The relationship drama between Paul and Mortensen turned into legal drama amid an ugly final split earlier this year
Credit: Hulu; Sara Jaye/Getty
Warning: This article contains spoilers for The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives season 5, now streaming on Hulu.
NEED TO KNOW
- Taylor Frankie Paul’s season of The Bachelorette was pulled by ABC in March after footage resurfaced of the 2023 incident that led to Paul’s domestic violence arrest
- Filming on The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives was also paused for a time, leading to the show’s abbreviated fifth season, which is now available on Hulu
- Season 5 shows how the breakdown between Taylor Frankie Paul and Dakota Mortensen played out
The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives is finally uncovering the drama that took place behind the scenes, which nearly jeopardized the series.
In the newly released season 5, the breakdown of Taylor Frankie Paul and Dakota Mortensen’s relationship is finally revealed. The abbreviated season is just 5 episodes, as Hulu halted production in March 2026 after two Utah police departments opened domestic violence investigations into Paul and Mortensen, who share a 2-year-old son, Ever.
Throughout the season, Paul is honest that she kept sleeping with Mortensen, despite her Bachelorette engagement to Doug Mason and Mortensen having a girlfriend named Emma at the time. Toward the end of the season, however, Paul realizes the cycle they are in is toxic and messages him to end things.
“Honestly, thank you for this, Dakota,” the text reads. “Truly appreciate you giving all the details. I wasn’t even going to ask about it further. I already told myself earlier today I can’t do this again. I don’t have the capacity or desire. The fact I was even having to wonder and ask about another situation that happened with the same person is just unbelievably painful.”
View this post on Instagram
“You doing that with Jenna is something I won’t be able to overcome,” she continues. “I’m in the same exact position I was in three years ago. I’m sorry, but this is over for me in every department, Dakota, and my mind is made. I’m not upset. I just hope we can just focus on working on co-parenting moving forward.” His response simply reads, “I miss you.”
In a confessional, Paul explains, “Holding on to Dakota feels bittersweet. It took going through all of this to realize I became the person I did not like. I’m doing things to people that he did to me…doing all this has created such turmoil inside and shame and misery. I can’t do this like, I can’t live like this. I can’t feel this. It’s game over right here. It ends here.”
Just ahead of production halting, Paul makes an angry and tearful call to MomTok, who she is supposed to be meeting up with, explaining why she isn’t filming.
“I’m dealing with Dakota and he’s being f–king insane,” she begins. She then explains that a friend of Mortensen’s called CPS to report a situation she called “freaking lies.”
“He said we were on the highway and we were fighting, and I turned around to scream at Ever in his face. And then I punched myself to make it look like he punched me,” she explained to the shocked group.
She continued, “Ever was never in the car, by the way. I have cameras to say that… he was never on a highway. And anyways, I guess his friend called CPS and was like, ‘Taylor’s abusive. She does things to Ever,’ yada, yada, yada. So then they call me and I’m like, ‘The f—?’ And I’m like, ‘Yeah, come on over. I’m not afraid. I’ve never touched my child in my f—ing life.”
View this post on Instagram
The women all express their concern for Paul, with Jessi Draper saying, “One of them is going to end up dead or in jail.” Production pauses after the phone call, leaving viewers on a “to be continued” note as they show the women returning to production three months later, without Paul.
In the trailer for season 5, released in late August ahead of the Thursday, Sept. 10 Hulu premiere, producers ask the cast, “What do you guys all know about this whole situation?” seemingly referring to the escalating battle between Paul and Mortensen, who is seen in the trailer showing off a tattoo of Paul’s initials on his lip.
In a confessional, Neeley shares, “There’s so much stuff the public doesn’t know.” In another scene, Miranda Hope appears distressed as she addresses the group about Paul, asking, “How did she get here?”
Over the last six months, Paul and Mortensen have been entangled in ongoing legal battles stemming from a pair of domestic violence investigations opened by Utah police departments in February. Paul has accused Mortensen in court of stalking and, on one occasion, slamming her head into the dashboard of his truck. Mortensen has submitted photographs of physical injuries, including scratches, that he allegedly received during altercations with Paul.
Amid the ongoing investigations, Mortensen filed for a protective order against Paul in March, and she filed for a protective order of her own several weeks later. The orders were mutually granted for three years at a court appearance on April 30.
Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.
Credit: Bethany Baker/Pool/Getty (2)
The pair have also fought in court over custody of Ever over several hearings throughout the summer. At their latest hearing, on July 8, a judge expanded Paul’s parent-time to include alternating weekends (through Monday morning) and the same midweek day each week without overnights.
Paul is also the subject of a petition by Utah’s Division of Child and Family Services, which asked a juvenile court in July to find that the three children of the reality TV star — she also shares daughter Indy, 8, and son Ocean, 6, with her ex-husband Tate Paul — are “abused, neglected, or dependent,” order protective supervision and appoint a guardian ad litem to represent the children.
In an Instagram video on July 18, Paul disputed many of the allegations in the petition, including that she made Indy change Ever’s diapers or that she left a DCFS representative to “lock up” her house after an outburst.
“I don’t claim to be this mother of the year,” she said. “I can confidently say if you were to put any of my children up on a stand, they’re choosing mom and mom’s house every time, and I say that with full confidence because I love my children. They know that I love them.”
If you are experiencing domestic violence, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233, or go to thehotline.org. All calls are toll-free and confidential. The hotline is available 24/7 in more than 170 languages.
All episodes of The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives season 5 are streaming on Hulu.
Read the full article here
