Whitney Leavitt’s world is widening.
The 32-year-old is best known for Hulu’s “The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives,” the addictive reality TV series she broke out from as the villain in Season 1, though she’s garnered more sympathy over time. But if everything goes Leavitt’s way, the unscripted genre won’t be her main claim to fame a few years from now. Though Season 4 of “Mormon Wives” drops on March 12, her focus is elsewhere: Monday marked her Broadway debut as Roxie Hart in the ongoing Broadway revival of “Chicago.”
This was always the plan. “I have a distinct memory of being in college with my husband while we were dating, and he asked, ‘What do you want to do?’” Leavitt says, sitting across from me at a Times Square Italian restaurant after a “Chicago” rehearsal. “I was like, ‘I want to be in the movies.’ It was always something I’d thought in my mind, but I had never said it out loud, and I didn’t know how to get there. Like, ‘Where do people go?’”
It’s strange, at first, to imagine a version of Leavitt who was so reticent to admit her dreams. These days, she’s known for her shameless ambition, and back then, she was a fine arts major with a dance concentration. A career as a performer would have been a logical goal.
Then again, despite her coursework and her upbringing as a competitive dancer, Leavitt didn’t come from a culture that expected her to pursue a career at all. She and her husband — Conner Leavitt, also a fixture on “Mormon Wives — attended Brigham Young University, the Mormon Church’s flagship school. “Looking back, I do wish that I would have ventured out to other universities, because it was very conservative,” she says. In 2019, the year after she graduated, a study found that female BYU grads made an average income of $800 per year by age 34. (No, there aren’t any zeroes missing from that stat.) In other words, the world was telling Leavitt to become a full-time homemaker.
And that’s what she was for a number of years. She and Conner had their first baby in 2019.
“I was starting to lose my sense of self,” she says. “Your time is designated so much to this one human being that even when you have time for yourself, all I could think was, ‘What did she eat today? I’m gonna have to get up at this time. I didn’t get this at the grocery store.’ That was my life — and that’s not the life I wanted to live.” So she changed it.
“You can like the life you’re livin’ / You can live the life you like,” Leavitt was singing on stage just minutes ago, rehearsing “Nowadays,” the bittersweet Roxie-Velma duet that leads into the “Chicago” finale. As we walk from the Ambassador Theatre to the restaurant, she gasps, wide-eyed and delighted, “We’re actually getting to eat during this interview? I want carbs!” When we sit down, she apologizes over and over for needing a minute to look at her phone — “Don’t hate me,” she pleads, and she seems to mean it earnestly — which she hasn’t checked since her interview on “Live With Kelly and Mark” before rehearsal this morning. We begin tearing into the free bread basket, and she grins, warning me that she likes to bite straight into the butter rather than spreading it onto the bread. We talk about her career at length over meatballs, and then she heads home to Conner and their three children, who are waiting for her in an apartment on the Upper West Side.
These are the kinds of days she dreamed of back in the throes of early motherhood. During that come-to-Jesus moment when she realized she didn’t like the path she was on, “I was like, ‘Let’s stop groveling,’” she says. “‘Let’s get off our ass and see what we’ve got. I have an iPhone, and I’ve got a free app where I can shake my booty and create funny videos.’” She became a TikToker.
Though Conner always supported her, others in Leavitt’s life were wary of her fledgling social media hustle. “Telling my family and friends, it was just such a joke to them. ‘Why do you want to do that?’ ‘Wow. Good luck,’” she recalls. “And I knew it was crazy. Like, I’m a mom! But they thought it was this childish thing, while I felt like I needed a platform to put myself out there.” And even when the content was silly — dancing, lipsyncing, joking about parenting — it carried meaning for her. During some of those difficult postpartum days, scrolling on TikTok “was an outlet for me,” she says. “I was like, ‘I just want to think of nothing! I just want to look at my phone.’”
Whitney and Conner Leavitt, holding one of their children in an episode of “The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives” Season 2.
