The Secret Life of Mormon Wives is raising eyebrows for several reasons, including Demi and Bret Engemann’s 16-year age difference.

“So if you don’t know, my husband and I are 16 years apart and I knew him through a family friend growing up,” Demi explained in a February 2023 TikTok video. “He was so much older than me. When I was 9 years old, he was married to his first wife and having babies.”

Bret was previously married to The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City star Angie Harrington and the then-couple welcomed two sons together. (Demi has also hinted that he was married for a second time to an unnamed woman.) Demi, meanwhile, was previously married to Blake Corbin, with whom she shares daughter Maude.

Demi noted in the aforementioned video that she had an “innocent little girl crush” on Bret, adding that she isn’t sure if they crossed paths in the past but she was aware of him because of his past playing football at BYU. When she was 18, Bret followed Demi, who was dating her ex-husband at the time, on Instagram and she was “star struck” because of how big a deal he was in their small town.

After writing him off as a “bad boy,” Demi continued on with her life and married her ex-husband and eventually gave birth to their daughter, Maude. Following Maude’s arrival, Demi struggled with postpartum depression and her and her ex-husband’s marriage suffered because of that.

As they were considering divorce, Demi and Blake ran into Bret at the gym and the three chatted about a possible modeling opportunity for Maude. During their conversation, Demi found out that Bret was single and she suggested that he go on The Bachelorette. Demi and Blake anonymously submitted Bret for the ABC series and a few days later, Bret got the call that they wanted to consider him for Clare Crawley’s season.

Bret was cast on the show, which was delayed for COVID-related reasons, in early 2020. Around the same time, Demi decided to part ways with her ex-husband.

“At this point, I didn’t really know what was going on with Bret, however, I did see him post some things about his boys on his page,” she explained in a TikTok series. “He was supposed to be private at the time so I knew something was going on with filming. So I reached out to him asking what happened and he just said that everyone got sent home because of COVID, but that they were gonna go out and start filming again in a few months.”

While Demi was messaging with Bret, he asked about Maude’s potential modeling career, which led Demi to open up about her divorce.

“He was very sweet and supportive and just offered his help in any way that he could with both Blake and I,” Demi recalled. “We meet up a couple weeks later. At this point, I’m in no position to get in a relationship. I’m just looking for someone to talk me through a divorce, [someone] that had been through it.”

After meeting up for the first time, Demi gushed that “it was like a movie” and there was “instant chemistry” between the twosome.

“Out of respect for my ex-husband and the divorce not being finalized, we waited to go on any official date so we were kind of hanging out and keeping it casual while trying to figure out my new situation with my ex-husband and coparenting,” she explained.

Demi noted that she waited two and a half months after Blake moved out to have her first date with Bret.

“The date was just a complete s—t show. I was so nervous. I literally was, like, shaking,” she shared. “I think it was just a combination of going on a date with another man and feeling super excited about Bret.”

At the time of the date, Bret hadn’t told The Bachelorette producers that he wasn’t going to be on the show so things turned into chaos after they got back from the date and Demi’s phone was blowing up.

“TMZ had freaking leaked pictures of our date. I’m receiving phone calls from my family and friends asking if I am having an affair. In everyone’s defense, not everyone knew that I was separated and getting a divorce,” she explained.

Fortunately, one of Demi’s friends was close with a Bachelor producer and explained the situation to them causing it to all “fizzle out.”

“At this point, I am just so overwhelmed and I can’t deal with the pressure of people accusing me of things, the press threatening to release things and also I’m just really sad about my marriage ending,” Demi shared. “As excited as I was about Bret, I just told him, ‘Now is not the right time for me to be dating somebody.’”

Demi shared that Bret “hated that,” but she continued to go on dates with other people, while sometimes going on dates with Bret.

“I definitely needed to date other people and just be alone to figure out my new normal,” she explained, noting that she kept thinking about how “peaceful” it was to be with Bret. “I went crawling back to Bret, begging him to take me back. We got back together, we dated for about 10 months before getting engaged.”

Keep scrolling to learn more about Demi and Bret’s romance:

Spring 2020

Despite hitting it off on the first date, the twosome didn’t seriously start seeing each other for a few months to allow Demi time to heal from her previous marriage.

September 2020

Bret and Demi debuted their romance on Instagram.

“Out of nowhere ,” Bret captioned a couple photos of the lovebirds looking cozy on a boat.

March 2021

Bret and Demi got engaged and tied the knot four days later in an intimate ceremony.

“I married my best friend today. I’m officially the luckiest man in human history. I love you forever, @demilucymay 4/3/21…….to infinity,” Bret wrote via Instagram at the time.

April 2023

The couple celebrated their two year wedding anniversary in a sweet social media post.

“730 days down, infinity to go. I love you with every ounce of me. I’m the luckiest man in human history. Happy Anniversary!” Bret wrote via Instagram.

Demi, for her part, shared in the comment section: “Bye I love you!! Best friend, soulmate, twin flame, confidant, favorite person on earth!! Here for it all — the good and the hard! Can’t wait to keep doing life with you! Xoxo”

August 2024

Demi announced that she would be on Hulu’s The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives.

“,” Bret wrote in the comment section of Demi’s Instagram announcement.

The following month, the show premiered.

“[The hardest part] was just [getting] used to having cameras around. … I am naturally just a vulnerable, open person. So I think it was almost just like, ‘Do you really want to be saying that? Do you really want that exposed?’ It was hard for me to keep things in,” Demi told Us Weekly. “And I think that there is power in keeping some things private and some things are necessary to keep private. So that was hard for me and to not overshare and to not share too much.”

May 2025

Season 2 looked a little different with Demi filming several episodes of Vanderpump Villa, which is how Demi met Marciano Brunette. After sharing several conversations, Marciano alluded to developing feelings for Demi that were addressed off screen.

Demi, for her part, called out Marciano for perpetuating rumors that she was unfaithful.

“Nothing happened with Marciano. At the expense of sounding rude, there wasn’t even a remote attraction to him. It sucks that women can’t be kind and friendly and even playful with men in this world without it being taken as like you’re open. I had a rock on my finger the entire time I was there,” she exclusively told Us in May. “I brought up my marriage multiple times and they were told that we were married women — so it sucks that we couldn’t just go and have a good time and that he couldn’t respect that.”

Bret also found himself accused of sleeping with someone else when Demi was out of town. “The truth always reveals itself. Until there is proof, I don’t give it any credit or any weight. I don’t understand why something that is not true would bother you so deeply,” Demi told Bret, to which he replied, “I need to worry less about optics.”

June 2025

“I’ve made a couple satire TikTok’s about this and people are concerned … for good reason. Oops,” Demi wrote via Instagram Stories in June 2025. “We met for the first time at our mutual friends funeral when I was 22. I had heard of him but he didn’t know I existed before then.”