Aspyn Ovard used her new show, The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives: Orange County, to share revelations about what ended her marriage to Parker Ferris and their daughter’s terminal cancer diagnosis.
During season 1, which premiered on Thursday, November 11, Aspyn offered a glimpse into her personal life. She allowed cameras to document her unpacking the issues she faced in her marriage to Parker, which included a tense therapy session that resulted in a shocking confession.
“You are so mad and breathing so hard that our life with our children is over,” Aspyn, who shares three daughters with Parker, told her ex-husband. “Now you grab onto anything that you can to distract yourself from the grief of the fact that our daughter is going to die.”
In a confessional, Aspyn elaborated on the revelation, which was the first time she publicly acknowledged that one of her daughters is going through a serious health battle.
“Everything happened so out of nowhere. One day she was OK and then the next day, she wasn’t,” she said while getting emotional. “You can’t fathom that they’re actually gonna tell you that your baby has cancer and that it’s terminal and she can be gone in a month.”
Aspyn, who is in a throuple with Briana Davis and Billy Davis, said their family has been navigating these challenges privately, adding, “I’ve been living like that for over three years — just having no idea. My marriage was nowhere near in a place to be able to make it through something like this. We weren’t even gonna make it through before this happened.”
Keep scrolling for more details on what Aspyn shared about the “10-year secret” about what caused her divorce and about their daughter’s health issues:
The Decision to End Her Marriage
“When we got married, I thought we were on the same page about where we stood with drinking and smoking,” Aspyn recalled. “My dad struggled with alcoholism so the only version of him that I knew was some level of intoxicated. Whenever he would come home, just the sound of his work boots was a dark cloud over the house.”
She continued: “Finding out that Parker had been drinking behind my back for years, it was literally earth-shattering. He went through so much to hide it from me and the fact that my husband — who was supposed to be the safest person — would do that to me. For him to know what alcoholism did to my family — to find all of this out two months after my dad died from alcoholism — hurt so bad.”
Aspyn confirmed that Parker’s secret drinking was the “10-year secret” she previously teased about the dissolution of their marriage. In a separate confessional, Parker shared his side of the story.
“There were a few times during our marriage that I’d be like, ‘Hey, let’s experiment. Let’s try a drink.’ And she would tell me, ‘If you ever drink, we are getting divorced,'” he said. “[I drank] because it’s fun.”
Adjusting to Their Reality
During their therapy session, Aspyn referred to her and Parker figuring out their new normal while worrying about their daughter “so toxic and hard.”
“Through all of it, I feel like I still just tried to take care of him because I know how hard he’s grieving. I’m trying to make as much money as possible so that we can not have to do anything when we are grieving,” she told Parker. “So that both you and I don’t have to work. You know that I will always take care of you because I always have. With everything goes to s*** and things get really hard, I don’t want you to have to do anything.”
Later in the season, the former couple showed their different point of views of their daughter’s diagnosis. Aspyn urged Parker to be “more realistic” about there not being a cure for their child’s illness while Parker asked that she be more “optimistic.”
“I worry about you,” Aspyn told Parker, who fired back, “But the doctors talk about how she is a walking miracle.” Despite Parker’s hopes for their daughter’s recovery, Aspyn noted that it “doesn’t change anything.”
Dealing With Others Knowing
Aspyn called it “so traumatizing” having to discuss her daughter’s terminal cancer, adding, “It has always been very triggering and traumatizing to me to talk about my daughter. So I really don’t do it a lot. I’ve set boundaries from the beginning. I’m making effort to put myself out there and do things and be around people, I just want to be distracted and I want to feel as normal as I can.”
Their Daughter’s Health Updates
In season 1 of Secret Lives of Mormon Wives: OC, Aspyn reflected on having to live “scan to scan with MRIs” for her daughter.
“We did get another stable scan this week so I’m very grateful for that,” she added. “But at the end of the day, it’s very unusual for a child with this type of cancer to have this much time. Eventually, something will look different. And to know that every day is just one day closer to her not being here is the most horrific and miserable feeling.”
