The not-so-secret health struggles of Mormon…
The Book of Strife and Healing?
With season 5 of “The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives” premiering on Hulu today, followers are in for a lot of drama — and soiled soda.
While the celebs stay tight-lipped about some components of their lives, they’re completely candid about others — including their health.
The women have opened up about every little thing from mental health troubles to autoimmune issues to surgical procedures, talking in candid confessionals and social media posts about what they’re going through.
The backside line? #MomTok is certainly surviving this.
The latest season will probably be abbreviated to 5 episodes. Disney
Mikayla Matthews: CIRS and chronic eczema
Over the course of three years, what Matthews initially thought was a eczema flare-up spiraled into a terrifying autoimmune disease that turned her life upside down.
The 26-year-old had struggled with chronic eczema since childhood. But in 2023, she shared the pores and skin condition unfold to her face after getting breast implants.
Matthews shared pictures of her pores and skin flareups online. Mikayla Matthews/Instagram
Matthews has said she’s felt better while touring. Mikayla Matthews/Instagram
She had them taken out, but her pores and skin continued to flare up, inflicting more than adjustments to her look. Her pores and skin symptoms had been accompanied with debilitating pain and bodily exhaustion — one thing a mother of 4 undoubtedly doesn’t need added to her plate.
For years, she struggled to get a diagnosis, but in March she put a title to her condition: chronic inflammatory response syndrome, or CIRS.
This is inflammation across a number of organ systems, in response to mildew, fungi or other toxins. “It is not an allergy, but a dysfunction of your immune system due to genetics that you are born with,” Dr. Alan W. Gruning, President and Medical Director of the International Center for Health and Wellness, told The Post. “It results in chronic inflammation and a host of symptoms that can be misdiagnosed and misinterpreted.”
Matthews believes hers was introduced on by mildew, saying it “ruined just everything in my body. Nerves, skin, hair, brain, gut, liver, hormones, etc.”
“Nobody is ever going to understand the impact [of] chronic illness and skin condition[s] and the way that it has completely, completely stripped me of so much happiness, stripped me of so much time with my family, with my kids, that I’m never gonna get back,” she said.
Layla Taylor walks the runway sporting Megan Mae Miami during Miami Swim Week in 2025. Getty Images for Miami Swim Week: The Shows
Layla Taylor: anorexia
At 25, Taylor is busy raising two sons and building a budding modeling profession while in recovery for anorexia.
In March, she revealed that she’d been struggling with an eating disorder she “believed I had left behind in high school. It’s been lonely and exhausting, fighting a battle in my own brain while trying to show up like everything is okay and receive comments daily on my body.”
On the show, she said she weighed only 99 kilos and “can’t stop” taking GLP-1s, describing the weight loss drug as “addictive.”
“I don’t think I’ll ever be small enough in my head,” she said. “And I know it’s affecting me. Like, I’m so exhausted all the time because I don’t eat. And my body hurts every night when I go to bed.”
She’s since stopped the medication and said she was in treatment.
“I’m still learning how to choose self-love over self-criticism. Even this video seeing my body side-by-side is triggering; But I’m still fighting — not just for me, but because my boys deserve a healthy, present mom. So grateful for those in my life that helped me through that low time.”
Jennifer Affleck has spoken candidly about dealing with prenatal depression. FIFA via Getty Images
Jen Affleck: prenatal depression
Affleck, 27, quickly dropped out of season two while battling prenatal depression — and this summer season, during her fourth being pregnant, she revealed that it had come back.
There had been days “my mind went to some really dark places. It scared me,” she wrote on Instagram. “If you’ve ever experienced depression, you know how isolating it can feel. Add moving to a new state, being pregnant, and trying to show up for your kids, and some days felt impossible.”
She had said months during her last being pregnant “were filled with ups and downs,” and she navigated “countless therapy sessions, long nights in prayer, journaling, and some really hard conversations with myself, Zac and those around me.”
Affleck also checked into a wellness retreat for 11 days during the being pregnant.
“This journey taught me that it’s okay to not be OK and, more importantly, that it’s okay to ask for help,” she wrote. “As mothers, we pour so much into others that we forget to care for ourselves, but you can’t pour from an empty cup.”
Demi Engemann arrives at The CUPSHE Holiday Party on Wednesday, November 5, 2025, in Los Angeles, California. GC Images
Demi Engemann: endometriosis, PMOS and OCD
On the show, the 32-year-old opened up about struggling to conceive with her husband Bret over 4 years. She suspected her endometriosis performed a position.
This is a painful condition that makes tissue related to the liner of the uterus grow exterior the organ, affecting the close by ovaries and lining of the pelvis.
