Mormon Wives Star Conner Leavitt Shares He Was Sexually Abused As a Child

The first-ever reunion for The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives contained secretly recorded phone calls and reconciliations, but one husband, Conner Leavitt, willingly opened up about his private life. In a previously unaired clip from the first season, shot one month before the Leavitt family briefly moved to Hawaii for a break after his public Tinder scandal, Whitney Leavitt’s husband shared on-camera that he had been sexually abused as a child. After going through therapy, he said, he realized its impact on his mental health had compounded his “pornography addiction” and online cheating scandal.

“Something I had only shared with Whitney, my therapist, and my family was that when I was a little boy, I was raped,” Conner tearfully said at the reunion with Whitney by his side. “And when I was finally honest with that emotion and that memory, everything made sense, the validation I needed.” He then read a statement, letting anyone who has been through something similar know that “your story doesn’t end with what happened to you.” 

As filming took a break (but the cameras kept rolling), Taylor Frankie Paul stood up. When a producer asked where she was going, she said she was just walking over to give Conner a hug. “That was really hard to watch,” she comforted him. “I’m so sorry.” In response, Conner told her, “Honestly, your vulnerability and your ability to just not hold back about what’s going on in your life gave me a lot of courage and strength.”