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The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives star Layla Taylor has told The Independent that despite her decision to leave the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, her ex-husband still takes her two sons to church.
During her time on the Hulu reality series, Taylor has discussed her decision to convert to Mormonism as a teenager. However, during the most recent season, she opened up about why she has since left the religion and how that decision has affected her daily life.
While Taylor pinpointed the church’s history of racism — which includes barring Black men from obtaining the priesthood and Black men and women from temple ordinances, citing racist religious doctrines, and discouraging interracial marriage — as a reason for leaving, she told The Independent there were many aspects of the religion she no longer “aligns with.”
“I converted to the church when I was very young and very naive, and my reason for converting was just this wanting for a community and the wanting for a family dynamic that I lacked growing up, and I was not aware of a lot,” she explained. “I feel like when you are converting to a religion, you know the good parts, you obviously don’t know the otherwise negative parts.”
Despite her separation from the religion, she said she has no regrets about where it led her.
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‘I feel like when you are converting to a religion, you know the good parts, you obviously don’t know the otherwise negative parts,’ Taylor said about leaving the Mormon church (Getty Images)
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During her time on ‘SLOMW’ Taylor opened up about her decision to convert to Mormonism as a teenager (Getty Images)
“It got me through a really dark time in my life where I was fighting for my life every day to stay alive, and it gave me a lot of hope and purpose, and I’m still grateful for it in that sense that I probably wouldn’t have moved to Utah, and I wouldn’t have met my ex husband, and I wouldn’t have had my kids, and there are so many things that led me to where I am today, because of the church, so I don’t regret it,” Taylor said.
Although Taylor may no longer be an active member of the church, she said that her two sons, shared with her ex-husband, Clayton Wessel, still attend church on Sundays.
Wessel has been made aware that their sons, Oliver “Ollie” Clay and Maxwell Dean, do not go to church when at their mother’s house, and there has not been any contention when co-parenting.
“I’m just trying to teach my kids that they have agency to choose, that if they want to be a part of the Mormon religion, they can do that,” Taylor said. “But I’m also going to encourage them to research other religions and try out other things and just do what feels right for them. I would never want them to feel pressured into any, you know, religion, but also not discouraging what they think.”
The reality star said that sometimes her boys will come home from church, wanting to tell her about what they learned from “Jesus,” which she tries to actively listen to and engage with.
“I would never want to tell them that they’re wrong for feeling that way, because they are so little and they’re so impressionable,” Taylor said. “And that’s how I was at one point, and I learned with time, and I want to give them that same grace as well.”
Season three of SLOMW is now available to stream on Disney+ and Hulu. The reunion special will drop December 4.