Mayci Neeley gave her older sister three pieces of advice before McCall DaPron walked into her first season of reality TV: stay neutral, hear the whole story before forming an opinion, and remember that you can always say no. McCall DaPron heard all of it. Then, by her own admission, she did the opposite.
“She did give me some pointers, but we all feel that our show is so much different than the original, and it was really hard to stick to her pointers,” McCall told PEOPLE in an exclusive interview published November 10, days before The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives: Orange County premieres. “But one of her pointers was to stay neutral, and I don’t think I did the best job at that.” Then she laughed — and explained why.
The Advice Mayci Gave Her
Mayci Neeley knows the show her sister is joining better than anyone. She has starred in the original Utah series since it premiered in 2024, surviving the scandals, the friendship fractures, and the reunion confrontations that turned MomTok into a phenomenon. When McCall’s casting was announced in April, Mayci recorded a video for her sister with the lessons she had learned the hard way.
“Hear the whole story before you form an opinion,” Mayci said she told McCall. She also reminded her, “Remember, you can say no,” and, most importantly, to just be herself. “That’s all that really matters at the end of the day,” Mayci said. It was the kind of advice that sounds simple in a living room and turns out to be nearly impossible in front of cameras — especially when the cameras are rolling on a group of women who disagree about almost everything.
Why “Stay Neutral” Was Never Going to Work
McCall did not pretend she followed the plan. “It’s kind of hard for me. I have a strong personality and I know who I am,” she said. “I stick to who I am throughout the whole season.” For a show built on moral divides — the trailer teases arguments over the Mormon church, clashing values, and one cast member declaring “we are not MomTok” — neutrality was probably never on the table. McCall picked her sides, said what she thought, and let the cameras catch all of it.
That is, in a way, exactly what her sister told her to do. Mayci’s final piece of advice was to be herself, and McCall says that is the one pointer she kept. The difference is that being herself on this show means taking positions, not sitting them out.
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What to Expect From McCall in Orange County
McCall, 36, arrives on the spinoff as one of its most watched newcomers, and not only because of her famous sister. She has already been at the center of a pre-premiere controversy: her family’s Halloween costumes drew a wave of backlash after she dressed her family as the Kennedys on the day of JFK’s assassination. That episode showed the same quality she is now promising on screen — a woman who does what she wants and deals with the reaction afterward.
She will not be navigating the season alone. McCall joined the PEOPLE interview alongside castmates Jordan McClanahan and Bobbi Althoff, and the trailer shows her in the middle of the group’s biggest clashes — including Jen Affleck’s adjustment to life in Los Angeles after her run on Dancing With the Stars, and the introduction of Aspyn Ovard’s throuple to women who are not sure what to make of it.
The spinoff premieres Thursday, November 12, on Hulu and Hulu on Disney+, with the full first season dropping at once. Mayci’s advice may not have survived contact with the show — but if McCall is right that the Orange County cast is “so much different than the original,” the sister who warned her might end up learning a few things from the one who ignored her.
So here is the question: will McCall’s refusal to stay neutral make her the breakout star of Orange County — or the first cast member the group turns on when the alliances start to crack?
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