Disney/Fred Hayes
Being in movies was still the plan, and Leavitt felt sure that she could get herself there. But in the meantime, she focused on finding any way she could to make money entertaining people. For years, she posted three to five videos per day to figure out what would stick. In the process, she found other Mormon moms on TikTok who were not only building sustainable incomes but outearning their husbands, becoming the rare female breadwinners in their community. As they befriended each other and began posting content together, their audiences grew. The group became known as #MomTok, and their videos evolved into a sensation.
Yet Leavitt felt conflicted about the rise of #MomTok. “The brand deals were nice. They were fun,” she says. (And they brought in a lot of money.) “But my goal wasn’t to be an influencer, right? And that’s what I was becoming.” Still, she figured that staying the course would pay off. “I would get together with these other women who didn’t necessarily have the same goal in mind, because I think that most of them enjoy being an influencer, and there’s nothing wrong with that,” she says. “I enjoyed it because, for one, I loved the camaraderie, but also putting myself out there in avenues where you’re gonna see more of me. Then the reality show presented itself.”
She thought “The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives” would be her big break, and it has been. The show premiered on Hulu in September 2024 and immediately surpassed “The Kardashians” to become the streamer’s most-watched reality premiere of the year. But that success has come at a cost. “We were just excited to get a bigger platform, and that’s also how it’s presented to us. ‘Look at this diamond. So shiny and cute!’ I’m like, ‘It is! Give it to me!’” Leavitt says. All of a sudden, the interpersonal dramas that she normally would have resolved in a group chat or over the dirty sodas the show made famous were streaming on Hulu for the world to see — and to tear her apart.
The early episodes of “Mormon Wives” establish Leavitt as the foil to Taylor Frankie Paul, who founded #MomTok. Paul made headlines in 2022 for revealing that she and her husband were divorcing after she cheated on him with one of their friends — and that the friend was one of many with whom they’d been “soft swinging.” The news snowballed, with Paul’s online audience assuming that other members of #MomTok had also been sexually involved with Paul and her husband. (Every “Mormon Wives” cast member denies this, with the exception of Miranda and Chase McWhorter, who joined in Season 2.) But it also got Hulu’s attention, landing the women of #MomTok their own TV show. If Paul was the show’s scandal-wracked but goodhearted star, Leavitt was its holier-than-thou villain who hated to share the limelight. The other women often met her passive aggression with direct confrontation, leaving her in tears. That pattern didn’t go over well with “Mormon Wives” fans, who have often criticized her for having a “victim mentality.”
Leavitt knows she’s made her share of mistakes on “Mormon Wives.” Her sins against her castmates in Season 1 included skipping Paul’s baby shower, giving Demi Engemann an embarrassing gag gift related to her sexual history, leaving the #MomTok group chat, unfollowing everyone on social media, skipping Mayci Neeley’s business launch event and showing up uninvited to Mikayla Matthews’ birthday party to apologize to Neeley. The kinds of offenses that can feel nuclear and even relationship-ending within the context of a friend group — but that don’t typically earn you death threats. Unless you’re on camera.
“I didn’t watch reality TV. I still don’t. So I went into it very naive,” Leavitt says. “And people forget that before you film, people are talking to you like, ‘You’re about to have this conversation with so-and-so, and she’s pissed.’ It gives me so much anxiety. I’m like, ‘What do you mean she’s pissed? What? Now I’m scared!’ Like with Mikayla’s birthday party, I was bawling my eyes out before walking in those doors. But nobody would have known that.”
As online hate poured in after the release of Season 1, Leavitt was inconsolable. But now she laughs at herself for the same thing her critics jabbed her for. “Sometimes, when something bad happens to you, you only think of yourself,” she says. “‘Woe is me. Me, me, me, me, me. This is why I’m the victim.’”
