Nick Viall defended his line of questioning for Whitney Leavitt at the Secret Lives of Mormon Wives reunion despite facing backlash.
During the Tuesday, July 8, episode of his “Viall Files” podcast, Nick, 44, broke down his approach as host of the Hulu show’s first special.
“We are upfront that we are fans of the show. So as the host, I tried to have that balance between obviously being host and being objective,” he explained. “I was also making sure everything was addressed.”
Later in the episode, Nick specifically addressed the tense moments shown between him and Whitney, 32, when she accused him of being too hard on her.
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“I was a bit surprised when Whitney did not like my line of questioning,” he noted. “When it comes to the past two seasons, I think the perceived lack of accountability of Whitney is something that I wanted to have a chance to address with her.”
Nick continued: “Whitney is one of my favorite characters — other than Taylor [Frankie Paul] is probably one of the most irreplaceable people on the cast. She’s one of my favorites.”
The Hulu special, which premiered on July 1, showed Whitney in the hot seat on multiple occasions while defending her friend and costar Demi Engemann, who was not in attendance.
Nick attempted to get Whitney’s thoughts on Demi’s controversial behavior and asked whether 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, as Nick fired back, “I’m not asking you to judge it. I’m asking you what you think.”
Whitney replied that she and Taylor, 30, are “equal” in that. “Equally good or equally bad?” Nick asked.
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Nick then took a poll asking which Secret Lives of Mormon Wives stars thought Whitney was good at taking accountability — only for her to receive almost no support.
“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 expressed 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.”
There were several other instances where Whitney appeared visibly uncomfortable by the questions she was being asked. While she has not directly addressed the backlash toward Nick, Whitney has “liked” comments on TikTok that showed support for her over the host.
The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives reunion is currently streaming on Hulu.
