Whitney Leavitt left behind the drama from The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives for a night out at the 2024 People’s Choice Country Awards.
The 31-year-old reality star — who is pregnant with her and husband Connor Leavitt’s third baby — walked her first-ever red carpet ahead of the Thursday, September 26, awards show at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville.
Whitney sizzled in a sexy, form-fitting red gown that showed off her growing baby bump while out in Music City. The dress had cutouts on the side and big red bows on the shoulder and hip.
Her husband, Connor, was by her side during the evening, wearing a sleek black suit and dress shoes. He sported a full mustache while holding on tight to his wife.
Earlier this month, Whitney made headlines for her role on The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives, which premiered on Hulu September 6. Throughout season 1, she became the focal point of tension with her costars and fellow MomTok members, Jen Affleck, Demi Engemann, Mikayla Matthews, Mayci Neeley, Jessi Ngatikaura, Taylor Frankie Paul and Layla Taylor.
As Whitney’s friendships with her fellow Mormon influencers fractured, she distanced herself by exiting their group chat. Earlier this week, she explained her decision to leave the text thread.
“There were scenes that were taken out — more scenes of us as a group — but what set me, probably in the darkest place was …,” she said during the Wednesday, September 25, episode of “The Squeeze” podcast. “We were in Park City and we had this truth box, and in that moment that’s when Demi felt attacked. I could see it and I hated that I had put stuff in that room.”
Whitney incited backlash among her friends when they answered anonymous questions from a “truth box,” with multiple women pointing to her as the source of rumors within the group. For instance, Whitney told Jen that Demi thought she was “too Mormon” and informed Taylor that Demi called her “white trash.” However, Whitney insisted there was more to the story.
“But, after that, when Taylor and I had gone up [to bed], Demi had shared a very personal and very vulnerable story of mine that I had no idea she had shared until that evening,” she said. “Because that scene where I have toilet paper on my heel and we’re all at that dinner, I couldn’t compose myself because right before that Mayci had asked me if that was true. I just couldn’t believe that, regardless of you telling the other woman, that you had brought that on a national television show.”
Whitney remained tight-lipped about what Demi allegedly divulged and began crying while noting that it was “still hard” to discuss the topic.
“I think if Demi knew how dark that moment was [and] me being under that treatment and how hard that was and how vulnerable that was for me, I don’t think she would have shared,” she said. “I also know she was angry with me for telling Jen about the ‘too Mormon-y’ and the ‘white trash’ thing. After that, it just put me in a really dark place.”
After the truth box incident and apparent offscreen problems, Whitney started “slowly separating” from the MomTok group.
Following the fallout from the show, Whitney teased whether she would return for a potential season 2 in Us Weekly’s latest cover story, coyly hinting, “We’ll see.”
Executive producer Jeff Jenkins, meanwhile, told Us that he would love to see Whitney back on the show: “She’s one of those people [where] the camera loves their energy, and she’s evolving.”
As for her pregnancy, Whitney announced in April that she is expecting after previously welcoming daughter Sedona in November 2019 and son Liam in December 2021. Her third baby with Connor, whom she married in August 2016, is due in October.