Back when Jessi Draper was Jessi Ngatikaura, she made one of the most jarring comparisons imaginable.
In describing the cosmetic genital surgery that she’d undergone, she likened herself to her daughter.
At the time, her daughter was one year old.
Now, that clip has resurfaced — and the backlash drove Jessi to (temporarily) delete her account.
‘I look like my daughter [down there]’
During The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives‘ first season, Jessi invited her castmates to a painting party.
This was prior to “getting my cookie redone,” as she put it. She was referring to cosmetic surgery on her vulva.
(Child safety experts have cautioned against silly nicknames for genitals, as there are documented cases of children reporting an adult touching them inappropriately to other adults without being understood because they use nonsensical terms like “cookie.”)
Specifically, Jessi underwent a labiaplasty to reduce the size of her labia minora. There is sometimes weird shaming over the shape and size of genitals, including of labia.
Some folks would rather go under the knife than worry about what a partner thinks about their naked body.
Jessi spoke repeatedly about this surgery (neither her first nor her last time getting cosmetic work, and yes many fans are concerned that this is a compulsive behavior) on SLOMW.
She also opened up on Kaitlyn Bristowe’s Off The Vine podcast in 2025. This is where she got herself into trouble.
“They cut the meat off. Like, you know how you have the little things inside the flaps?” Jessi asked, reminding everyone that the women of SLOMW may be victims of educational neglect as well as extreme religious upbringings.
“They just, like, cut it off and then sew it back up … ” Jessi continued, accidentally describing a huge swathe of surgeries.
“I’m like, ‘I look like my daughter [down there],” Jessi announced, referring to her then-one-year-old. “I’m like, brand new again.”
That poor choice of words has resurfaced
Comparing her adult genitals to that of her actual human baby-slash-toddler’s did not go over well.
She is a grown woman in her thirties. While she wasn’t necessarily sexualizing her daughter, it was still … icky.
(There is absolutely a conversation about how society expects women to look young forever in ways that make the comparison flattering to Jessi. Imagine, for contrast, a man comparing his penis to a baby’s. Suddenly, it sounds super weird and no longer a compliment.)
Without delving into an ongoing feud … Jessi is currently in one.
And that is why a very specific clip from Jessi’s 2025 interview was posted this week. It did not go over well.
Jessi actually briefly deactivated her social media amidst the negative backlash.
Now, however, it is back. She is a public figure and she has brand deals to support, no matter how many comments shr eceived.
“Someone told me when I got [my labiaplasty] done I’d look brand new and like the day I was born again down there so it was a play on that,” Jessi said about the backlash after the initial interview. “I’m sorry!”
She also called it “a bad joke” and explained that she “didn’t mean any harm by it.”
We believe her! One thoughtless comment probably says a lot more about our society’s disturbing beauty standards than it does about Jessi as a person.
That said, if her daughter grows up to feel some kind of way about this, that’s totally valid.