Mormon Wives’ Jessi Ngatikaura Shares Initial Thoughts on Season 2 Newcomer Miranda McWhorter

The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives star Jessi Ngatikaura shares her initial thoughts on season 2 newcomer Miranda McWhorter, exclusively telling In Touch about her hesitations to welcome a new person into the MomTok group.

“I would say we were all a little nervous with her coming in because she had publicly kind of said that the show wasn’t for her and she didn’t know if she should do it,” Jessi, 32, tells In Touch while promoting season 2 the Hulu show, which premiered on Thursday, May 15. “And then all of a sudden the show did well and then she came back in. So we were all a little skeptical.

Jessi adds that Miranda, 27, “was a part of Taylor [Frankie Paul]‘s past and there’s so much history there.”

“I would say the group was a little nervous and unsure, but she definitely paid her dues and went through the ringer trying to get into MomTok,” Jessi continues about Miranda. “So you guys will see how that unfolds.”

The reality star adds, “But it’s always scary to bring someone new into a friendship group because we are so tight and it’s solidified. So it was hard for her to break in. I’ll say that.”

Season 1 of The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives broke down the dynamics of the MomTok friend group after Taylor, 30, Miranda and several others were involved in a soft swinging scandal. Prior to the show’s debut, Taylor made headlines when she revealed that she and her then-husband, Tate Paul, engaged in “soft swinging” with their friend group. The arrangement meant that they were having consensual sexual interactions with other partners in their friend group.

While Taylor and Miranda were once best friends, their dynamic changed once the scandal came to light. However, they seem to be working on their friendship after Miranda joined the cast of season 2.

“I think people forget our friendship was way prior to our scandal, if you will. It was four years of all the time, always together, phone calls, everything,” Taylor previously told People about her past dynamic with Miranda. “We were closer, I’d say, than our families — hanging out more.”

During the same interview, Miranda said that there was a lot of “hurt and emotions” between her and Taylor after their fallout. “I think a lot of Taylor’s frustrations were with me not being totally authentic and truthful,” she said.

“I was just like, ‘Well, everyone wasn’t hooking up with everyone,’ and I just left it at that. I get why that would feel unfair to her,” Miranda added. “I think 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.”

She continued, “I think over time as I unpacked that individually, it allowed me to unpack that more publicly, and obviously, with Taylor, as well. I can’t speak for her, but I feel like me finally addressing that, and also her addressing the hurt aside from the swinging thing, was probably very validating for us both.”