The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives is officially back for season two, but it turns out the swinging scandal storyline of season one is far from over. A brand-new cast member is joining the fold and bringing with her first-hand experience of said event and the fallout.

Unlike the rest of Taylor Frankie Paul’s friends who starred in season one, Miranda McWhorter, this season’s latest addition, was actually involved in the swinging scandal that sky-rocketed this group of Mormon wives to fame.

For anyone confused what this swinging scandal is. Here’s a robust explanation of what exactly went down with a group of Mormons in Salt Lake City, and why it caused a giant splash online.

It all started in 2022. Over on TikTok, there were a group of mum influencers who regularly posted about their Mormon lifestyle – dubbed #MormonMomTok. Queen of the Mormon mums was Taylor Frankie Paul, who has over 4million followers on TikTok, and she broke the internet (or at least, #MomTok) when she revealed she and her husband, Tate Paul, were divorcing after she violated a swinging agreement they’d made with their friends (that’s code for cheating, right?).

‘But no one was innocent, everyone has hooked up with everyone in the situation,’ she continued. ‘So yes, I’m getting shunned… but it wasn’t like I was going around hooking up with my friend’s husband. We were at a party, I got belligerent, and we went and messed around by ourselves rather than with the whole group… it was a one-time thing because we were so gone.’

If you’re confused where Mormonism comes into this: swinging is not an accepted practice in the religion, in fact they are meant to abide by the so-called law of chastity which says, ‘God approves of sexual activity only between a man and a woman who are married… Outside of marriage between a man and a woman, it is wrong to touch the private, sacred parts of another person’s body even if clothed.’

So, you can see where we have scandal! After the news broke, TikTok sleuthers were obsessed with the lives of these Mormon mums, and any friend associated with Frankie Paul was assumed to be part of the swinging community – though a number denied being involved at all.

When Hulu’s The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives came out last year, it captured the aftermath of the drama exploding online as producers followed Frankie Paul’s friendship group – consisting of Demi Engemann, Jennifer Affleck, Jessi Ngatikaura, Layla Taylor, Mayci Neeley, Mikayla Matthews, and Whitney Leavitt – as they reacted to the scandal.

‘The scandalous world of a group of Mormon mom influencers implodes when they get caught in the midst of a swinging sex scandal that makes international headlines,’ Hulu’s description read. Only Frankie Paul has admitted to being involved in the swinging, with the rest of the cast denying any involvement.

Now however, one of Frankie Paul’s friends who admitted to being involved has joined the cast: Miranda Hope, previously McWhorter.

Hope was married to Chase McWhorter, who both initially denied being involved in the swinging but have since confessed. ‘There was a lot of fear, guilt and shame that played a role in that for me, things that I needed to address in my personal life between my marriage, my religion, all of that,’ Hope recently told People magazine. She and McWhorter divorced last year, with Chase also admitting they were involved in swinging parties.

‘It was never, like, conversations that led to this. It was, like, we were already all hanging out, having drinks … or maybe one of the guys would dare me and Taylor to kiss or something like that,’ she told The Viall Files podcast this week. ‘From there, is what would lead to other things.’

She continued, ‘I was very, very firm with the things that maybe other couples had done that I was not interested in doing. That’s something I told Taylor, as well. … It was never, like, “This is a world [Chase and I were] going to explore. We want to be swingers.” It was just, kind of, circumstances we got ourselves into, and then things would happen.’

The third couple involved in the swinging scandal was Kenna Gibbons and her ex-husband Brayden Rowley. In November last year, she posted a five-part series on TikTok saying it was one of the ‘biggest mistakes’ she’s ever made. In fact, she claims that the reason her marriage fell apart was because her husband was the one that ‘stepped outside the swinging agreement’, as Taylor put it in her original confession. Brayden has not commented publicly.