Mikayla Matthews and Husband Jace Terry Reveal Separation in Season 4 of ‘Secret Lives of Mormon Wives’

The couple, who have been married since 2018 and have three children, shared that they reached a “breaking point” after struggles with intimacy issues.

Mikayla Matthews and husband Jace Terry of “The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives” have shared that they are separated after struggling with intimacy issues.

The couple revealed they are not together in Episode 9 of Season 4, which was released on Hulu on March 12. Matthews said in the episode that the couple continued to have troubles with their sex life after she shared in Season 3 that she had been sexually abused as a child. She was also dealing with an undiagnosed chronic illness while postpartum after having the couple’s third child in July 2025.

“We both agreed to do a separation,” Matthews said in a confessional in the episode.

The couple are then shown talking it out in their bedroom.

“At home you feel like you can’t focus on your skin and your health because I’m also here,” Terry said.

“I think it’s hard any time you bring up the stuff, the sex, the intimacy, I feel like it’s hard on me because I feel like my nervous system is going into fight or flight, I’m already maxxed out,” she replied. “Like my bucket is full.”

While Terry suggested she “commit to trauma therapy,” Matthews said past therapy work hasn’t lessened her struggles.

“I don’t think it’s like with the intention of being separated forever. I think we’re obviously still going to see each other every single day. I’m not trying to go even a day away from the kids anyways,” she said.

The couple have three children and have been married since 2018. Matthews was 17 years old when they had their first child.

Matthews expressed on the show that she does not know when her separation with Terry will end.

“I think it’s definitely hard to put a timeline on the situation because it could take weeks, it could take months to be healed,” she said in a confessional. “There’s part of me that is definitely scared to lose him because I feel like our marriage is so good outside of the sexual intimacy part of it, which is ironic because that’s his No. 1 need and that’s my No. 1 wound.”

Terry told her in the episode that “it would be better” for the kids if they worked things out.

Fellow castmember Mayci Neeley then picked up Matthews as she left her home. The couple shared a hug and a kiss goodbye.

“I don’t want to have to tear our family apart, but I also know that I have to be selfish for a period of time so that I can heal,” Matthews said.

The reality star also spoke to People about the separation.

“Last season, we dove into the beginning stages of it, and that was me revisiting all this trauma for the first time as well,” she said about her past sexual abuse. “It’s still new to me, and it’s new to him, and we’re just navigating it the best way that we can. Unfortunately, I think it’s just something that’s going take a lot more time. I feel like that’s all I can say on it now.”

Earlier in the episode, she spoke with castmate Whitney Leavitt about her relationship with her husband.

“I feel like I’m at a point where like when I get really angry I’m like, ‘OK, fine, then go have sex with someone. Like, leave me alone almost,'” she says. “I feel like I’m working on so many different things outside of just sex, and I know that obviously he can’t just be like, ‘OK, well we can just go without that.’

“We both get to a point where we feel really helpless about it, because he’s like, ‘I don’t feel like you have the motivation to do it,’ and I’m like, ‘I don’t think I have the motivation to do it right now because I know that it’s really hard to work through.'”

Terry also spoke with Leavitt’s husband, Conner, who has spoken out about his own experience with sexual abuse, for advice. During their conversation, Terry eventually broke down in tears.

“More than the actual sex I just want to feel like I can connect with my wife again, and I want to feel loved by my wife,” he said.

While speaking to Whitney Leavitt, Matthews brought up the possibility that maybe she should “just go away from the house for like four weeks.”

She then shared in a confessional that the couple stayed up late “talking out the pros and cons of separating” before ultimately deciding to do it.

“I’m definitely reaching a breaking point,” she said.