Taylor Frankie Paul, star of Hulu’s The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives, originally a captivating TV and social media icon, has fans doing a 180 on her after new videos have come out showing Frankie Paul attacking her ex-boyfriend in front of her child.
Frankie Paul was born in Colorado before moving to Salt Lake City, Utah, in her teenage years. A few years after High School, at 22, she got married to her first husband, Tate Paul. In the following years, they had two children, and Frankie Paul decided to pursue a career in Social Media as an influencer, starting an account called Momtok with her fellow Mormon moms doing TikTok dances and making relatable content. Momtok then subsequently blew up after the group proclaimed to be “soft swingers.” This resulted in the group getting their own show, The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives, and led to Taylor Frankie Paul filing for divorce from her husband.
The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives Season One was set to be a massive success, only prompting Taylor Frankie Paul’s fanbase to grow. Many loved her for her complete transparency and her relatable life and relationship advice. However, these skills would soon turn into her downfall.
During season one, Taylor Frankie Paul moved on past her divorce and started dating Dakota Mortesen. Towards the end of season one, police were called on allegations of domestic violence. Mortesen had claimed that Frankie Paul had been assaulting him in front of their child numerous times. This triggered a wave of backlash because many viewers didn’t know why this was included in the show, let alone why they even aired the series in the first place.
Throughout seasons two, three and four the show continued to cover Frankie Paul and Mortensen along with their struggling relationship. During this time, the Salt Lake City police department was investigating the case, while behind the scenes, Taylor Frankie Paul pleaded guilty to aggravated assault, which resulted in her getting 36 months of probation, which ended in August of this year.
Frankie Taylor and Mortensen officially broke up in May of 2025. After Taylor Frankie Paul became single, ABC reached out to her, offering her a spot on the next season of The Bachelorette.
All seemed to be well as of 2026, with Taylor Frankie Paul’s Bachelorette season soon to air and most legal trouble to be done with. That is, until TMZ released a video of one of her outbursts against her ex-boyfriend, Dokota Mortesen. In the video, Frankie Paul was seen throwing metal chairs at Mortensen, with one of them accidentally hitting their child. This caused a major outburst from fans demanding a response from Hulu and ABC.
ABC decided to pull the new season of The Bachelorette just three days before it was supposed to air. This action proceeded to split the fanbase in half, with one half finally happy that Taylor Frankie Paul might be punished for her actions, while the other half was outraged at ABC for pulling the new season.
This divide is also clear at Loyola. David Rivera ’29, a fan of The Bachelorette and Secret Lives of Mormon Wives, said, “I understand why ABC decided to pull it from the air, but I just don’t believe it was the right decision. Taylor had already pleaded guilty to the crime and had been in the middle of serving her punishment. There was no need to sacrifice a fully filmed season.”
On the other side, Lucas Almanzan Hunter ’28 stated, “A video was released of her throwing a chair that hit her child! Of course, they should have pulled the season. It was way worse than any of us thought.”
As of today, the Salt Lake City District Attorney’s Office has decided not to press any charges against Taylor Frankie Paul. Frankie Paul told people that she has been trying to move on and be a better person. We may never see the forgotten season of The Bachelorette, but we know that Taylor Frankie Paul is not out of the hot water yet.
