Demi Engemann is claiming that the explosive Season 1 finale of “Secret Lives of Mormon Wives” was completely staged by production.
The finale ends on a cliffhanger in which Taylor Frankie Paul’s now-ex-boyfriend Dakota Mortensen may have cheated on her with a woman named Jenna — but several cast members on the show alleged that Engemann pitched to production that the finale should end with fans thinking that she was the other woman.
“Awkward that I now have to clarify this and reveal just how produced this show is,” Engemann, 30, commented on an Instagram Reel explaining the drama Thursday.
“Production sat us down after filming Season 1 asking us for ideas for a ‘big cliffhanger’ because the show was ‘boring,’” she explained in her defense.
She claims that all the women “threw out a bunch of ideas” and hers was for her and Dakota to “meet up” so he could “get advice about him and Taylor” but someone would “get footage of [them] talking in the car,” making it seem like “something might be going on” between them.
Her idea never played out on the show, but her plan also included the speculation about an affair between her and Mortensen to be put to rest when they picked up for Season 2 and everyone would find out that he was just coming to her for advice.
“It really was not that deep or serious. This is a perfect example of the ‘pile on’ tactic these women use when someone is already down in the public eye,” Engemann insisted.
She said that production encouraged all of the cast members to throw out ideas for a staged finale and all of them did — she’s just the only one who has received backlash for it.
“They ALL gave ideas for a cliffhanger, but the way that they relayed this story was as though I just ‘wanted to stage an affair’ out of the blue for fun! No. Not at all what happened, nor would I ever stage anything on my own, unlike some 👀,” she concluded.
Producers for “Secret Lives of Mormon Wives” was not immediately available to Page Six for comment.
Although the influencer claimed that production encouraged all of the women to fake plotlines, she recently came under fire for trying to drive another affair storyline, but this time it was about co stars Jessi and Jordan Ngatikaura’s marriage.
During the Season 2 finale, “Vanderpump Villa” star Marciano Brunette revealed his affair with Jessi. She came clean about it in Season 3 but maintained that they never had sex and it was mainly an emotional affair.
Brunette lied about getting intimate with the 33-year-old but in a shocking twist, he claimed that it was Engemann who exposed the affair to production and convinced him to lie about their hook-up.
According to Brunette, he confided in Engemann about his fling with Jessi and made it a point that they never got intimate. She had “promised” him that she would not take it to production, but ended up breaking that promise and telling them that the two had sex in hopes of getting paid more.
“It didn’t work out for her, because they just called me and brought me in instead of paying her. So it backfired on her again,” he told the US Sun Friday.
Brunette said he was “heavily influenced” by Engemann which was why he continued to perpetuate the lie but ultimately owned up to it because he “cared a lot about Jessi and knew that it was going to be damaging to her, and didn’t want that to happen to her.”
Jessi and Engemann’s messy feud continued Tuesday after the latter insinuated that the Hulu show was heavily scripted in her Sunday Instagram Reel.
Jessi then responded: “Honey, just because you script YOURSELF doesn’t mean our show is scripted. This behavior, level of delusion and downward spiral should be studied.”
Jessi took it one step further when she revealed the alleged meaning behind Engemann’s “Fruity Pebbles” sexual experience with her husband, Bret Engemann, saying, “grandpa Bret likes to drink her piss like it is dirty soda,” via Instagram Stories.
Demi responded to her claims with a statement via her own Instagram Stories.
“What my husband and I did one-time behind closed doors, was a consensual and private experience in our marriage,” Demi wrote. “I won’t let a private act between my husband and I be a distraction from a serious act that I did not consent to.”
“I shared this information with Jessi in confidence nearly two years ago. It’s very telling that she’s choosing to break storyline and bring it up now, only after her own affair has come to light. This is nothing more than a desperate attempt to shift attention away from her own behavior.”
