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Heather Gay isn’t the only one screaming, “Receipts! Proof! Timeline! Screenshots!” On a scale of Lisa Rinna‘s unopened manila folder at the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills Season 12 reunion, to Gay outing Monica Garcia for running Reality Von Tease in the Real Housewives of Salt Lake City Season 4 finale, the receipts in The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives‘ first-ever reunion were unlike anything we’ve ever seen before.
Bringing receipts to a reunion has become so ingrained in Real Housewives culture that it’s almost impossible to go through an entire two-to-three-episode reunion without at least one. However, the art of the perfect receipt takes a lot of practice — and even some of the most beloved Housewives can miss the mark at times. While there are certainly some instances where receipts are able to vindicate the person who prepared them, there are even more that fall flat. But that wasn’t the case for The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives.
The MomTok creators, who sat down with host Nick Viall for their first reunion, did not disappoint with their receipts, most of which were courtesy of Jessi Ngatikaura.
Within the first six minutes of the reunion special—which landed on Hulu today—Ngatikaura outed her former best friend Demi Engemann for her inappropriate behavior with Vanderpump Villa star Marciano Brunette. For some background, a handful of the MomTok stars visited Lisa Vanderpump‘s Italian castle last summer (before The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives premiered on Hulu and made them household names). As seen in Vanderpump Villa Season 2, Demi and Brunette had an awfully flirty banter with one another, despite Demi being a married woman.
Their flirtations caused tension within the friend group, with Mikayla Matthews warning Demi of how her conversations with Brunette were going to come across to the audience.
“I was just telling her, like, ‘Hey, you were being extra flirty and in [the staff’s] mind, they think we’re swingers. I’m more so worried about the way you’re going to be perceived on-camera,’” Matthews explained at the reunion. “And then she took it as I was slut-shaming her and she was like, ‘I know the boundaries of my marriage.’”
While Demi has vehemently denied any wrongdoing—and even accused Brunette of sexual assault—the Castello Rosato server has maintained his innocence, even threatening to drop receipts to prove that Demi was the one instigating their interactions. Ngatikaura seemed to prove his point at the reunion when she had Viall read a series of flirty DMs sent between Demi and Brunette post-Italy (in October 2024, to be exact).
The most shocking message of all came from Demi, who explained to Brunette why she wasn’t a fan of eating oysters. “It’s no different than swallowing c*m and I wholeheartedly stand by that!” she wrote, to which he replied, “Hahahaha soooo fun fact about Demi doesn’t swallow got it. I’m never going to be able to eat oysters again and not think about that.” Demi ended their exchange by writing, “Ruined it forever, enjoy,” along with an eggplant, a water droplet, and a clam emoji.
The second receipt came later in the episode when Jen Affleck and her husband Zac Affleck joined the group on the couch. According to Zac, he and Jen sat down with Demi and her husband Brett Engemann to hash out the Vanderpump Villa drama, since Demi knew Jen was planning to confront her about it on-camera. During their chat, Demi allegedly referred to herself as a “victim,” which, according to Zac, worried Brett, who felt like it was “gonna be clear to the whole audience that she was not a victim.”
Photo: HuluWhen Jen and Zac were driving home from their sitdown, Demi and Brett allegedly called them to coach them on what to say in front of cameras — which was when Zac began recording the conversation to “cover [their] own backs.” Out came Ngatikaura’s phone with the audio.
In the recording, Demi is heard saying, “The takeaway, in my opinion, should be this: ‘Demi and I have very different ideas and different boundaries in our marriages, and what I value and what I really appreciate is the open and honest communication and relationship that Demi and Brett share. I think it’s amazing and it’s something that I admire, and I may have jumped the gun in judging her about that and it wasn’t fair for me to hold that over her head.'”
Demi added, “Then it doesn’t go into detail about what may or may not have happened with certain cast members from the show. It’s more of a personal standpoint.”
Demi obviously wasn’t there to address the receipts head-on since she had pre-booked a trip to Disneyland with her family, so I’m definitely curious to hear her response (I sense another TikTok war coming on). Not only did we see screenshots directly from Brunette’s Instagram DMs, but we also heard Demi coaching Jen on how to address the Vanderpump Villa scandal, which even Demi’s only remaining ally Whitney Leavitt found “weird.”
What happened at The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives reunion was nothing short of reality television gold — the only thing that could’ve made it better was if Demi was there to address everyone directly. Still, the women spoke their minds and brought their proof, and not one receipt disappointed. The Mormon MomTokkers might be new to the reunion game, but it’s safe to say the Real Housewives could probably learn a thing or two from them.
The first two seasons of The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives and the reunion are currently streaming on Hulu.
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