One day before season three of The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives premiered on Hulu, star Jessi Ngatikaura changed her name on social media, subtly announcing to her 1.4 million TikTok followers that she is now going by her maiden name, Jessi Draper. Fans immediately saw this as a sign that she had split from her husband, Jordan Ngatikaura. Spoiler alert: Jessi and Jordan Ngatikaura are still together, but, as seen in the new episodes, they came awfully close to calling it quits.
For the first two seasons, Jessi was mostly a supporting player. As the oldest member of MomTok at 33 and the only one running a business outside of social media (hair salon and extension brand JZ Styles), Jessi has always been on the periphery of the drama. But after season two ended with Vanderpump Villa star Marciano Brunette claiming he and Jessi slept together, the queen of Utah Curls had no choice but to let her marriage take center stage in season three. “At that point, it was either you run from it or you embrace it,” she says. “It’s going to be talked about anyway, so I might as well tell my side of the story.”
