A reality-TV cast member is suing one of the stars of “The Secret Lives of Mormon Lives,” saying she defamed him by accusing him of sexually assaulting her.
Marciano Brunette, one of the people who has appeared on Hulu’s reality show “Vanderpump Villa,” filed a lawsuit Friday in U.S. District Court in Utah against Demi Engemann, a social media influencer and member of the Utah “MomTok” group.
Brunette also is suing Jeff Jenkins Productions, the company that produces “The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives,” saying the show’s producers aired Engemann’s accusations “despite obvious reasons to doubt” her account, because they were “looking for ways to make the show more interesting.”
Publicists for Hulu, which streams “The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives,” did not immediately respond to a request for comment Saturday morning.
(Disney | Christopher Willard) Marciano Brunette has appeared on Hulu's reality series "Vanderpump Villa." Brunette has filed a federal lawsuit against Demi Engemann and the producers of "The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives," accusing them of defamation.
In the complaint, Brunette asserts he and Engemann shared a consensual kiss in April 2024, while filming the second season of “Vanderpump Villa” in Italy, and then maintained contact “through calls, FaceTime, texts, invitations and even location sharing“ for several months. Some of those texts are included in the complaint.
Later, the lawsuit alleges, Engemann, who is married, faced criticism over the relationship with Brunette, and “reframed the obviously consensual interaction as one of sexual misconduct and then as sexual assault.”
The damage from those accusations, Brunette says in the lawsuit, “has been immediate and severe, including lost professional opportunities, harassment by strangers, and lasting harm to Marciano’s reputation.” He asserts in the complaint that he lost out on a role in a reality dating show, and put his DJ career on hold after losing a gig at a Las Vegas nightclub.
The accusations were recently levied on episodes of the third season of “The Secret Lives of Mormon Lives,” which debuted on Hulu on Nov. 13, Brunette alleges in the lawsuit. And, the lawsuit states, Engemann repeated them on the Season 3 reunion episode, which premiered Thursday.
In the reunion episode, according to the lawsuit, Engemann said “you can be sexually assaulted and then also continue a relationship. I think [it] honestly just boils down to a trauma response and having a lack of boundaries.”
Brunette seeks unspecified monetary damages in the lawsuit. He is also asking for an injunction to stop Engemann and the show’s producers from repeating “all the statements that are adjudicated … to be defamatory.”