Secret Lives of Mormon Wives’ Mikayla Opens Up About Sexual Abuse and Where She Stands With Her Mom

During The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives season 2, Mikayla Matthews revealed she was a victim of sexual abuse as a child and she recently opened up more about what happened.

Mikayla, 24, said that she had been sexually abused by someone before she and her family moved to Utah from California when she was in elementary school, but the abuse continued after the move.

“My mom’s boyfriend came in the picture and we were just, like, really uncomfortable around him too because it was shortly after she had moved away from my dad and that’s all we ever saw,” Mikayla said during the Wednesday, May 21, episode of “The Squeeze” podcast. “Then, of course, he was very, like, touchy and I don’t know if he was touchy to everyone. He was definitely touchy to, like, me.”

She continued, “Now, thinking back, I was already being sexually abused before, and so I didn’t quite get it. I was still pretty young and I think when I was like probably 11 or 12 is when I started to notice a little bit more [and] that it wasn’t OK.”

As Mikayla’s mom and her new boyfriend grew closer, Mikayla and her siblings would spend time at his house.

“We would come over to ride his four-wheelers and he’d be like, ‘Oh if you want to ride the four-wheeler you have to do this first for me.’ And so, like, she never saw any of that and I never told her,” the soon-to-be mom of four added. “I felt like I never had that safe place to tell my mom anything. She just wasn’t that person for me.”

After Mikayla’s mom and her boyfriend got married, she told Mikayla and her siblings that he would be moving into their home. On Halloween in 2015, another incident happened that eventually led to Mikayla working up the courage to tell her mom what had been occurring. However, her mom didn’t believe her.

“I don’t remember exactly how she reacted, but she was basically like, ‘You’re lying. That’s not true. That didn’t happen,’” Mikayla explained. “Instead of her doing her role as a mom and doing what she was supposed to do and protect me in that moment it was ‘Well, you’re lying. You can move out.’”

After moving out at just 16 years old, the Hulu star and her mom’s communication was minimal, and even now, Mikayla said that she only sees her mom “here and there.”

“We don’t really see her unless it’s for holidays or like we have a birthday,” Mikayla shared. “Again it’s like that’s not a conversation we’ve ever had and I think that’s been like the hardest thing to come to terms with is I don’t think I’m ever going to have that conversation and I think I’m OK with it now because, again, if I was to bring it up I think it would be met with the same deflection that I saw my whole life.”

Fans can learn more about Mikayla’s story during The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives season 2. All episodes are available to stream on Hulu.

If you or anyone you know has been sexually abused, call the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).