Who Is Marciano Brunette? All About the “Vanderpump Villa” Star at the Center of “The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives” Cheating Scandal
- - Who Is Marciano Brunette? All About the “Vanderpump Villa” Star at the Center of “The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives” Cheating Scandal
Emily BlackwoodNovember 14, 2025 at 12:30 AM
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Manny Carabel/Getty ; Amanda Edwards/Getty ; Michael Buckner/Variety via Getty
Jessi Ngatikaura attends the 2025 Page Six Virtual Reali-Tea Awards on September 17, 2025 in New York City ; Marciano Brunette attends the 6th Annual Vanderpump Dog Foundation Gala on November 15, 2024 in Beverly Hills, California ; Demi Engemann at Hulu's Get Real House on April 22, 2025 in Los Angeles, California. -
Marciano Brunette starred on Vanderpump Villa, a Hulu spinoff of Vanderpump Rules, until May 2025
The reality star became entangled in a cheating scandal after a few cast members from The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives guest-starred on Vanderpump Villa in August 2024
Demi Engemann claimed that she was groped while filming the episode, and Brunette later alleged that he had an affair with Jessi Ngatikaura
The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives aren't so secret anymore — especially when it comes to the 2024 cheating scandal between stars Demi Engemann, Jessi Ngatikaura and Vanderpump Villa's Marciano Brunette.
In August 2024, Ngatikaura and Engemann — who are both married — flew to Italy with castmates Jen Affleck, Layla Taylor and Mikayla Matthews to film with the Vanderpump Villa cast. Brunette admitted in a confessional during the crossover episode, which aired on April 23, that he felt an "instant connection" to Engemann and kissed her on her forehead.
The MomTok member later claimed in a May 2025 episode of The Viall Files that she was sexually assaulted during her time at the villa. Though Engemann didn't name the man on the podcast, she did call Brunette "a s3xual pr3dator that can’t keep his hands to himself" in a since-deleted Instagram comment, per The Independent.
Brunette later denied the allegations on social media.
A month after filming the Vanderpump Villa episode, Ngatikaura and Brunette were spotted together at a bar, and some witnesses alleged that they were kissing. He claimed the rumors were true in a one-on-one with Taylor during the season 2 finale.
"Soon as I saw her, [she] jumps into my arms, wraps her legs around my waist," Brunette claimed to Taylor. "I thought we were cool at the villa, but then she was extremely forward [at the bar]."
Though she denied kissing the fellow Hulu reality star publicly — telling the group that she isn't "dumb enough" to do that — Ngatikaura said there's more to the story. She promised on The Viall Files in May 2025 that the scandal would be addressed in season 3 of the series, which premieres on Nov. 13.
Here's everything to know about Marciano Brunette and his role in The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives cheating scandal.
Brunette is from Las Vegas
Marciano Brunette/Instagram
Marciano Brunette in April 2025.
According to his bio on Hulu, Brunette has worked primarily in Las Vegas, where he was a server at one of Sin City's "classiest restaurants." The reality star had almost a decade of hospitality experience working in nightclubs and eateries before joining Lisa Vanderpump's villa in Italy.
He was born into a boxing family and named after heavyweight boxer Rocky Marciano. Sadly, his father died in the ring when Brunette was only 5 years old.
He starred on Vanderpump Villa
Denise Truscello/Getty
Marciano Brunette, Hannah Fouch and Lisa Vanderpump at the grand opening of Pinky's by Vanderpump on Dec. 5, 2024 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
In 2023, Brunette traded Las Vegas for France to work as a lead server at Vanderpump's French countryside estate, Chateau Rosabelle, in the Hulu series Vanderpump Villa. Season 2 of the series was filmed in a 12th-century Italian castle dubbed Castello Rosato.
The trailer for the second season insinuated some romantic tension between Engemann and Brunette, starting with her asking him if he's "allowed" to make a move on the guests. They were later seen deep in conversation, in which he asked the married reality star if she was "living with regret."
That interaction sparked drama amongst the MomTok girls, and many accused her of disrespecting her marriage to husband Bret Engemann in season 2 of TSLOMW. She told PEOPLE in May 2025 that she was "disappointed" with how she was portrayed in the Vanderpump Villa trailer.