Now an Emmy-nominated hit with a massive following, “Mormon Wives” films at a breakneck pace; the March release of Season 4 comes only 18 months after the series launched. So Leavitt was angsty and exhausted by the time contract renegotiations rolled around after Season 2, and when she didn’t get what she wanted, she quit. As revealed in one of the show’s signature fourth-wall breaks in the Season 3 premiere last fall, she had asked Hulu for a role on a scripted series and was turned down. She decided that if being a reality TV star wasn’t going to offer a more concrete path toward her artistic goals, the emotional cost had become too high. Leavitt bought a house in Southern Utah, five hours away from production in Provo, and moved her family there. Then producers called to say that “Dancing With the Stars” wanted some “Mormon Wives” to audition, but she’d have to rejoin the show if she wanted a shot.
“I had a really long conversation with Conner. Like, ‘I don’t know how to feel like myself and do this experience,’” she says. When Leavitt watched her own actions on the show, she saw a woman in crisis, responding to artificial pressures instead of acting on her true instincts. But “Dancing With the Stars” was exactly the kind of opportunity she’d hoped to nab when she first got on TikTok. After a long week of mulling it over, Leavitt decided to confront the anxieties that made her feel like a victim in Seasons 1 and 2. “I was like, ‘You know what? Fuck that.’”
Leavitt returned to “Mormon Wives” with a new attitude. She’d been absent for the first four episodes, and when grilled by her castmates about why she’d come back in Episode 5, aptly titled “The Book of Resurrection,” she was transparent about prioritizing the “Dancing With the Stars” audition over her #MomTok friendships.
“I always knew what I wanted. I’ve never been ashamed of it,” Leavitt says. “I’ve learned as I’ve grown up that that’s sometimes a turn-off for people, but that’s just a part of who I am. And the women knew that. They knew I’d always had this goal in mind. It was a matter of: Give me that one shot. I want to show everyone how much I love doing this and put art out there, so hopefully it leads to more.”
Obviously, her admission caused more drama among #MomTok. But that no longer wounded her the way it used to.
Leavitt instituted a pre-game ritual for every “Mormon Wives” filming session. It’s not exactly prayer — Leavitt still considers herself a Mormon despite that she’s “definitely not as active as I used to be” — but it works for her. “I take a big fucking deep breath,” she says, laughing, “and I have a song I listen to.” (She alternates between “Could Have Been Me” by The Struts and “Golden” from “KPop Demon Hunters.”) “I envision myself at peace. ‘Let me reground myself because I know shit’s about to hit the fan, and I want to be as authentic as I possibly can.’” She stopped trying to avoid the drama — which would be an unreasonable goal on reality TV — and instead focuses on showing up to the drama as her truest self. It makes for good television without wrecking her mental health.
Leavitt doesn’t spend much time anymore thinking about the way her scenes are edited.
“Reality TV is hard, because you have to be willing to understand that there’s a story we’re telling, and you can’t keep everything. We signed up for that,’” she says. “Did I know that in the beginning? No. But I know it now. It’s a story they created —” she corrects herself — “Sorry, not created. It’s a story they put together. So sure, there were parts left out where I was like, ‘Maybe I would have gotten more grace if that was kept in.’ But it’s entertainment.”
Even when she knows she’s at fault, Leavitt is less concerned about viewers’ opinions. “I think the important thing is recognizing it, trying your best not to do it again, but then also being like, ‘Well, I’m a human being, and you don’t have to like me.’” She pauses, then blurts, “Because I also probably wouldn’t like you!”
There are still hiccups. “I’d be lying if I didn’t say on-camera emotions are naturally heightened. I’ve had conversations where I’m like, ‘That was way over the top,’” she says. “Something happened in Season 4 and I messaged one of the women — which everyone’s gonna see, because I lost my shit — like, ‘Bro, I’m so sorry. That was completely out of line.’ When there’s a camera in front of me, I feel an unspoken pressure to perform. I’ve talked about it with some of the women, and a lot of them agree. We’re like, ‘What is that? I would have never freaked out that much, but I did, and it’s not like anybody told me to. I just did.’”
