Layla Taylor is opening up about why she was one of the only non-wives on The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives!
The youngest star of the show notably held a divorce party for herself in the first season of the Hulu series, but very little was revealed about her failed marriage — until now! In a Us Weekly interview on Thursday, the reality star revealed her three-year marriage to Clayton Wessel ended because it was an “extremely toxic” relationship. She explained:
“I felt like we owed it to our unborn baby to give our family a chance [but] just don’t think we ever had a stable relationship built at all. And then adding kids on top of that, it just kind of kept getting more and more toxic and we fought more than we ever were happy with each other. It was just really bad.”
Oof. So sad!
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During arguments, Clayton would threaten divorce — until he did it one too many times and she actually agreed. Layla recalled:
“It was kind of a scare tactic to get me to fall back in line. He ended up being the one to call it off, but I didn’t go back.”
Seems like that must be a common threat in the Mormon community considering Zac Affleck said the same thing to his wife Jennifer amid a fight over her Las Vegas activities! Interesting!
Despite Layla and Clayton’s split, they are still very much in each other’s lives as they co-parents sons Oliver and Maxwell. And sadly, tensions between the exes have only gotten worse, she dished:
“Hopefully we can get to a more peaceful place. I think with him, there comes jealousy, and he found out about my boyfriend. So hopefully one day I’m praying that we can get to a point that we’re a lot more cordial.”
As for how she thinks Clayton felt about her on-screen divorce party, she noted that they hadn’t “talked” about the party at all. However, she thinks her ex has been leaving her anonymous “hate comments” on social media. Yikes!! They really do have a toxic relationship, if true! On how she came to this conclusion, the reality TV star detailed:
“I don’t know for sure if it was him, but it was a spam account that said user and then a bunch of random numbers. And then if I clicked on the profile, it said ‘from your contacts.’ Then one of my best friends actually clicked on the profile too, and it also said from her contacts. The only person that we have in common is Clayton.”
Whoa. That sux!
She continued to reflect on Clayton’s POV, adding:
“I think that he maybe is having a little bit of a hard time, but I wasn’t going into this being like, ‘OK, I’m going to make fun of our marriage and have a divorce party. I’m going to make fun of Clayton and talk about the fact that I’ve never had an orgasm.’”
Not having an orgasm was a big topic of the show, though, as the revelation left her friends (and viewers) stunned. She now has a new boyfriend — one whom she met after sliding into his DMs. But sadly, an orgasm still “hasn’t happened yet,” though the couple is “working on it.” If they return for a second season, she’s hoping to bring her new man, who is also Mormon, onto the show and provide an “update” for viewers “with positive news.” Hah!
As for getting married again someday, she’s not rushing into anything! She said she and her beau are taking it “day by day” — something that’s not always so common for the community. The 23-year-old acknowledged that many people in Utah think she “should probably be married already” because the fact that she’s divorced with kids makes her “damaged goods.” Jeez!!
Despite “hard” judgment, she’s determined to do what is best for her and her family, she explained:
“I’m just a lot more picky this time around now. I’m not just dating for me anymore. Whoever I date and potentially end up with, it’s, like, that’s going to be my kids’ stepdad. So I’m very, very picky about who I am sharing my time with at the moment.”
But when the time is right — whenever that is — she’ll be open to the possibility of walking down the aisle again! The social media star said:
“I definitely see myself getting married again, but I do feel like I need to date around, I really need to discover who I am. I’m only 23. I’m very, very young. And that’s very common in church and our culture to be married already by this age, but I really don’t want to do that this time. I want to do it the right way. So if that means I have 10 more boyfriends by the time I get married again, then so be it.”
As for why she was happy to show her unconventional way of being Mormon on TV, she noted that she and her other #MomTok star pals “agree” on wanting to make women feel “empowered” and “inspired” to have a life outside of parenting. She expressed:
“I think it’s so important when you’re a mom and it’s taking up all of your time and your energy to just make sure that you have hobbies and different things outside of that too that make you happy. I think it’s just super important to just not get lost in motherhood and get lost in the mundane day-to-day life of being a mom. That’s one of the things that we wanted to inspire women to do — is just find something that makes them happy outside of that.”
Sounds like by doing the tough thing and walking away from her marriage, she’s on to happier times — even if not everyone in her community believes that. That takes guts!
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[Image via Hulu/YouTube & Layla Taylor/Instagram]
