The secret lives of Mormon’s wives for swinging scandals, a friendship and a religious twist

From allegations of cheating to swinging scandals, the secret life of Mormon wives offers a view in a version of Mormon’s life away from traditional public perception.

Situated on the suburban jute, the television series follows a group of women from Mormon – most of whom rose to be the glory of Ticktock and became influencing Momtok – as they manage scandals, they face marriage crashes and face everything from business endeavors to party invitations.

But under the sensational storylines is a more complicated story of developing dynamics within a tightly woven community.

The Mormon group has been creating content online over the last five years, but they say the concept of reality TV still feels very new to them.

“I heard that in the end, people learn how to play a reality TV game, but it’s not us yet. We are still trying to understand it,” Jesse Ngataura tells the BBC. “So you’ll see the real of us.”

What started as a hobby has now become a job and women talk openly in the show about the amount of money they make from reality TV and brand deals.

“Now it is our job, but we have chosen this and we could all be away at any time if we did not want to be a part of it,” Jesse says.

Whitney Levitt explains that “naturally dynamics will change when there is more money and family and definitely some people become competitive,” but they assure me that the group is still friends outside the camera.

During the two seasons of the show, Jesse and Whitney play challenging storylines – Whitney was portrayed as a villain in the first season and at the end of season, it is claimed that Jesse had an affair.

The couple speaks frankly about the impact, with life watching and commenting on millions of people around the world, there is on them.

“It’s hard to put up with the fact that we have no control over the story and never overcome it,” Whitney explains. “But you have to accept this and let it go.”

Since the show follows the life of nine friends, it is easy to see how some of them can create more drama for themselves to guarantee time on screen, but Jesse insists that this is not the case and no one is “playing, but naturally emotions intensify.”

“We actually record four or five days a week, so we don’t know what the final version will do.”

Jesse says her explosive Halloween party is not produced by producers and there is just “naturally so much drama that we don’t have to create more just for the show.”

Given the intensity of the drama and the demands for recording, the presence of strong subsequent care is essential, and both women praise production because of its care obligations.

“There are always therapists by hand and at the beginning I was like why Taylor and Jen have therapy all the time and now I have five or six hours a week,” Jesse admits. “I found it was useful, even if you weren’t going through a difficult time.”

Whitney also gained access to some subsequent care in the first season after being introduced as the villain of the show.

“I was totally sucking that he was the villain and I was angry, I had a lot of resentment and it was really sad. There were so many huge emotions for me, but I was proud that instead of running, I stayed and made those heavy conversations I didn’t want to have,” Whitney says.

Whitney was one of the members of the Momtok group, which Taylor Frankie Paul publicly revealed that she was involved in “soft swinging”, something she denied and caused a break in their friendship.

Open discussions about sex, marriage and alcohol in the show caused some reaction from the Mormon Church.

“When the first trailer came out, there was some reaction from the church because they were scared, but we actually show you how we live the life of Mormon and we all live it differently,” Whitney says.

Jesse adds that DoCudrama shows how “we are all normal and everyday girls, not people wearing lids and shake oil, as you might think.”

Women say that not only the church has accepted the show, but also helps young women think of their faith differently.

“We have definitely influenced people to question their faith, to dive deeper into it, or to be more honest about it, and I had reports from some people who say they join the church for me,” Jesse says.

While their religion plays an important part of their lives, they want to tell me that they are not the face of Mormonism.

“There are Mormons that are still upset about it, but we just show our version of it and I think it is empowering as we hope people connect with our stories and struggles.”