The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives’ Demi Engemann Met Her Husband Bret at 9, He Was 25

Demi Engemann, one of the stars of Hulu’s new series The Single Lives of Mormon Wives, revealed that she knew of her husband, Bret Engemann, when she was only 9 years old while he was old enough to rent a car, sign a lease, etc. However, now that she’s in the spotlight due to the show, fans have learned that Bret was 25 at the time, and it’s making them cringe.

In early 2023, Demi, 30, opened up about how she met Bret, 46, in a series of TikTok videos.

“There has been a lot of controversy around our relationship, and the fact that we got into a relationship very quickly after my divorce and that we have pretty significant age gaps and that he’d been married a couple of times before me,” Demi said. “So, if you don’t know, my husband and I are 16 years apart and I knew him through a family friend growing up. He was so much older than me. When I was 9 years old, he was married to his first wife and having babies.”

Demi clarified that she didn’t “think” that she and Bret ever crossed paths when she was that young, even though they were always at the family friend’s house.

“Needless to say, I was very aware of his existence,” Demi continued. “I just thought he was so cute, like an innocent little girl crush.”

When Demi turned 18, she noticed that Bret had followed her on Instagram. At the time, she was dating her now ex-husband, but they were “on a break.” Demi said she was “star struck” because she’d always “had a crush” on Bret and he was the “star of their hometown” in Utah.

Bret went on to divorce his first wife and six months later he married another woman. That marriage didn’t last and the two split just “five or six months” later and Demi said that he was “just single for a while.” During that time Demi had married her first husband, Blake, and the two were expecting their first child. Blake and Bret knew one another through mutual connections and because Bret was single, Demi and Blake suggested he apply to be cast on The Bachelorette. Bret was against the idea but Demi and Blake secretly sent in an application for him. He was cast on Clare Crawley’s season of The Bachelorette, but he was sent home due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives star went on to give birth to her daughter, but it took a toll on her marriage to Blake. She said that dealing with postpartum depression and anxiety after the birth ultimately led them to get divorced.

Bret reached out to Demi because he had found a modeling opportunity for her young daughter, Maude, and it kicked off a flurry of messages between the two. They decided to meet up.

“It was like a movie,” Demi explained. “Everything made sense and we just had this instant connection, instant chemistry.”

Demi clarified that she was surprised by how strongly she felt about Bret because she was still “mourning” her relationship with Blake at the time. They waited two and a half months before they had their official date, but Demi hadn’t revealed she and Blake were in the midst of a divorce to most people. Plus, Bret hadn’t told the producers of The Bachelorette that he wasn’t going to appear on the show. That same night, pictures of Demi and Bret on their date were leaked to the press and Demi found herself being labeled as a cheater and Bret was getting slammed by Clare for “being on a date with a girl from his hometown.”

The fallout led Demi to break things off with Bret for a while before she “went crawling back,” and the two began dating. Ten months later, Bret popped the question and the two officially married in 2021 when Demi was 27 and Bret was 43.