Credit: Roger Wong/INSTARimages
Whitney Leavitt has officially announced she is leaving The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives.
Yesterday, during her final performance in Broadway’s Chicago, Whitney took the opportunity to announce the big news.
While playing her character, Roxie Hart, Whitney read a headline from a prop newspaper.
“What’s that?” she asked. “Whitney Leavitt announces she’s leaving The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives.”
The audience immediately erupted in applause.
Prior to Whitney announcing her exit, she had already participated in some filming for the upcoming fifth season of the show. The cast ended up visiting her in New York City to see one of her Chicago performances in February.
At this time, it remains unknown if Whitney will be a full-time cast member for the fifth season or if she will just make guest appearances.
Whitney had previously teased about leaving the show in a conversation with The Hollywood Reporter in March.
“I’m figuring it out in real time,” she shared at the time. “We’re figuring it out together, but it feels like that’s the trajectory of where it’s going. But again, I wouldn’t be where I am without it, but it feels like it’s time to challenge myself in other ways and fulfill these dreams and passions that I’ve been trying to get even before the show.”
Whitney’s departure from SLOMW comes at a turbulent time for the show.
In March, the series was put on pause after a major fight between Taylor Frankie Paul and Dakota Mortensen.
Insiders who spoke to TMZ at the time shared that the drama between Taylor and Dakota broke out amid season five filming, and cameras then went down.
Taylor was also due to star on a season of The Bachelorette, but after an explosive video of a fight from 2023 leaked online, ABC pulled the plug on it.
“In light of the newly released video just surfaced today, we have made the decision to not move forward with the new season of ‘The Bachelorette’ at this time, and our focus is on supporting the family,” a spokesperson for Disney Entertainment shared with TMZ in March.
After all of the drama, Taylor and Dakota have continued to duke it out in court, and most recently, a judge ruled for both to have protective orders.
He also noted this has been “a very toxic relationship” that has been “beyond the pale in a lot of ways.”
“I’ve had some thoughts about this,” the judge continued. “I’m finding that there’s been violence that’s occurred both ways, and the problem is that the two of them can’t be together in the same place at the same time for very long before it starts to turn violent.”
The judge went on to insist that Taylor and Dakota have a lot of things to figure out.
“You have to figure out how to function as co-parents,” he added. “This has been dysfunctional. This is a lifelong proposition between the two of you. You’re going to be – you’re linked together for the remainder of your lives. You’re gonna be the grandparents of the same grandkids someday. You’ll be at their same graduations, their same weddings. You’re modeling right now how you deal with conflict to a two-year-old. This is going to – this can affect this child when the child grows up and becomes an adult. You’ve got to put your child first and shield the child from this conflict.“