Layla Taylor is opening up about a deeply personal part of her life.
The “The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives” star revealed she is bisexual during the June 29 episode of Jay Shetty’s “On Purpose” podcast, sharing that she has known she was attracted to women since childhood but only recently felt ready to speak publicly about it.
“I’m gay and I’m bi and date women and men,” Layla said at the start of the interview.
The reality star explained that embracing her identity has been a long journey.
“It’s just something that I honestly didn’t really know how to formally address for a long period of my life,” she said. “We’re only on this earth for however long we are here and I’ll be damned if I’m not able to be fully who I am.”
Layla Taylor Says a Recent Breakup Changed Everything
Layla shared that her split from Mason McWhorter earlier this year gave her the opportunity to focus on herself after years of prioritizing others.
“Honestly, I went through a breakup at the beginning of this year and I feel like for just a long period of my life, was constantly living my life for other people,” she explained.
“Whether that was being a mom or I was in a marriage at one point, I was married. And I just feel like I was always fulfilling other people around me.”
Layla, who converted to Mormonism at 16, was previously married to Clayton Wessel. The former couple married in 2020, finalized their divorce in 2025 and share two sons, Oliver and Maxwell.
She said ending her most recent relationship allowed her to better understand herself.
“I think honestly that breakup was like a blessing in disguise because I feel like now I’ve been fully able to just focus on Layla. And yeah, just focus on who I truly am.”
Layla also recalled having feelings she couldn’t explain as a child.
“I would be watching shows like Pretty Little Liars, and I would watch Shay Mitchell kissing a girl. Was like, ‘Wait, why is that hot?'”
She added that she didn’t understand those emotions because she had no queer representation around her.
“I could look at it and be like, ‘OK, this is normal.'”
More recently, Layla said she connected with another woman through direct messages before they eventually met in person.
“We met up, and we hung out and it was just kind of like that first kiss of, like, this wasn’t like a drunk moment,” she said. “Like this was me intentionally going into a moment knowing how I felt about women.”
The SLOMW Star Says She’s Proud to Share Her Story
Layla admitted that many of the people in her life, including her “The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives” castmates, had not yet heard her news before the podcast aired.
“I know that there’s some friendships that are in different places than they have been in the past,” she said. “But I think right now we’ve just been kind of a little separate since just going on that pause from filming and everything like that. So I just haven’t seen any of them in person.”
Despite keeping the news private until now, Layla said she is proud of where she is today.
“I’m very proud to be bi, and I’m very proud now to be out,” she said. “And I hope that if anyone’s in a situation that I am as well, that, for a long time there, I didn’t know if I could come out and truly be myself. I hope that they can feel safe to do so and proud to do so.”
After the episode aired, Layla thanked Shetty on social media for giving her the opportunity to share her story.
“Thank you for giving me such a safe place to share,” she wrote.