She’s also said she lives with PMOS, a condition that impacts one in eight ladies. In addition to including roadblocks to fertility, it might trigger zits, facial hair and hair thinning, insulin resistance and weight gain, and irregular durations.
Engemann also said she struggles with OCD, a mental health disorder marked by undesirable, distressing ideas and repetitive behaviors.
Jessi Draper had her thyroid partially eliminated after viewers warned her it appeared enlarged. Getty Images
Jessi Draper: thyroid nodules
Last yr, Draper, 34, had half her thyroid eliminated after docs decided it could possibly be cancerous.
She was spurred into motion by nurses who had watched that show and reached out to the star on social media, encouraging her to try what appeared like an enlarged thyroid.
A specialist did decide there have been a number of nodules, and that the best course of motion could be to partially take away it.
“They said they can’t tell me if it’s cancer or not ‘til after the surgery,” she said on the show. “They won’t know ‘til they take it out. But if I don’t get it removed and it is cancer, it could spread to my lymph nodes.”
Fortunately, they decided the thyroid pattern was non-cancerous. “Life is so short and it’s so precious, and what’s not important is us all yelling at each other as a group of friends,” she said.
Taylor Frankie Paul says she’s dealt with a quantity of mental health points, from anxiety to PTSD. Getty Images
Taylor Frankie Paul: PTSD, anxiety and ADHD
Paul, 32, has had a number of struggles play out in the public eye — and she’s been open about her mental health.
In a 2023 TikTok, she said that a therapist told her she had “major PTSD, trauma, stress, anxiety, social anxiety, ADHD — the list goes on.” The therapist also advised she might need bipolar disorder.
“I know this justifies none of my poor behavior, but it does give a better understanding of why I’m feeling this way and reacting this way,” she said.
In other videos, she revealed she was taking Zoloft to help with depression and anxiety and was attempting EMDR therapy.
Earlier this yr, amid a legal battle with ex Dakota Mortensen and the scrapping of her season of “The Bachelorette,” she voluntarily checked herself into a rehab facility.
“I knew that I was in a spot to take a step back and be like, ‘OK, we need a reset,’” she said on Instagram. “Number one priority was just a reset for my mental health and to get away — decompress, whether it’s one day, whether it’s seven, whether it’s 30. I willingly did that. That was my choice.”
“I ended up finding a really good antidepressant that has been working for me,” she went on. “I will share the meds eventually, however, I like to trial and error before I talk about them because it takes a while to set in, and I would hate to be recommending something that I don’t even like myself.”
Miranda Hope opened up about dealing with Hashimoto’s disease. FilmMagic
Miranda Hope: Hashimoto’s
Earlier this yr, the 28-year-old revealed to followers on Instagram that she has Hashimoto’s, an autoimmune condition in which the immune system assaults the thyroid gland.
Symptoms can embody excessive fatigue, weight gain, feeling cold, dry pores and skin, muscle aches, mind fog and abdomen points.
“I was in remission for a long time. I no longer am,” she told followers, including that there have been “a lot of other things in my labs” that she is attempting to handle.
“I am a firm believer in there being a direct correlation between your health and your emotions and your trauma, especially when it comes to autoimmune diseases and autoimmune diseases in women,” she added.
This spring, social media customers started sharing the concept that “being a bitch” might help ladies keep away from autoimmune ailments. While it’s not fairly that simple, there may be some scientific evidence behind it — and specialists say it’s helpful not to bottle issues up.
Whitney Leavitt shared she has hypothyroidism. Brian Zak/Page Six
Whitney Leavitt: hypothyroidism
In a 2023 interview on the podcast “Weekly Trash,” Leavitt, 33, revealed that she has hypothyroidism, a condition in which the thyroid doesn’t make enough hormones. This can lead to weight gain, fatigue, cold intolerance, constipation and other unwanted effects.
It grew to become an issue for the “Dancing With the Stars” alum when she was attempting to slim down after the beginning of her son Liam. She’d had some success partnering with WeightWatchers — until she wasn’t.
“I was feeling great, doing great,” she said before the weight loss got here to a “halt.”
Mayci Neeley suffered from depression after her former boyfriend died in a car accident. Mayci Neeley/Instagram
Mayci Neeley: depression
Neely, 31, suffered a bout of depression after her former boyfriend, Arik Mack, died in a car accident. She was 14 weeks pregnant with their child at the time.
“I was severely depressed,” she recalled to Today. “I’ve never felt like that my entire life. I kind of just felt like my life was over. I had nothing to look forward to.”
In her memoir, “Told You So,” she described the months following months as “a gray, depressive blur.”
“The easiest tasks — getting up, eating breakfast, taking the online classes that will allow me to keep my NCAA tennis eligibility — feel impossible. More than once, I think about dying,” she wrote.
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