Layla Taylor, who has starred on Hulu’s “The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives” since 2024, told Jay Shetty in an interview that was released on Monday, June 29, that she’s bisexual and is currently dating a woman. The 25-year-old reality star did not share the identity of her new girlfriend.
She also heartbreakingly recalled struggling for money and eating her children’s scraps before she became financially stable through reality television, and inspiringly shared how she overcame the hardships.
The news comes just a few months after Layla called things off with her ex-boyfriend Mason McWhorter in early February after almost a year of dating.
Mason is a minor cast member on “TSLOMW,” and the younger brother of another cast member, Chase McWhorter. Chase divorced another cast member, Miranda Hope, in August 2024. He has been briefly romantically linked to other cast members including Taylor Frankie Paul, with whom he once went on a date, and Jessi Draper, whom he was spotted kissing shortly after his divorce.
Chase even briefly dated Layla, before she became involves with his brother around July 2025.
Layla Opens Up to Jay Shetty About Being Bisexual
“It’s something that I have known since I was little. It’s just something that I honestly didn’t know how to formally address for a long period of my life,” Layla told the podcaster. She added she wants to be “fully who I am.”
She also explained, “I’m gay, and I’m bi. I date women and men.” Layla, who was born to a black father and a white mother, then said as a child, she didn’t fit in “for a lot of reasons.” She elaborated, “I grew up in a predominantly white area. And being a little black girl I already stood out so much to my peers. And kind of a took that on a lot more than I think I realized.”
She said she started to analyze her own sexual orientation while watching girl-on-girl kissing scenes and realizing she found them “hot,” such as in “Pretty Little Liars.”
She says at the time, she didn’t understand her feeling because “I didn’t have queer representation around me.” Although she says she “was Mormon at one point,” she “didn’t necessarily have pressure” to be straight, but simply didn’t have people around her who modeled diversity in their love lives.
Layla Taylor Discusses Starting Over As a Single Mom
Layla shares two sons with her ex-husband, Clayton Wessel. The pair tied the knot in 2019, and finalized their divorce in May 2025. However, they were separated since 2023.
Speaking about the end of her marriage, she said there was “so much good” around no longer being in “a toxic relationship.” She spoke of a fun nighttime routine she created with her babies, but also acknowledged being a single mom came with some “hard things.”
She said there was a brief time before she was cast on “The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives” where she “didn’t have an income.” She recalled borrowing money from family and growing shopping on only $30 for an entire week. She recalled, “My kids would get food, but I would eat, like, their scraps after they ate cause I couldn’t afford to buy that.”
She also recalled getting eviction notices on her door, and trying to hide her financial struggles from her new castmates when filming on the reality show first kicked off.
