Mormon Wives’ Mayci Neeley & Mikayla Matthews Are On The Case

Mayci Neeley and Mikayla Matthews live for the tea. The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives stars opted out of doing Season 3 press with some of their castmates in New York, but they’re low-key regretting it after learning about Jen Affleck and Whitney Leavitt’s rumored Dancing With the Stars feud. Now, they have to get to the bottom of it.

“I still don't quite know what's going on with Jen and Whitney,” Matthews, 25, tells Bustle over Zoom.

“They're not filming right now, but there's been drama going on behind the scenes, and I'm like, ‘We're missing it,’” Neeley, 30, adds with a grimace. “Now we're going to have to figure out what's going on when they get back to Utah.”

Clearly, Neeley and Matthews are Mormon Wives’ Nancy Drews, as the new season of Hulu’s Emmy-nominated series (out now) sees the duo become the de facto detectives for MomTok’s scandals. Case in point: They drove over six hours to Beaver, Utah, to confront Vanderpump Villa star Marciano Brunette, who claims to have slept with their married castmate Jessi Ngatikaura, and find out what really happened after Ngatikaura maintains that they only had an emotional affair.

“We might as well just start an LLC for our company,” Neeley says, with Matthews suggesting “M&M, Inc.” after the nickname the show’s producers bestowed on them. They already have their first assignment, albeit they’re not getting paid for it. “Right now, Taylor [Frankie Paul]’s on The Bachelorette, so you better believe I'm doing some investigation work on these men,” Neeley adds.

The two got their start on MomTok, the TikTok group of Mormon moms that rose to fame after Paul’s swinging scandal. In Season 3, viewers get a more intimate look at Neeley and Matthews’ longtime friendship, as they lean on each other during their pregnancies, a drama-filled press tour, and Matthews’ sexual intimacy issues in her marriage.

“Every season we go into it being like, ‘We're so boring. What's going to come up? What content are they going to get?’” Matthews says. “But in the first episode, our minds are blown. We're like, ‘Oh, here we go again.’”

Below, Neeley and Matthews break down Season 3, from where they stand with a frenemy to their reactions to a cheating bombshell.

Tell me about the Season 3 filming process, which overlapped with Season 2 press.

Mayci: We did not love it. It's fun because you're engaging [in interviews], but then you're filming right after. It’s like 12-hour days. If we weren't pregnant, I would say it was all good, but being pregnant, we were both dead by the end of the day.

Mikayla: We didn't get a break. We were sitting on the top of that double-decker bus and were so pregnant, so hot, so tired.

What was your reaction when you learned about Jessi’s emotional affair?

Mayci: Maybe I shouldn't be divulging this information. When she first said, “I had an affair,” I thought it was going to be this whole secret thing for the last six months. I thought it was some rich businessman in Utah or something like that. And then it was, like, Marciano.

Mikayla: You watch it back, and it's mainly just our facial expressions because zero words came to my mind. I was like, “I don't even know how to put into a sentence how I feel right now.”

Mayci: Some of those scenes were not shown. That was a 12-hour day for us. We got chili cheese fries after, and the whole time, we were like, “We still can't believe this is real.” Granted, I didn't go to Villa. Not to be rude, but looking at him, I'm like, “This is the man that we're risking everything for? Let's be for real right now.”

Where does MomTok currently stand with Marciano?

Mikayla: Well, Marciano's gross to me. I was in the Villa, and he was definitely very forward with all the girls. You can watch him and get a taste of what he's like in real life. So going into our investigation, I was like, “Mayci, I'm going to be bad cop,” because from the moment I met him, I was like, “Ew, you're gross. Stay away.”

Mayci: I didn't know him, so I couldn't come in hot. I was like, “I'll be super nice and friendly and empathetic.” You can go hard, or you can make him feel seen and be like, “I understand.” And he folded pretty easily.

Mikayla: But as far as MomTok goes, I think everyone has the same consensus on how we all feel about him. I don't see that changing anytime soon.

What moment are you guys most excited for fans to see in Season 3?

Mikayla: Meeting Lana Del Rey was so fun. I was also very vulnerable this season with my marriage. I can't say I'm excited for people to see that, but I'm excited to relate to people out there in that sense.

Mayci: It's going to help so many people. I just love how every season more of us get to tell a small part of our stories because they're so relatable and there's a lot more to us than just fighting and drama.

Mikayla, how are you doing, and what gave you the motivation to open up about your struggle with intimacy?

