During The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives Season 2, Mikayla Matthews shared about her sexual abuse as a child. At the time, she didn’t feel comfortable disclosing the abuser’s identity, but she admitted it was a family friend. Only her husband knows the person’s identity.
As of the Season 3 Reunion Special, Mikayla and her husband Jace Terry were still working on their intimacy issues resulting from her abuse. Though Jace has gone “out of his way for all of my needs,” healing from such a traumatic experience takes time.
But now her co-star Jessi Ngatikaura is also opening up about her own emotional healing journey.
The SLOMW Season 3 reunion has an emotional admission from Jessi Ngatikaura
While listening to Mikayla talk, host Stassi Schroeder noticed the tears in Jessi’s eyes. When she asked why Jessi was so emotional, she shared something she’d never before made public.
“I actually loved watching Mikayla’s story because I knew that it happened to her,” the MomTok influencer said. “But seeing it play out, seeing her thoughts and feelings behind it, I can relate. I’ve been doing a lot of therapy … and I actually uncovered the memory that I was raped when I was 19.”
Though her castmates seemed stunned by the revelation, she continued, “It really started a lot of my issues … Jordan [Ngatikaura and I] already had our struggles, but that made them worse.”
Because of the memory of being sexually assaulted, Jessi also has intimacy issues when it comes to her husband. “I don’t want him to touch me, and it’s not his fault,” she shared. “But it’s so crazy how your body reacts. It’s not just your emotions, you know? So that’s been another layer of healing for me that watching [Miklaya’s] story, it really hit home for me.”
Following the affair with Marciano Brunette coming out in Season 3, Jessi and Jordan’s marital issues came to the forefront. In an interview with People, Jessi claimed that her husband’s “emotional abuse” was part of the “toxic dynamic” in their marriage.
“We both made mistakes for sure,” Jessi said at the time. “Mine being the affair and his being the emotional abuse, but I think it takes two to tango.”
The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives Season 3 Reunion Special is now streaming on Hulu.
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