In the very first episode of Mormon Wives, filmed in February 2023, Paul was arrested on suspicion of misdemeanor charges of assault, criminal mischief, and commission of domestic violence in the presence of a child. (She pleaded guilty to aggravated assault while the remaining charges were dropped. Under the plea agreement, Paul was sentenced to one day in jail and ordered to undergo substance-abuse and domestic-violence evaluations, according to The Salt Lake Tribune.) Paul and Mortensen welcomed their first child together, her third, in March 2024. While appearing on Alex Cooper’s Call Her Daddy podcast to announce her Bachelorette casting, Paul said the charges relating to that dispute were dropped.
She has tried to forge a healthier path forward with Mortensen, but in season four of Mormon Wives—filmed after Paul publicly declared her pursuit of true love—the exes are shown falling back into a self-described “toxic” cycle. “It’s always messy with me,” Paul says at one point, “so are we shocked?” Over the course of 10 episodes, filmed at a near-continuous pace up until Bachelorette, Paul and Mortensen joke about having unprotected sex and the potential for an unwanted pregnancy. In one episode, Paul’s mother Liann says her daughter “has to get mentally sane for Bachelorette,” and in another Paul wonders if another reality show is “my only way out of” the former couple’s dynamic.
Photographic evidence of Taylor Frankie Paul’s cancelled Bachelorette season has been wiped from the ABC press site.Paul: Michael Kirchoff/Disney. Roses: From Getty Images.
“I know I shouldn’t have slept with Dakota. It’s a really unhealthy cycle. It’s like a drug, really,” Paul admits midway through Mormon Wives season four. “I need to figure out why I keep choosing people that hurt me, so that I can have a good experience on The Bachelorette. If not, I could end up in the same situation.”