"It's a trailer and it's meant to grab people's attention, so I understand to a degree," Engemann said. "But it is wild to see a lot of the girls jumping on that to try to create a story that I had an affair and cheated on my husband, or that I was unfaithful or that more went down in Villa than I'm revealing."
Brunette seemingly suggested that there was more to the story in an April 2025 Instagram video, where he wrote, "uninvited to the function cus a 30yo mormon wife's scared I'll tell her husband the truth." He captioned the post, "This is 100% a true story 😂 Who do you think is this petty to do this!?"
He was fired from Vanderpump Villa while filming season 2
Christopher Willard/Disney
Marciano Brunette on Vanderpump Villa.
During episode 4 of season 2, Brunette was fired for inappropriate behavior after he and his costar and former girlfriend Hanna Fouch got into a tense fight with another Villa employee. He confirmed his exit in a May 2025 Instagram video and noted that it has "nothing to do with the Mormon wives."
"Actually, I got fired for defending Hannah," Brunette said, adding that it doesn't mean he's "gone" for season 3 of the series.
Brunette claimed that he slept with Ngatikaura
Marciano Brunette/Instagram ; Chad Salvador/Variety via Getty
Marciano Brunette in November 2020 ; Jessi Ngatikaura at The Walt Disney Company's 77th Emmy Awards Party on September 14, 2025 in Los Angeles, California.
Though the drama may have started with Engemann, Brunette later shifted the focus to his alleged romance with Ngatikaura. During the season 2 finale of TSLOMW, Taylor confronted the reality TV star about a rumor that they had kissed at a bar in Los Angeles.
He alleged that the incident led to "more than" kissing — and nodded in confirmation when Taylor asked if they had hooked up.
Brunette also said that Ngatikaura's husband, Jordan Ngatikaura, was aware of what happened and that he was still in contact with the MomTok star.
"He doesn't know the truth about how extensive it was," Brunette said on TSLOMW. "It was not just a one-time hook-up thing. It's not like this was some freaking one-night stand."
Though Ngatikaura denied the L.A. incident, she has yet to address his claim that they slept together. She hinted in her interview on The Viall Files that she would tell her side of the story in season 3 of the Hulu reality show.
"I can't say much, unfortunately. I wish I could," the hairstylist said. "But there is just so much more to the story. And again, relationships are hard and they're nuanced. There's so much more that I'm excited to share because I think people will be able to relate to my story."
Engemann claimed she was groped while filming Vanderpump Villa
Marciano Brunette/Instagram ; Savion Washington/WireImage
Marciano Brunette in May 2025 ; Demi Engemann attends the premiere of "All's Fair" on October 16, 2025 in Los Angeles, California.
In an interview with her husband on The Viall Files, Engemann claimed that she was groped at the Vanderpump Villa. Though she doesn't name the person on the podcast, she did share that she told her TSLOMW costars about the incident and that she decided not to file a police report.
"I had opened up to all the girls after Vanderpump Villa that I'd been groped, sexually assaulted," Engemann said. "I asked them not to tell anyone ... I don't want to make it legal. I don't want everything that comes with making this legal ... Like I do not want this to become a thing."
She later left a few comments insinuating that it was Brunette who groped her on a since-removed post from a fan account, The Independent reported. "Grown men acting like a child cause they couldn’t bag a woman that was beyond out of their league and MARRIED," Engemann wrote in one comment, "the clout chasing is on another level.”
In another, she claimed that he was uninvited from Hulu's Get Real House event "because he’s a s3xual pr3dator that can’t keep his hands to himself," not because she was "hiding anything" from her husband, as he claimed in an earlier Instagram video.
Ngatikaura revealed her opinion on Engemann's allegations in a comment on Brunette's post, writing, "All I’ll say is it’s not ok to claim assault when it’s not true." Engemann wrote on her Instagram Stories shortly after that, “Unwanted physical touch = assault. PERIOD the end.”
During the reunion in July 2025, Ngatikaura shared an alleged suggestive text chain between Brunette and Engemann. He responded with an Instagram video thanking Ngatikaura for leaking their messages and claiming that Engemann's sexual assault accusation was an attempt to "scare" and "silence" him.
on People
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