Little by little, she’s working on healing her #MomTok relationships. When asked how she’s doing with the other women today, she quips, “I would say, ‘great’! And then ‘good’ for some of them. And then ‘OK.’ But no bad.” The geographical distance between her and the rest of the cast has helped. Portions of Season 4 were shot while Leavitt was in L.A. competing on “Dancing With the Stars” — because, of course, she did end up getting cast, as did her castmate Jen Affleck.
Whitney Leavitt and Jen Affleck after learning they were cast on “Dancing With the Stars.”
Disney/Fred Hayes
Leavitt’s opportunism was paying off. Early into her run on “Dancing With the Stars,” she found out she’d been cast in her first feature film: a Christmas rom-com called “All for Love.” Then, just a day after she’d privately told her dance partner Mark Ballas that Roxie Hart would be a dream role, the producers of “Chicago” reached out to ask if she’d like to audition. “I was like, first of all, fuck yes. Secondly, I need to learn how to sing right now.”
Leavitt started taking vocal lessons and learning monologues. Though she was never asked to do a dance audition, she and Ballas planted a covert one on national television when they competed with “Cell Block Tango,” one of the most iconic numbers in “Chicago.” They made it to the semifinals of “Dancing With the Stars” before they were eliminated, with many online speculating that the timing of “Mormon Wives” Season 3 and the reveal of her unabashed pursuit of the audition pushed viewers to vote against her. Still, the cards were stacked in her favor: She was widely being discussed as the most skilled dancer on her season, and her in-person “Chicago” audition was approaching.
Then came the whirlwind of Leavitt’s life. She flew from L.A. to New York for her audition two days after her “Dancing With the Stars” elimination on Nov. 18. The official offer to play Roxie came the next day. The day after that, she found out that ABC had arranged for her and Ballas to professionally tape the freestyle they’d hoped to perform as “Dancing With the Stars” finalists — set to a mashup of Frank Sinatra’s “My Way” and the “Mormon Wives” theme song — paired with a lengthy interview on Alex Cooper’s popular podcast “Call Her Daddy.” Leavitt then spent two weeks shooting “All for Love,” headed back to Utah to get her family packed for the winter and moved to New York to start “Chicago” rehearsals a few days before Christmas. In the six weeks since, while learning all her lines, songs and choreography, she has been intermittently followed by camerapeople documenting her “Chicago” experience for Season 5 of “Mormon Wives.”
It’s a lot. And it doesn’t seem to be stopping anytime soon. When I ask Leavitt whether she’s in talks for any unannounced projects, she bats her eyelashes and takes a nibble of the Nutella focaccia pizza she’s ordered for us to share. “Maybe,” she says. “Maybe another movie. Not a rom-com. A thriller.”
Her dreams are getting more specific now. “We need another ‘Step Up,’” she tells me. “It needs to be a limited series. But can we mix it with a bit of ‘American Horror Story’? A little more edgy, and not so campy.” A Ryan Murphy project is at the top of her wishlist, she says more than once, and she saw him when she attended the premiere of “The Beauty,” but her gut told her it wasn’t the right time to introduce herself. “But I said hi to Ashton (Kutcher),” she says, “who thought I was a different Mormon wife. That’s OK. We all kind of look alike.”
Mark Ballas and Whitney Leavitt during the “Dancing With the Stars” Season 34 semifinals.
Disney/Eric McCandless
The experience of shooting “Mormon Wives” Season 5 in New York away from her castmates has been “very lonely,” Leavitt says, “but they’re all gonna come to opening night. I’m excited to see everyone. But then I gotta get up the next day and do the show again. Am I even gonna be able to get together with them before my next show?”
If it’s this tricky for Leavitt to schedule a hang — and crucially, a filming session — with #MomTok even when they’ve traveled across the country to see her, her future on “Mormon Wives” looks murky. “They’re following me while I’m in New York, but I don’t know how that would look for future seasons. It wouldn’t make sense. People want to see the group together,” she says. “Part of me is like, ‘I can’t do both,’ because both are so time-demanding. Even filming Season 5 has been really hard.”
