Whitney Leavitt is leaving Utah and 'Mormon Wives' drama behind — but not without her dirty soda
Whitney Leavitt is leaving Utah and 'Mormon Wives' drama behind — but not without her dirty soda
Taryn RyderWed, April 8, 2026 at 12:00 PM UTC
0
Whitney Leavitt is balancing her Broadway run, a move to New York City and a leadership role at Cool Sips as she looks beyond "The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives." (Photo illustration: Liliana Penagos for Yahoo News; photo: Michael Loccisano/WireImage)
There was a moment when Whitney Leavitt’s story felt inseparable from The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives.
The Hulu reality series — equal parts fascination and flashpoint — turned a group of Mormon mom influencers into viral characters overnight. It also placed their lives under a microscope, blurring the line between what played out on camera and what unraveled off it. The show is now on pause and its future is in limbo — but Leavitt’s isn’t.
“I just feel like I’m on the right path,” she tells Yahoo. “You know when everything just feels right? For so long, I had been fighting against what was just naturally happening in my life. And then once I kind of just accepted what was happening, and what the universe was telling me, more opportunities came to be.”
When we spoke over Zoom earlier this week, there was an ease about Leavitt. Maybe it’s because she’s in the middle of a record-breaking run as Roxie Hart in Broadway’s Chicago. Or that we’re here to talk about her latest career pivot — stepping into the C-suite as chief creative and brand officer at Cool Sips, a fast-growing dirty soda brand.
As for The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives, currently on hiatus amid a domestic violence investigation involving her co-star and former Bachelorette Taylor Frankie Paul? Leavitt says she “really [doesn’t] know” what the future of the show holds, but believes producers are "trying to figure a lot of things out logistically." Though she’s heard the calls from fans who want a spinoff centered around her, she’s unsure whether she’d want to be part of it.
“I don't know if I have it in me, but we'll see,” Leavitt says. “You know, we've been talking about it, but I don't know. I don't know if that's the path I want to take.”
Leavitt clearly isn’t building her next move around the SLOMW world… and she doesn’t have to.
I don't know if that's the path I want to take.
For the past two years, her career has unfolded in ways that don’t follow a traditional trajectory — less a straight line than a series of unexpected turns, each one building on the last. Poised on paper to be the villain in Season 1 of SLOMW, Leavitt defied those expectations. She became a fan favorite on last year’s Dancing With the Stars and turned that into a run on Broadway.
From the outside, it can look like reinvention. To her, it feels like something else.
“I’ve always wanted more,” she says. “I’ve always wanted to go after more.”
What’s changed is how comfortable she is saying that out loud. She credits her time in the DWTS orbit with helping unlock that shift, not necessarily because of the platform itself, but because of the environment it placed her in.
“Being surrounded by these creatives every single day, it inspired me in so many ways that they’ll never understand,” she says. “It helped me branch out and be unapologetic for having this ambition.”
That sense of clarity — of leaning into what comes naturally instead of pushing against it — is now shaping how she approaches everything else, including the next phase of the business she helped put on the map.
“To be a part of something [at Cool Sips] and to grow something that I have such a passion for is so different,” she says. “It makes me feel a certain bit of success that I don’t always feel when I’m just simply promoting it.”
In her new role, Leavitt will help shape the menu and overall creative direction, expanding beyond traditional soda into teas, lemonades, energy drinks and cold brew. She’ll be pushing the dirty soda trend — customizable soft drinks mixed with cream, flavored syrups or fruit juices — into its next phase.
“Going out, grabbing lunch with your girlfriends — culturally in Utah, because there are so many Mormons, we don’t drink alcohol, we don’t drink coffee — dirty soda came to be because it was also an experience,” she says.
“Utah will always be the heart of dirty soda,” she adds. “But it’s not just a viral moment. It has longevity.”
Advertisement
Now, she’s bringing that experience with her — from Utah, where she recently listed her home, to New York City.
Utah will always be the heart of dirty soda.
“I really thought I was going to end up in California,” she says. “But when we came here for my run in Chicago, both of us were just like, This feels just way too right.”
Leavitt made the move with her husband, Conner — whom she married in 2016 — and their three young children: Sedona, 6, Liam, 4, and Billy, 1.
“I was like, ‘Well, let’s pack up the house and sell it and move to New York City,’” she says. “And we did.”
Leavitt’s success in Chicago speaks for itself, with the long-running musical recording its highest weekly ticket sales in 29 years during her run.
The transition from influencer to executive has brought new, welcomed challenges.
“I wouldn’t say that I’m very educated in that world,” she admits. “I love the creative process, but as far as numbers and stats … that’s been a learning curve.”
That shift, she says, has come with a familiar kind of drive. When asked if she’s more motivated by proving people wrong, or proving herself right, her answer is quick.
“Proving people wrong, girl. One thousand percent,” she says, laughing. “I’m just like, Oh, you don’t think I can do that? OK. I’m motivated.”
At home, though, the energy shifts. While Leavitt is booked and busy, there’s one time she won’t compromise.
“My mornings are very much protected,” she says. Between school drop-offs and breakfast with her three kids, those early hours have become a kind of anchor — a way to stay present in a life that increasingly isn’t.
“It’s easier said than done because my brain just doesn’t shut off,” she admits. “But I want to cherish that as much as I can.”
It’s a small thing. But right now, it’s one of the few constants. Everything else — the show, the speculation, even the possibility of a spinoff — feels less certain.
When asked about the show’s future, Leavitt doesn’t overcomplicate it.
“That was my upbringing as far as it goes into being in the entertainment industry. And so I'll always be grateful for that platform. Did I think that's how it was going to be? No. We always have an idea in our mind of where we are, what steps you want to take to where we want to be, but that's just what naturally happened.” Leavitt says. “That's just a part of me and will always will be. And I am grateful for it. As far as everything that's going on right now, I don't really know much. I don't really know anything.”
As for her SLOMW co-stars, “of course we still keep in touch.”
“No one's definitely talking in the group chat, that's for sure,” she quips. “But yeah, I still keep in touch with some of them.”
Leavitt’s TikTok algorithm, for now, sums her life up better than anything else — from how far she’s come to where she started: “Greenwich, Connecticut. Broadway. MomTok.”
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
