Aspiring Reality TV Star? Secret Lives of Mormon Wives’ Bret Engemann’s ‘RHOSLC’ and ‘Bachelorette’ Past

The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives cast has had fans in a chokehold ever since they first became TikTok stars before their Hulu series aired in September 2024. Although the group of Utah women gained the attention of fans for being known as “soft swingers,” some of the husbands have also lived eyebrow-raising pasts, like Demi Engemann’s husband, Bret Engemann.

Although Bret made his reality TV debut on The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives, he has a connection to two other hit series including The Bachelorette and The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City.

Bret Engemann Was Previously Married to a ‘RHOSLC’ Star

Bret was married twice before tying the knot with Demi, who is 16 years his junior.

His first wife, Angie Harrington, appeared on the first two seasons of the hit Bravo series before becoming an official “friend of” during season 3. Despite not being a full-time Housewife, Angie created major drama within the cast after she and her current husband, Chris Harrington, made an Instagram burn account @shahxposed. The page trolled imprisoned RHOSLC alum Jen Shah for her fraud scandal, while also talking ill on other cast members.

Angie got a ton of heat from the cast and fans once it was revealed that she was responsible for the account. However, she thanked her public divorce from Bret for helping her navigate being in the spotlight for not the best reasons.

“I’ve learned not to care what people think. I had a very public divorce in Utah Valley. And my ex-husband was kind of the golden boy of Provo. So, that prepared me for reality television,” she told The Salt Lake Tribune in 2023.

Bret was the quarterback of the football team at Brigham Young University between 1999 and 2002, which is run by the Mormon church.

Bret and Angie welcomed two sons, Rome and Cole, during their marriage and she welcomed her third son, Hart, with Chris.

Demi mentioned Bret and Angie’s marriage during a February 2023 TikTok video while reflecting on the first time she met him as a kid.

“He was so much older than me. When I was nine years old, he was married to his first wife and having babies,” she said.

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Bret Engemann Was Cast for ‘The Bachelorette’

Demi was previously married to Blake Corbin, who was acquaintances with Bret. During her series of TikTok videos, she reflected on the time she and her ex-husband ran into Bret shortly after his brief, second marriage ended. So, they secretly submitted an application for him to join The Bachelorette.

Bret accepted ABC’s offer to join the show and became the oldest contestant during Clare Crawley’s season 16 of The Bachelorette. The former athlete made it to filming, but quickly returned home after production was paused due to the coronavirus pandemic in March 2020.

After getting settled back into Utah, Demi noticed that his Instagram profile was public again and asked how filming The Bachelorette went. She was going through a divorce from Blake at the time shortly after welcoming their daughter, Maude.

Once Demi moved out of her shared home with Blake, she and Bret went on their first date. That said, he didn’t return to film The Bachelorette in July 2020.

“I couldn’t make it happen with the delayed timing,” he previously wrote in a response to a fan via Instagram at the time, per Deseret News. “My sons needed me to help coach during football season and I would have missed the first few games if I went on the show. Just bad timing for me.”

However, TMZ published photos of Bret and Demi on a date and fans quickly believed that he didn’t join the show with the right intentions. The pictures created a frenzy as Demi and Blake kept the beginning stages of divorce private from their family and friends in 2020.

Clare addressed the pictures at the time and called out Bret, who didn’t tell producers he wasn’t returning to The Bachelorette, for going “on a date with a girl from his hometown.”