“And I need to crush this role,” she continues. “I want producers to come. I want writers and directors to come. And I want them to be inspired, to be like, ‘Let’s create things together.’”
So I ask: Besides her friendships with her castmates, which she could theoretically maintain even if she left “Mormon Wives” — “And I would,” she cuts in — what does she gain from staying now that she’s booking the roles she always dreamed of?
For the first and only time during our nearly two-hour interview, Leavitt falls silent.
After a full 10 seconds, during which I assume we’re both picturing headlines about her exiting “Mormon Wives” to join the Murphy-verse, she answers truthfully: “I don’t know. Because this is what I wanted, and I wasn’t shy about sharing that. So at what point do you move on to the next journey?” She and Conner “keep going back and forth,” she says. “That’s where it all started, so it’s kind of sad. But maybe that’s the best thing.”
This time away from Utah has also given Leavitt some much-needed space from her “devout, exact obedience” to the Mormon faith she grew up with. “I still have those same core values and standards,” she says, but “my 30s have been the first time I’ve questioned things.” Her oldest child is six — two years away from the age of baptism in the Mormon Church. Leavitt still wants to go through with that tradition, but she also wants to raise her kids to think for themselves. “They may grow up and be like, ‘Well, what do you mean?’ I don’t drink alcohol, right? But they might be like, ‘Well, I want to drink.’ And I’d be like, ‘OK.’ That’s the journey I’m on right now.”
The journey has also led Leavitt to consider how — and whether — politics should factor into her life as a public figure. “Of course I have opinions. Of course I hate what’s going on right now. It’s really sad and it’s disturbing, and it makes me angry,” she says, referring to ICE’s ongoing raids in Minneapolis and nationwide. “I do want to use my platform for good. I just don’t know what that looks like. I don’t know if posting on my Instagram story (helps). I feel like I actually need to do more.”
Whitney Leavitt as Roxie Hart
Emilio Madrid
Back at the theater, where I watched Leavitt chatting and getting feedback from her “Chicago” castmates and choreographers, she seemed just like the no-holds-barred version of herself she debuted in “Mormon Wives” Season 3 — but warmer, happier. It’s easier to be your best self in a production that depends on your success than it is in one that zooms in on your darkest moments. And that sounds obvious, but it’s something Leavitt has had to learn in real time.
Even now that the pain of becoming a reality villain has subsided, it hasn’t stopped feeling bizarre. “I don’t feel like I did anything that bad. You would think I had brutally killed someone from the commentary you hear online,” she says, laughing. That’s part of what makes Roxie, who does brutally kill someone at the beginning of “Chicago,” such a delicious alter ego for Leavitt.
Leavitt may not be a murderer, but she sees herself in Roxie’s ambition. “Sometimes when I’m playing her, I’m like, ‘This hits a little too close to home.’ She’s like, ‘Please, no pictures!’ But …” In character, Leavitt shimmies one shoulder and gives a sly grin, like she’s posing for a photo anyway. “We might share that in common.”
What has Roxie — whose crime turns her into a celebrity until a new murderess steals the spotlight — taught Leavitt about fame? “It’s not something that you can rely on,” she says.
It’s true, Roxie’s star status is fleeting. But as her story ends, her career on the stage presses forward. (And “Chicago” itself is the longest-running American show in Broadway history.)
So Leavitt has also gleaned a few lessons about endurance. “Roxie’s always known what she wants, and she was never afraid to say what it is,” she continues. “She’s curious. ‘Oh, you did it that way? I’m gonna try too.’ I can relate, because I’m still learning in this industry. I’m like, ‘OK, that’s who I need to suck up to? Great. I can do that.’”
You can see the gears turning in Leavitt’s mind as she says of Roxie: “She’s a villain, but she gets to be a hero. She took circumstances that were out of her control and was like, ‘How do I keep this going?’” Listening to her speak — a Broadway lead who two years ago was just a TikToker in Utah — it isn’t hard to believe that Leavitt will keep going too.
