NEED TO KNOW
Zac Affleck says his marriage almost didn’t survive MomTok.
A DadTok meeting had the father of three, 29, sharing some raw feelings about the role that the rest of The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives cast played in his marital struggles with his wife, Jen.
The men gathered to show their support for Jordan Ngatikaura in the fourth episode of season 3, during which Jordan, 31, expressed his frustration at members of MomTok attending a dinner with Marciano Brunette after Jessi, 33, came clean to them about her affair with the Vanderpump Villa personality.
Jacob Neeley spoke in his wife’s defense, telling Jordan, “I think that Mayci only has the lines of what Jessi’s saying. It’s not like she’s trying to feed anything… It’s like, Jessi’s going to make her decision.”
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“That’s bulls— bro,” Zac challenges, noting, “Because when Jen wanted to fight for our marriage, all the girls s—– on me and didn’t give her what she wanted in any way, shape or form.”
He continued, “You guys don’t tell your wives what to do, right? Because they’re their own people. But I would just hope, especially with the kids involved, that the best case scenario is to say, ‘Hey, you guys should try to make it work.’ ”
Listening to this exchange, Jace Matthews suggests that Jordan “have a conversation” with MomTok, explaining that he can communicate his side to them, “If you do want to be vulnerable.”
Zac suggested that DadTok be there to support Jordan during this conversation, suggesting, “It should be the girls and all the husbands. I don’t think it’s fair if you put Jordan and six of these strong personalities in a room. That’s not really a fair… I think we all need to come together.”
In a confessional, Zac shares his frustrations with MomTok’s handling of sensitive relationship issues.
“It’s sad to say, I don’t think MomTok supports a lot of the relationships. I’m all for women’s empowerment, I just think it’s sad that all these women have families, and that’s not the number one thing that they’re pushing to fight for. And I think MomTok could learn a lot from DadTok, honestly.”
Later, when everyone does get together, it appears some of the women are more sympathetic to Jordan’s side of the story than others. Things become contentious when some of the women suggest that they aren’t responsible for Jessi’s decision to extend that invite.
“I feel like it’s fair for her to go in and try to clear that,” Mayci said of Jessi’s decision to get the lie detector test.
She also noted, “No one’s here to condone cheating. No one’s like, ‘Yeah, go out and have an affair.’ That’s awful that she did that to you, but I don’t think it’s fair to say, ‘Well, Jessi did go out and have an affair,’ when there was equal poor behavior in the relationship.”
As the group debated, Zac — who had promised Jen he wouldn’t get too deep in the weeds with the other women — shared, “It sucks because I really know what he’s feeling and what he’s going through, and it sucks when you don’t feel like you have the support of your wife’s friends. Because you’re already fighting for your marriage.”
While the women didn’t think the situations were the same, Taylor Frankie Paul shared a differing opinion in her confessional.
“Originally, when MomTok started and we wanted to kind of move from the outdated LDS ways. We can be the breadwinner, but I don’t think it makes it okay for us to treat our baby daddies, husbands, partners with disrespect,” she said. “So I’m just hoping we’re not too late to remind MomTok of their original message of what we were trying to do.”
The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives season 3 is now streaming on Hulu.
