it kind of makes it a little wishy washy. She did say that one big misconception that happened was that in the very beginning of the season, there was this scene that showed Whitney really upset. And they inferred that she was upset about a video that Taylor did about the swinging scandal.

But in reality, she was upset at a different video. She was upset at a video of Taylor and Macy saying that they didn't have support from their friends during the scandal, and she was mad because she's like, I've been supportive. So, apparently, that offended her. And so she was super confused in the interviews because they were asking her about that video. It just seems honestly, I believed it.

I believed her. And then I saw some people coming out being like, that's a cop out. That there's no way that that's real. Honestly, how are we supposed to know? You know what I mean?

You can look outside and say the sky is blue. Marie don't have any idea about this. We don't have any idea. Maybe we'll find out in season 2. But she did say that she was going so crazy that she had to write out her truth while she was watching the show because she felt like everything everything got swished and everything got pitted against her.

She said with a Fruity Pebbles incident that she actually called to me ahead of time and asked if it was okay because she knew it was a sensitive and private sexual indo. Sexual innuendo. And she didn't wanna cross a boundary. And she said Demi thought it was funny. I don't know because Demi's response seemed very authentic.

And Whitney says that she was upset at Demi's response because Demi acted very offended when they had previously agreed to her doing that. So she felt really set up. And that's why she was upset that Demi was upset. Does it make sense? In my mind, I was like, oh, yeah.

Totally makes sense. I do see why people are like, hey. Not cool. Not true. I don't know.

Again, how are we supposed to know? Again, I might be super gullible. But, alas, I will continue. She did say, yes. It's a TV show, but they can't make us do anything, and we choose what decisions to make.

She says, every decision I made, I made it. And she essentially says that she does have a really hard time not feeling in control. She wants to feel in control because it makes her feel safe, but that she's working on it. She's working on what she can control and not working about controlling others. She says that, you know, when when they asked her Taylor and Taylor asked her.

They said, why did you expect your friends or these women to check-in with you after you left the group chat? And she says, I didn't expect anything. But in the TV show, it does it does show that you cared. I don't know. She just essentially adds it all up to be that the scenes were of them being together were taken out of context, that her reactions were taken out of context.

And I don't know. Again, when I was watching videos of people saying, you know, she's not taking any accountability, blah blah blah, I essentially after listening to the episode, I was like, I don't know. It kinda sounds like she is taking accountability, but she does say that lots of conversations do need to be had. She said that there's been huge miscommunications and that everyone thinks that they're all out to get each other, and she hates that. She says she only wants the best for all the other women.

And then she also she also talks about Macy's event, and she says that before Macy's event, she sent her a message. And she says, you know, I'm not in a place to be around these women. And she she says that she doesn't regret that. She says she can't regret that because she couldn't have shown up as herself. I I would definitely not say that.

I would definitely I suggest regretting that. No. I'm just kidding. But she ended up she ended up sharing the texts between her and Macy saying that she couldn't attend. She shared them on social media, and she says that she regrets sharing them and that she shouldn't have shared them.

But that she wanted to clear her name showing she wasn't a horrible friend, but that it made things worse. She also mentioned that her and Macy have talked, and they're great. Her and Taylor are great. And so she does say that she's learned that if you are upset with your friends, you need to sit down and have a conversation. She didn't really address the rumors with Connor.

The RSV video, she had a weird excuse for, so I won't even get into that. But she did say she'd love to be better at communicating. She didn't want to be perceived as wanting to hurt others and, again, is working on controlling what she can control. She has been in touch, again, with Macy and Taylor, but she says that she hasn't talked to Demi and Mikaela and Jesse, you know, the girls that are upset at her, but that she would have she'd love to have a conversation. She says she wishes she knew the exact moment where all went so sour because she doesn't know.

It just is very interesting to me because I don't know. I don't know. Maybe she literally doesn't know what she did wrong. But it sounds like and it feels like when people do tell her how they feel, they're just invalidated. So it's kind of hard to wanna tell someone how you feel if you know that they're not going to end up receiving it and it's going going to end up being turned on you.

Again, we have we have no idea. But my feelings kind of reflect what I've been thinking about this month. She says over and over again how she was in such a dark dark space and has been some of the hardest times. And if you didn't know, September is suicide awareness month. And I didn't wanna let this month pass without talking about it because we all know somebody who has been affected by this.

And if it isn't someone you know, then it might be you. It might be a close friend, and you might not have any idea. And when somebody when Whitney or sorry. When somebody like Whitney is openly in my opinion, she sounded vulnerable. You know, she says that she's been living in some of her darkest days.

It kinda shocked me a little bit when the general public still didn't care. A few of the commentators have said that she was, quote unquote, grossly strategic by going on a mental health podcast, calling it manipulative. That reaction kinda feels gross to me. You know, maybe she didn't actually call to me and ask for permission. And maybe it wasn't required of her to go to Mikaela's party because she said, you know, the reason why she didn't go to Macy's, but she went to Mikaela's is because they required her to attend that event.

Either way, I don't think she should be berated. Do I know her? No. Do I find her content funny? No.

Does she give me bad jealous vibes during the show? Totally. Does she not take any accountability in her interviews? No. She didn't.