Mikayla: As taxing as it is, we can all agree that filming has pushed us to places where we’re uncomfortable, because it's not like, “Oh, we can push it under the rug.” And it's a great thing to work through these issues finally. Obviously, it's an ongoing process. It's so common in marriages when it comes to sexual intimacy, and then, of course, I have the added layer with my childhood and sexual abuse.

Did any of the MomTok girls know what you were dealing with at the time? How do you think they’ll react?

Mikayla: I recently told Jessi a little bit, but something I learned in therapy was, “You didn't have a safe place growing up, and it’s important to create as many safe places as we can for you to share your story.” Mayci was one of the first people I told because I feel the most comfortable with her. I got texts from Miranda and Layla after watching the screeners, which were really sweet. As much as we can say we hate each other one day, the next day, we're there for each other, and we're uplifting each other.

Did Dancing With the Stars cast the right MomTok girls? And if you weren't pregnant, would you have tried out?

Mikayla: I probably would’ve auditioned. Mayci, Jessi, and I are probably two of the worst dancers in the group.

Mayci: Mikayla is better than I am. Jessi and I are at the bottom.

Mikayla: They definitely picked the right two. Picking Whitney was good TV for our show because there was a lot of drama there. And then Jen, it was her dream, and they're the two dancers of the group on TikTok.

Who got your vote this season?

Mikayla: Robert Irwin every time. Just kidding. When Whitney and Jen were on, I had a split vote, and then now that Jen’s off, I’ve been voting for Whitney. And then I voted a couple of times, of course, for Alix Earle and Robert.

I love hearing that. Does that mean you’re rebuilding a friendship with Whitney?

Mikayla: Obviously, I had strong opinions about Whitney. But if you think about it logically, how many times do you cut someone off, and then you are forced to be with them every single day and film scenes? Mayci, Whitney, and I were very close before the show, so that was a real friendship fallout that they didn't really show in Season 1. But time heals all wounds. Whitney has been there for me with a lot of my health [flare-ups] recently. I still see things for what they are, but our friendship definitely has come a long, long way in the last couple of months.

Mayci: Everything was moving so fast with the show coming out. At the end of the day, we have always cared about each other, even though it seemed like Mikayla hated Whitney. But we had moments at the end of Season 3 where we're like, “OK, we still care about each other.” And Whitney has also changed for the better. She realized that we’re all going through things; we're maybe not as vocal about it. Once she looked outside of herself, that’s when we started rekindling again.

What about Demi? Were you able to voice your opinions about how she talked about her claims against Marciano — which he denied — and compared them to your experiences?

Mikayla: No, we haven't been able to get on [the same page]. We're cordial. I’ve heard that she's had issues with Mayci and me not being there [for her]. If you watch Season 1 back, she's like, “Well, if someone has an issue with me, it's their responsibility to come to me.” So I'm like, “If she has an issue with us, then by all means come to us.” She hasn't done too much with filming, so I don't think we've had to really dive into that yet. But who knows? If she's in future seasons, that might be conversations that have to be had.

Mayci: Mikayla and I don't have any personal issues with her. She didn't do anything to us. But seeing what happened [between Demi and] Jessi, that's not the qualities we want in a friendship. Both of us still wish her the best with everything she's doing.

How did you react to the bombshell that Dakota almost hooked up with one of Taylor’s family friends?

Mayci: We’re all over it. We’re over them being a couple. Obviously, she's on The Bachelorette, so the hope is that she finds a guy who treats her well that she really loves and never goes back to Dakota. I'll be honest, even for his sake, I'm like, “You need to move on, too.”

Mikayla: It's one of those things where you're like, “Why am I shocked?” Even though I'm not shocked.

Mayci: The only thing shocking is that he stooped that low, but again, am I really surprised? No.

Now that Taylor is filming The Bachelorette, do you have any tea from the set yet?

Mayci: They're very, very, very secretive, so we know nothing. Taylor only gets her phone to post on social media every once in a while and to FaceTime her kids. So we don't get to talk to her at all for this whole experience.

Mikayla: It's a whole different ball game over there. I'm like, “They take their NDAs very seriously on The Bachelorette.” But I am dying to know, of course.

If there is a Season 3 reunion, what would you want to get off your chest?

Mikayla: Reunions are brutal. There are obviously a lot of questions people have for Demi. Hopefully, we can have those conversations and get down to the bottom of it because no one wants it to be dragged out, and unfortunately, it's going to be dragged out if no one's there to address everyone's concerns.

Mayci: It’d be interesting to see more of Jessi and Jordan's situation that wasn't seen on the show, things that were cut and whatnot. I feel like it changes day by day, so even we are like, “What's going on?”

This interview was edited and condensed for clarity.