Whitney Leavitt to Return to ‘Secret Lives of Mormon Wives’ in Season 4

Despite her absence in half of “The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives” Season 3, Whitney Leavitt will be back for Season 4 of the hit Hulu reality show when new episodes are released next year. The dancer and reality star confirmed the news to Variety at the finale of “Dancing With the Stars” on Tuesday.

Leavitt competed on Season 34 of the ABC competition, coming in sixth place. She was shockingly eliminated ahead of the finale during the Nov. 18 Prince-themed episode  — five days after Season 3 of “Secret Lives of Mormon Wives” dropped on Hulu.

During Season 3, Leavitt was noticeably absent for multiple episodes, and her costars revealed she’d left the show; she returned in episode 5 and admitted that she was only agreeing to film again because she wanted to audition for “Dancing With the Stars.” The comments appeared to rub viewers the wrong way and may have contributed to her pre-finale elimination, despite being one of the best celebrity dancers on the show.

“Obviously, she has ‘Secret Lives of Mormon Wives‘ that just came out that previous week on Hulu. And I’d be lying if I said that I didn’t think that played a role,” Ryan O’Dowd, “DWTS” executive producer and president of BBC Unscripted, told Variety of the elimination. “Our job is to really just give her a platform and an opportunity to display her dance to the best of her abilities, and to allow her to reach an audience that can vote based on what they’ve seen that night.”

He added that Leavitt was “clear with her intention” of wanting to be part of the competition, which shouldn’t have been a negative thing.

“We should be celebrating someone who’s been very clear with what their intentions and motivations are, and who has, in some ways, realized the dream that she had and the goal that she had,” he continued. “So why see it for anything other than her just chasing her dream — which is something we all should aspire to?”

Leavitt was at the center of the drama on the first season of “Secret Lives of Mormon Wives” but took on less of that role in the third season, with tension bubbling over between Demi Engemann and Jessi Engemann — which will likely be discussed in the upcoming reunion, set for Dec. 4 on Hulu.