And I do stand by what I said earlier that I would not want to have somebody in my life that has these toxic tendencies, that is always watching everything that you do and never really actually supporting you. They're just getting the benefits from for themselves. But that doesn't mean that you should make hateful content, especially after she talks about her mental health. I mean, I don't know. Is that weird of me?

Is that an opinion that just isn't? I don't know. Might be might be a hot take. But what I do know is when people are openly vulnerable, and then they get turned away without an ounce of empathy, and they're told, oh, you're being manipulative. It doesn't show a lot of empathy.

It doesn't show a lot of sympathy, and it might turn people away from telling people how they feel when they need help. People that are in a dark mental health space already feel like they're a burden. Okay? It doesn't it doesn't need to be casted in this way. Life is bigger than reality TV, Bigger than influencers.

Bigger than the gossip. But life can also be all consuming. And, unfortunately, the effect of social media can only amplify that. Even if you aren't the target of hate, it is so easy to compare your life to everybody else's when you are in just the deepest darkest depths. And it's too easy to rot in bed and scroll on TikTok and to not do the healthy habits that you know will help you.

It's just so easy because it's at our fingertips. Right? I don't know why, but I just felt I know that my thoughts again are a little bit jumbled on that subject. But I just want you to know that if you are struggling, if someone else is struggling, just know that you're not alone. You can always reach out to me.

I've talked about my mental health a lot on my podcast, especially on my ketamine episodes, my depression episode, my being okay with being misunderstood episode. And so if you ever feel alone and you don't feel comfortable talking to people you know, I have found it easy easier to listen to other people's experiences, to listen to other podcasts about people coming out the other side, no matter what I'm struggling with at that time. Because sometimes, all you need to know is that things will be okay. Things will turn out turn up for you. So treating somebody that openly says that they're struggling really badly isn't isn't productive, in my opinion.

I don't know. But I did wanna say, there is a national suicide hotline you can call at any time, which is 100% anonymous, and gives you a listening ear. That will be listed in my description below, as well as the domestic violence hotline. Now that I'm done finishing out that recap of the interview, the show as a whole, I did expect it to highlight swinging a lot more because that's what the in that's what the intros were all about. That's what sparked everyone to be super upset in the beginning, and it really didn't.

It only really touched on it during the first episode when you learned that it was only Taylor. I didn't really feel like anything was I don't wanna say anything was forced because it is reality TV, and they do instigate conversations. But it did kinda feel realistic. I wouldn't say that that that's a super fake show. It felt pretty realistic.

I felt like it did show some dynamics between active Mormons and inactive Mormons. I did think it showed how it can be difficult to maintain friendships and navigate boundaries within that space. They did mention empowering women and changing things or stereotypes within the church. And, again, I feel like that was interesting since, you know, there aren't any women in positions of authority or power to make that happen within the church. And so I don't I don't know.

You know, if that happens or when it happens, it would be because of cultural impact. So I'm curious. I'm curious because I don't know. I just feel like it was you know, we're we're here to change things. Like, it's a movement or something.

I don't know. I just I thought that was kinda funny. And then I understand the desire to change the rhetoric about being the breadwinner, choosing how you wanna dress, and trying to see where you fit in while expressing yourself because it is hard as women in high demand religions to be able to find your authenticity and to find a balance of being who you are and being authentic to who you are while keeping your values and while following the the structures that you are supposed to follow. I do feel like now you can be more expressive. You can have multiple piercings.

You can have tattoos and all these things. Yeah. It did show a lot about about that as well, about kind of cherry picking in religion. And I would say that's 100% the reality. And so people who say that, quote, unquote, it's none of my business, and I know my relationship with god is the only thing that matters, that is what I really respect.

And I feel that that is the right idea. Because let him who has not sinned cast the first rock. Right? Again, saying that this show represents every more Mormon is like saying that the Kardashians represent every Californian. Alright?

It's just not no. I promise. Nobody's nobody's going to feel that way. Could they have named it something different? Totally.

I definitely think that they should have named it maybe something a little bit different. But, again, it is what it is, I guess. My last few thoughts, if Zach or his father again, Zach is Jen's husband. If he's ever my doctor, I choose death. Do not resuscitate.

The show was a car wreck I could not turn away from, and season 2 will definitely be coming. So stay tuned for that and for potential updates on these reality TV girlies because I'm sure more stuff will come out. I will keep that to weekly Friday recaps. Usually, my Thursday episodes are more mental health, more in-depth analyses or conversations. And then Fridays is more pop culture fun recaps in the world of celebrities and my world and your worlds.

And this has kind of been something that I've been posting on Thursday. So don't worry. For those of you who've been sick of it, they will just be coming in here or there on some weekly Friday recaps. And if you haven't listened to my other, the secret lives of Mormon wives episodes, I have 2 others out. One is conjunction in conjunction with It Ends With Us, which, again, is now my most listened to episode.

So thank you. And then the second is about Taylor Franke Paul's interview and recaps a little bit about my experience being a member. So listen to those if you want more more content. I really appreciate you listening to today's episode if you made it to the end. I wow.

Good job. I'm proud of you. And if you wouldn't mind leaving my podcast a review, I would really appreciate it. Thank you so much for listening to the Unrelatable podcast, and I will talk to you later. Bye.