The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives‘ Demi Reveals the Real Reason She Wasn’t at the Reunion: ‘I Tried… ‘
Jason Pham
The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives‘ first-ever reunion is here, and the members of #MomTok didn’t hold back. But between the cheating rumors and the catfighting, there was one important member of the Hulu reality show cast who was missing from the special: Demi.
Demi Engemann, an original cast member on The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives, was noticeably absent from The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives Season 2 reunion when host Nick Viall, best known as the Season 21 Bachelor and the host of the podcast The Viall Files, announced to the rest of the cast and viewers at home that Demi wouldn’t be attending the reunion.
Related: Which Secret Lives of Mormon Wives Couples Are Still Together?
Demi’s missing appearance came as a shock to fans, given that she was at the center of much of the drama in Season 2—from her feud with co-star Taylor Frankie Paul over who should be the leader of #MomTok to her fallout with her former best friend Jessi Ngatikaura over rumors that they both cheated on their husbands with the same man. So what happened and where was Demi?
Why was Demi not at The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives reunion?
Demi explained in an Instagram Story after The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives season 2 reunion was filmed that she didn’t attend the taping because it conflicted with her pre-planned trip to Disneyland with her family. “It was short notice and the only day they could get the location secured was the day that me and my entire family did Disneyland. We had already booked all of our flights and the Airbnb was nonrefundable or I would’ve moved the trip to be there,” she wrote on her Instagram Story at the time. “I tried to have production move it to another day and they couldn’t swing it sadly.”
Related: The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives Cast Ages
In another Instagram Story, Demi also addressed rumors that wasn’t invited to a Secret Lives of Mormon Wives live event titled “MomTok: The Unholy Tea” in Las Vegas on June 7—which featured several of her co-stars—after she skipped the Season 2 reunion. “I was and opted out of this one. It looked like it was fun though!” she wrote on her Instagram Story.
While Demi didn’t attend The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives Season 2 reunion with the rest of her cast, she did appear on the special in a separate one-on-one interview with host Nick Viall. The interview was filmed after Demi’s appearance on Viall’s podcast, The Viall Files, with her husband, Bret Engemann. The segement, which also included a FaceTime call with her co-star Whitney Leavitt, saw Demi say her piece in front of her co-stars after allegations she cheated on Bret with Vanderpump Villa star Marciano Brunette.
During The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives Season 2, Demi was accused of cheating with Marciano while filming on the second season of Vanderpump Villa. Demi denied the claims in an interview with Us Weekly in May 2025, while confirming that she and Bret were still together.
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“We’re good. I communicate with him and I’m honest to a fault. So every step of the way, I’ve communicated from jumping out of Vanderpump Villa, going back to the hotel and Bret was the first person I called and just laid everything out — the whole experience,” she told Us Weekly in May 2025. “More will come from that. There’s a lot of things behind the scenes, as far as how I was mistreated and how that situation was handled.”
She also told the magazine that Bret was the one who convinced her to film for Vanderpump Villa despite her apprehension. “That [experience] was a whirlwind and so much went into that. My husband and I had actually been in Italy for 10 days prior to jumping over and filming for Vanderpump Villa. So we had the best time ever [before that],” Demi said. “I was actually apprehensive about going into filming Vanderpump Villa. My husband was actually the one that was pushing for me to go and we honestly didn’t really know what we were getting ourselves into.”
Demi also confirmed that she and Bret have had a conversation about her episode on Vanderpump Villa, which showed her and Marciano flirting. “He’s been nothing but supportive and nothing but understanding. He has been so sweet and just really sought to understand me and helped me in the best way that he possibly can,” she said. “People are going to think what they’re going to think at the end of the day — you can’t control that. So we’re just focused on what we can control and focused on being communicative with each other and we’re solid.”
Demi also denied claims that she acted inappropriately with Maricano. “I acted the same way toward him that I did everyone else. So that’s just my personality and I’ll never diminish that for anyone. I’m proud of the way that I conducted myself and for staying true to myself,” she said. “I am equally as proud for the way that I’ve handled it post-filming as well. [Bret and I though] will always communicate our way through any hurdle.”
Demi also called out Marciano for feeding into rumors she cheated with him. “Nothing happened with Marciano. At the expense of sounding rude, there wasn’t even a remote attraction to him. It sucks that women can’t be kind and friendly and even playful with men in this world without it being taken as like you’re open. I had a rock on my finger the entire time I was there,” she said. “I brought up my marriage multiple times and they were told that we were married women — so it sucks that we couldn’t just go and have a good time and that he couldn’t respect that.”
She also accused him of clout-chasing. “A lot of the women [on my show] and now Marciano jump on the train of taking things out of context. To me, it’s completely a clout tactic in my mind of trying to ride the clout and ride the wave of the success of the show and confuse people,” she said. “To me, it’s manipulative and I don’t roll that way,” she noted. “You’ll see that I’ve said very little about anything that happens behind closed doors or behind the scenes or that would give anything away or conflict with the girls.”
She continued, “I did come out with a pretty bold and true statement against Marciano [recently] because at that point it was like, ‘You’re lying about me. Actually, you were the predator.’ So I’m not going to stay quiet — and I stand by that statement. There’s more happening behind the scenes with that that will come to light. I’m sure at this point it’s become a legal matter. There’s not much more I can say on it as of now because I want to preserve the fact that it’s a serious situation. But I stand behind those statements.”
As for Demi’s future on The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives, the preview for Season 3 of the Hulu reality show, which was shown at the end of the Season 2 reunion, confirmed that she’ll be back for the new season.
The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives streams on Hulu.
