On the new season of The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives, Demi Engemann admitted she has developed feelings for people outside of her marriage.
Season 4 of the reality show, which hit Hulu on Thursday, March 12, started with Demi, 31, trying to fix her friendship with Jessi Ngatikaura.
“I didn’t feel like you had my back. You weren’t being a real friend to me,” Jessi, 33, said, before Demi fired back, “There were so many things that were said online that I’m like, either that’s not true or it was spun.”
Demi specifically took issue with Jessi, Jen Affleck, Mikayla Matthews, Mayci Neeley, Taylor Frankie Paul, Layla Taylor and Miranda Hope “discrediting” her claims about what happened with Marciano Brunette while filming Vanderpump Villa.
“I wasn’t online talking about you having an affair,” Demi continued. “But the whole narrative around me was awful. It was all negative. It was very hurtful — especially to get it from everyone, but specifically you.”
After a mutual friend asked if Demi’s offscreen interactions with Marciano, 32, were signs of “emotional cheating,” she replied, “Genuinely and truly, there were no romantic feelings that I felt toward this person. There’s been multiple situations in the past where it was that and I felt like I was developing feelings. In this situation, it was not that.”
Demi continued: “It wasn’t that I was attracted to him. I wasn’t even physically attracted to him.”
In a confessional, Jessi expressed frustration over how Demi was “now firmly denying” an emotional connection with Marciano despite telling her something different in private.
“This is upsetting to me because she admitted to me off camera that she emotionally cheated with Marciano. She admitted that she took things way too far,” Jessi claimed. “So the fact that she’s denying it here right now means she can’t be authentic. She can’t be honest — both off and on camera — so it worries me.”
Demi, for her part, refused to record any interviews for the new episodes. In a bit that continued throughout the season, an offscreen producer asked if Demi could elaborate on developing “feelings outside” of her relationship before showing that she wasn’t present to defend her comments.
Demi’s marriage to Bret Engemann was a major topic of conversation when she filmed season 2 of Vanderpump Villa as Marciano found himself smitten with Demi. They ended the season on good terms, but Demi later called out Marciano for perpetuating rumors that she was unfaithful to her husband.
“Nothing happened with Marciano. At the expense of sounding rude, there wasn’t even a remote attraction to him. It sucks that women can’t be kind and friendly and even playful with men in this world without it being taken as like you’re open. I had a rock on my finger the entire time I was there,” she exclusively told Us Weekly in May 2025. “I brought up my marriage multiple times and they were told that we were married women — so it sucks that we couldn’t just go and have a good time and that he couldn’t respect that.”
Bret, 47, also defended Demi’s version of events. (Season 2 of Mormon Wives previously brought up claims Bret cheated on Demi, which he denied.)
“I’m so proud of this beautiful human. She’s the most incredible woman I will ever know,” he wrote via Instagram. “The amount of nonsense she’s had to endure at the hands of disingenuous and deceitful fools is astounding. She’s conducted herself like a graceful lioness amongst a bunch of yipping hyenas.”
The season 3 reunion, which aired in December 2025, allowed Bret to elaborate on his thoughts on the scandal.
“The biggest problem I think I have with everybody is the knee jerk reaction to Demi saying that she was a victim was to not believe her,” he told other members of DadTok. “She wasn’t building a relationship with them and was not flirty at all.”
After Demi accused Marciano of sexual misconduct, he sued her for defamation. “You’ll see me be able to tell my story in the future,” he exclusively told Us last year, hinting that more information might eventually come out about the situation. “You’ll see me try and really open up, be vulnerable and show a different side to me. I will get to explain what I was going through mentally — even up until like now. So you’ll see that you will be able to play out.”
The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives is streaming now on Hulu.
