The Hulu Reality Shows Are Cross-Contaminating
Hulu’s reality-TV universe is getting Bravo-level messy. A crossover between the casts of Vanderpump Villa and The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives has ended with accusations of infidelity, assault, and harassment. You probably know of MomTok, the faith-based content-creator group in Utah that imploded over “soft swinging” allegations on TikTok back in 2022 and then blossomed into a Hulu reality-TV show. But you probably don’t know Marciano Brunette. The front-of-house staff member on Vanderpump Villa was being shaped into Jax 2.0 before getting fired halfway through filming season two.
Well, ahead of the May 15 Secret Lives season-two premiere, a group of the women — Jen Affleck, Jessi Ngatikaura, Layla Taylor, Mikayla Matthews, and Demi Engemann — appeared on an episode of Vanderpump Villa. The group traveled to Italy and got to know the staff-cast there. But it seems like a lot more went down than what made it to air. After the events of the April 24 episode aired, Brunette escalated the drama with a shady Instagram Reel. Below, everything we know about the drama between Vanderpump Villa’s Marciano Brunette, the ladies of MomTok, and … Scheana Shay? That girl knows how to find the gossip.
Why are they fighting when cameras are down?
It started with Brunette, who captioned an April 21 Reel “uninvited to the function cus a 30yo mormon wife’s scared I’ll tell her husband the truth.” He’s referring to Hulu’s Get Real House event in Los Angeles on April 22, which Vulture attended along with most of the streamer’s reality-show cast members. The Kardashians, Bachelors, Dancing With the Stars contestants, and even Brunette’s ex-girlfriend Hannah Fouch were in attendance. Brunette, however, was not there.
At the event, Engemann and Secret Lives castmate Whitney Leavitt (who didn’t go to Italy) threw some shade his way. “I think some people just want some clout right now. I think that’s what’s going on,” Leavitt told Decider. “That’s the real tea.”
“Thank you,” Engemann added. “You took the words right out of my mouth.”
Later, Engemann commented on a fan account’s post about the drama. “Grown men acting like a child cause they couldn’t bag a woman that was beyond out of their league and MARRIED ???? <<< the clout chasing is on another level,” she wrote.
Then, in a different comment that same day, Engemann claimed Brunette was uninvited from the Hulu event “because he’s a s3xual pr3dator that can’t keep his hands to himself, not because I’m hiding anything from my husband.”
Whoa, that’s a serious allegation. What happened on the show?
During the Secret Lives cast trip, the staff at Vanderpump Villa were getting raunchy. Lisa Vanderpump herself seems to encourage guests to get smoochy with the staff. For example, recently divorced Layla Taylor made out with bartender Sam Terry during one of the group’s after-dinner blowouts at the villa.
In his talking-head segments that same episode, Brunette says he felt an “instant connection” to Engemann “not only physically” but emotionally. During that same after-dinner party, he pulls her aside to talk feelings. “I wanna get to know you,” he says. “I’m gonna ask these questions, if you’ll allow me to. I think you owe it to yourself, and you owe it to me.” Engemann tries to give him relationship advice instead of flirting back. Brunette asks if Engemann was living with regret, and she says she is not. When the convo is over, he pulls her into a hug and kisses her head.
In episode four, Brunette and his ex are both fired for a completely unrelated event, but he appears to address the Secret Lives crossover in the May 8 reunion trailer.
What have the other Mormon Wives cast members said?
Well, Vanderpump Villa season two dropped on April 24, and season two of The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives comes out May 15. Promo mode is on and the comments are popping off.
Other wives seemed to refute Engemann’s allegations. While Taylor commented only “OOOP” on Brunette’s post with a wide-eye emoji, Jessi Ngatikaura wrote “The truth will always come out” in now-deleted comments calling the assault allegation “not true.”
Jen Affleck responded to Engemann’s comment with “S3xual pr3dator?? It’s interesting considering she was FaceTiming him a week later, inviting him to dinner ????.”
In an April 25 Instagram Story, Engemann clarified “unwanted physical touch = assault. PERIOD the end.” She called out “the people that were made aware of these events and watched me cry and attempt to navigate the best way to move forward due to this individual’s actions, and then proceed to use their platforms to victim shame, publicly call me a liar, and judge the way I handled it,” adding “You are perpetuating the very problem as to why victims don’t feel comfortable coming forward about these things!” This is going to be a very uncomfortable reunion.
How does this affect Scheana Shay?
Thank you! Someone is asking the right questions. The former Vanderpump Rules star commented “wtf is this” on Brunette’s April 21 post. Shay and her husband, Brock Davies, went to a Giggly Squad show with Brunette and Ngatikaura earlier this year. So she knows everyone in this mess. Valley or villa, all roads lead back to Scheana.
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