Whitney Leavitt appeared to have a rather tense moment — or two — with host Nick Viall while filming the first-ever Secret Lives of Mormon Wives reunion.
During the Hulu special, which started streaming on Tuesday, July 1,Whitney, 32, found herself in the hot seat on multiple occasions while defending friend and costar Demi Engemann, who was not in attendance.
Nick, 44, made numerous attempts to get Whitney’s insight on Demi’s behavior — starting with whether she thought Taylor Frankie Paul was “better at taking accountability” than Demi, 30. Whitney replied “yes and no,” to which Nick followed up by asking if Whitney thought she was “better than Taylor” at taking accountability.
“No, I don’t think that I’m the one to judge that,” she said. Nick quickly fired back, “I’m not asking you to judge it. I’m asking you what you think.”
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Whitney noted that she thought both her and Taylor are “equal” in that. “Equally good or equally bad?” Nick asked.
The tension escalated as Nick took a poll within the group to see who thought Taylor was good at taking accountability (mostly everyone) and who thought Whitney was able to own up to her mistakes (which only she, Miranda McWhorter and Taylor’s ex Dakota Mortensen raised their hands).
“It’s so double standard. You just sat here and asked me, ‘Do you feel like you justify your actions based off of your feelings?’” Whitney told Nick. “Well, [Mikayla Matthews] is someone who constantly belittles me and hurts me. So is she justified in her feelings to treat me that way?”
Whitney noted that she felt like she was “being called out” by Nick “constantly,” which he denied.
“Personally, I feel like I’ve heard Taylor taking accountability for a lot of things. She does a lot of things, too,” Nick replied. “I don’t think I’ve heard you take accountability from what I’ve seen.”
Whitney fired back that it was Nick’s “opinion” because she felt differently. Once her husband, Conner Leavitt, joined the rest of the cast at the reunion, Whitney was heard telling Jessi Ngatikaura and Layla Taylor that she was “so confused” about “everything” happening right now.
Later in the episode, Whitney looked visibly uncomfortable again during follow-up questions about Demi, including when the cast called Demi a bully. In return, Whitney said Demi had “tendencies” to be mean to them.
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“What is the difference between being a bully and bully tendencies?” Nick asked, to which Whitney replied, “This is me speaking from my heart. I feel like it’s so double standard when Demi is saying hurtful things, which isn’t OK. But then we have people going online — Jessi — and going on podcasts. She has talked s*** about me and said very hurtful things, which I would actually consider bullying as well.”
Jessi, 30, disagreed with that assessment, saying, “On podcasts, people genuinely ask us about our experience with you. We are valid in our experience. But calling someone a narcissist, I didn’t call you names like that.”
That is when Nick, who hosts his “The Viall Files” podcast, jumped in to offer his thoughts on the subject.
“I think there’s a difference between maybe in the moment answering a question and someone just going out of their way [to say something while] knowing what they’re doing is gonna hurt the other person,” he told Whitney.
Throughout the rest of the special, the camera panned to Whitney multiple times where she appeared less than comfortable. She did not bring up her issues with Nick’s line of questioning again though.
The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives reunion is currently streaming on Hulu.
