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Just when Secret Lives of Mormon Wives fans thought they heard every side of the story about those Marciano Brunette and Demi Engemann affair rumors, Zac Affleck just entered the chat — and he brought audio receipts.
During the first Secret Lives of Mormon Wives reunion special, which started streaming on Tuesday, July 1, Zac and Jen Affleck clarified her falling out with Demi — and how Marciano played a role.
“When we were in contract negotiations for season 2, Demi called Jen on the phone and was on speaker. I was sitting there and Demi said the craziest things about Jessi [Ngatikaura] — who was her best friend — that she had no respect for her, that she was disgusting and that she wanted nothing to do with her,” Zac claimed. “This was her best friend. I turned around and I said, ‘She is talking about Jessi that way. How do you think she’s talking about you?’”
The conversation between Zac, Jen, Demi and her husband, Bret Engemann, continued when cameras weren’t around.
“We get in the car, and we are driving home when Bret and Demi call us on the phone. Brett had said, ‘Hey, we really need to figure out [Demi’s] whole victim [narrative].’ Because he didn’t like that she said [she was] a victim because I think he was afraid that she was gonna claim victim and it was gonna be clear to the whole audience that she was not a victim,” Zac noted. “As he started saying that, I’m like, ‘I’m gonna press record,’ because I had heard what she had said about Jessi and I’m like, ‘To cover our own backs, we’re just gonna get the receipt on this.’”
Before season 2 premiered in May, Demi sparked speculation online that she was unfaithful after filming two episodes of Vanderpump Villa, which showed her and Marciano growing closer in Italy.
“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,” Demi exclusively told Us Weekly in May. “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.”
Marciano, for his part, made an appearance at the end of the season on Mormon Wives to reveal it was actually the rumors about him and Jessi that allegedly had validity. (In footage filmed after Marciano’s appearance, Jessi and her husband, Jordan Ngatikaura, accused Demi of contributing to the misinformation about the affair, which they denied.)
There was already a divide between Demi and Jen that, according to them, stemmed from the Vanderpump Villa trip. Jen claimed she disapproved of Demi’s behavior and was subsequently served with a cease and desist. Demi, however, denied sending any legal paperwork before accusing her costars of not supporting her amid a difficult situation with Marciano.
“A lot of the women [on my show] and now Marciano jump on the train of taking things out of context. To me, it’s completely a clout tactic in my mind of trying to ride the clout and ride the wave of the success of the show and confuse people. To me, it’s manipulative and I don’t roll that way,” she told Us. “You’ll see that I’ve said very little about anything that happens behind closed doors or behind the scenes or that would give anything away or conflict with the girls.”
Demi concluded: “I did come out with a pretty bold and true statement against Marciano [recently] because at that point it was like, ‘You’re lying about me. Actually, you were the predator.’ So I’m not going to stay quiet — and I stand by that statement. There’s more happening behind the scenes with that that will come to light. I’m sure at this point it’s become a legal matter. There’s not much more I can say on it as of now because I want to preserve the fact that it’s a serious situation. But I stand behind those statements.”
Marciano has since stood by the fact that everything between him and Demi was consensual. Demi’s costars have also questioned her version of events — with Zac playing an alleged conversation where Demi appeared to give him and Jen talking points.
“Demi and I have very different ideas and different boundaries in our marriages. What I value and what I really appreciate is the open and honest communication and relationship that Demi and Bret share. I think it’s amazing and it’s something that I admire,” Demi was heard saying in the audio played at the reunion. “I may have jumped the gun about judging her about that. It wasn’t fair for me to hold that over her head. Then it doesn’t go into any detail about what may or may not have happened and certain members from the show. It’s more a personal standpoint.”
Bret was seemingly heard jumping in to say they needed to address the victim “buzz word” that was used. In response, Jen said she “felt uncomfortable” speaking too much to Demi’s experience since they didn’t see eye to eye on certain situations that took place in Italy.
Demi did not appear at the special after previously confirming her absence.
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“I was [invited]. It was short notice and the only day they could get the location secured was the day that me and my entire family did Disneyland,” she wrote via Instagram last month. “We had already booked all of our flights and the Airbnb was nonrefundable or / would’ve moved the trip to be there. I tried to have production move it to another day and they couldn’t swing it sadly.”
Demi’s absence was addressed, and footage of her answering burning questions with host Nick Viall at his podcast studio played throughout the reunion to offer context to certain claims. She was not asked about the audio that Zac surprised everyone with at the reunion.
The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives reunion is currently streaming on Hulu.
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