Reality star Whitney Leavitt will be returning to The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives for its upcoming Season 4 next year. This comes after her shocking elimination on Dancing with the Stars right before the finale despite Leavitt being the strongest dancer on the show’s 34th season. Though she earned some of the season’s highest scores, particularly given her dance background, she was eliminated due to a lack of fan votes, possibly due to some alleged favoritism toward her and her acting mean when fellow SLOMW costar Jen Affleck was voted off the series. Leavitt also admitted in the third season of the Hulu series that the main reason why she resumed filming on the show was so that she could be a contestant on Dancing with the Stars.
Whitney Leavitt to star in SLOMW 4
In the middle of Season 3, Leavitt was absent in the first four episode until she returned for the fifth. She admitted she only agreed to return to filming as a condition for being able to audition with DWTS. This decision was seen as controversial, with some viewers believing that she was using her MomTok co-stars in an opportunistic manner.
“I just found out that if I came back to film, I can audition for Dancing with the Stars,” she admitted on the show. Her participation, though, was “strictly business,” positioning her former friends as merely co-workers or a stepping stone toward greater fame.
Later on, Leavitt walked out of a contentious meeting with MomTok and said, “But I know two things for sure. One, I’m clearly not welcome in MomTok. And two, I’m gonna get Dancing with the Stars. She’s back!” She then admitted that she wasn’t coming back to the sisterhood and that she was “gonna start my own TikTok.”
Ryan O’Dowd, an executive producer for the popular ABC competition, believed that this could have contributed to her elimination when speaking with Variety.
“Obviously, she has ‘Secret Lives of Mormon Wives’ that just came out that previous week on Hulu,” he explained. “And I’d be lying if I said that I didn’t think that played a role. Our job is to really just give her a platform and an opportunity to display her dance to the best of her abilities, and to allow her to reach an audience that can vote based on what they’ve seen that night.”
The producer believed that Leavitt being upfront about her motivations shouldn’t have seemingly rubbed the audience the wrong way. “We should be celebrating someone who’s been very clear with what their intentions and motivations her, and who has, in some ways, realized the dream that she had and the goal that she had.”
“So why see it for anything other than her just chasing her dream,” he continued, “which is something we all should aspire to?”
Still, ever since the first episode of Dancing With The Stars Season 34, fans pointed out that she had an unfair advantage due to her having a degree in fine arts with an emphasis in dance. Unlike the other MomTok stars who have become known for their dances on TikTok, Leavitt has professional experience. It should be noted, though, that DWTS has cast contestants who at have some dance experience, like fan-favorite Meryl Davis who won an Olympic gold medal for ice dance before competing.
However, her pairing with Mark Ballas, who had previously retired from the show but returned to compete with Leavitt, had some fans wondering if this would lean into the judges’ bias too heavily. Ballas is childhood friends with head judge Derek Hough, so any seemingly inflated scores for the dancing couple were seen by some viewers as something suspicious.
The reunion for SLOMW Season 3 is slated for December 4 on Hulu.
