Credit: Instagram
Layla Taylor leaked a series of DMs with Taylor Frankie Paul‘s ex-boyfriend, Ben Lambert, after her Secret Lives of Mormon Wives cast member called out their interaction and suggested she was “male centered.”
Following the release of season five, which saw several cast members calling out Taylor, 32, for being too focused on men and not focused enough on her female relationships, Taylor suggested it was Layla, 25, who was obsessed with men before quickly deleting the claim.
“Speaking of male centered how’s Ben?” Taylor had asked Layla in the since-deleted post, which was shared, via screenshot, by The Secret Lives HQ on Instagram.
As fans may know, Taylor dated Ben before leaving Utah to film The Bachelorette in Los Angeles, where she met and got engaged to Doug Mason, 29, before cheating on him with ex-boyfriend Dakota Mortensen, 33, just one day later.
After seeing the seemingly hypocritical comment, Layla fired back at Taylor with her own message.
“Claims I’m ‘male centered’ but Ben reached out to me and this is the only interaction I’ve ever had with him,” she wrote, along with a screenshot of their DMs.
“Hey!” Ben began in a message to Layla on March 7. “I’m late but I’m sorry hearing what happened with you and [Mason McWhorter], and then what’s happened since … I feel like you had good intentions so it’s sad to see where it ended up. Just wanted to say I feel for you and hope you’re improving.”
“Hi! Thank you Ben! it’s been really tough honestly but it’s okay! Hope you’re doing okay as well,” Layla replied later that day.
Ben then suggested that they were in the same boat since their former partners had “[moved] on so fast.”
“Something about NYC that breaks people up I guess,” he suspected as Layla admitted the Big Apple had started to give her “jaded feelings.”
“Yeahh you probably go a lot? … That was my first time there lol,” Ben replied in a couple of separate messages, seemingly in reference to his visit to New York City with Taylor, where they filmed their cringy bathtub scene of season five.
“Yes! It’s my fav any chance I can get I go! … You’ll need to do a redo trip at some point lol,” Layla advised.
Then, in a seemingly flirty message, Ben said, “I usually only go if a Mormon wife invites me.”
After SLOMW season five premiered, Taylor explained what happened between her and Ben in a lengthy post on Instagram.
“This is a hard post to write out because a lot of emotions come to surface,” Taylor began on September 14. “Ben is a reminder that there are good men out there. He so was patient, gentle, kind, understanding and tried to get me out of the cycle I was in.”
“Saying goodbye in the show was the last time I saw him and deeply mourned him. We’ve gone our separate ways. However he will make for an amazing husband and father one day and I hope he finds his person to give all that back to him,” she continued. “I had to let him go because I knew he deserved so much better.”
Secret Lives of Mormon Wives season five is currently streaming on Hulu.