The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives star Demi Engemann is offering insight into her offscreen feud with Jessi Ngatikaura — and it partially stems back to signing on for season 2.
“Multiple things had happened that led to this point,” Demi, 30, said on the Thursday, May 15, episode of “The Viall Files” podcast, reflecting on their feud. “A couple things were off-camera, specifically … I had opened up to all the girls after Vanderpump Villa that I’d been groped, and I asked them not to tell anyone.”
Demi, who did not reveal further details about the alleged assault, including when or where it took place, claimed that Jessi, 32, subsequently divulged the news to fellow reality TV star Scheana Shay.
“I just said, ‘I need you to respect that I don’t want to talk about this and I don’t want to make it legal,’” Demi recalled. “I think, all but two weeks later, Jessi went out to do Scheana’s podcast and told [her]. I was like, ‘You don’t even know this person [and] why would you, in the first five minutes of knowing this person, tell her something that I’ve asked you not to tell her?’ That was really hurtful for me.”
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According to Demi, she was initially planning to join Jessi in Los Angeles to record an episode of Scheana’s eponymous podcast.
“I was actually supposed to go out with her to do this podcast, and her and I were in a fight over negotiating contracts for season 2,” Demi alleged to “Viall Files” host Nick Viall. “So, I ended up not going out, and she was upset with me. To her credit, I ghosted her on the Scheana podcast and didn’t let her know that I wasn’t going to go.”
Demi and Jessi are two of the members of MomTok, a group that is the focus of Hulu’s Secret Lives of Mormon Wives. After appearing thick as thieves during season 1, the two women reached an impasse ahead of the new episodes. Jessi confronted her former pal in episode 6 over claims that Demi was willing to cut the hairstylist from the show to get a bigger salary.
“We had had, like, a mutual understanding that we were gonna come in fighting for everything as a united front,” Demi claimed in season 2, referring to a joint phone call with network executives. “Then, [my husband, Bret Engemann, and I] felt like she dogged us and went around us, like, ‘I’m gonna get whatever I want.’ So, we were like, ‘Well, f*** it, then we’re gonna do the same thing.’”
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She added, “It’s not a shock that I’m a fan-favorite [after the first season]. I feel, like, I’m an asset [and] I should fight for more.”
During her and Bret’s joint podcast appearance on Thursday, Demi played coy about whether she and Jessi could ever become pals again.
“If you had a friend, where you’ve hurt each other and then that person decides to completely remove themselves from your life and block you on everything, do you feel like it’s your place to go knocking down their door?” Demi said. “It’s almost, kind of, if the conversation were to naturally happen, sure, [and] now I know how to take full accountability.”
She concluded, “I don’t think I’d go knocking down her door necessarily to be, like, ‘Wait, hold on.’”
The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives season 2 is now streaming on Hulu.
