Bachelor Nation is still reeling over ABC’s cancellation of Taylor Frankie Paul’s season of The Bachelorette, which was supposed to premiere on the 2026 TV schedule on March 22. Now it’s not just the future of the already-filmed season that’s in question but the fate of the entire Bachelor dating franchise. For the Secret Lives of Mormon Wives star, however, the worst part of the whole situation has nothing to do with television.
The decision to scrap The Bachelorette Season 22 came on March 19, after video footage leaked of a 2023 fight between Taylor Frankie Paul and her then-boyfriend Dakota Mortensen. In the video, she can be seen throwing metal chairs, and Mortensen is heard saying that Paul's daughter was “hit in the head” with one of them. Social media has been ablaze with opinions in the days that followed, and Paul appeared in the comments of one TikTok video to say:
Worst part is my daughter having to relive and see it all over again years later after extensive work with her and apologies to her about that night 💔 and my baby boy birthday was taken from him.
The video that TFP was responding to showed a TikToker dragging Dakota Mortensen for allegedly releasing the video on the 2nd birthday of his and Taylor Frankie Paul’s son Ever. (It has not been confirmed who leaked the 2023 footage.) The TikToker also cautions people against putting the blame squarely on Paul’s shoulders.
The video of this domestic violence incident may be new to the public, but the incident itself is not. The first episode of The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives (streaming with a Hulu subscription) showed police officers’ body cam footage of her arrest.
She was charged with one felony count of aggravated assault, two felony counts of domestic violence in the presence of a child and one misdemeanor count each of child abuse and criminal mischief, according to TMZ. She later entered a plea in abeyance for the aggravated assault charge, meaning it would be downgraded to a misdemeanor in three years if no other incidents occurred. The other charges were dismissed with prejudice.
Taylor Frankie Paul’s on-off relationship with Dakota Mortensen has continued to be a main storyline on the Hulu reality series, but production of Season 5 was halted March 16 after another reported domestic violence incident between the former couple allegedly occurred in February, per People.
The ensuing decision to cancel The Bachelorette just days before its premiere date cost ABC a lot of money, and it would seem the future of both the dating franchise and The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives are up in the air.
More tragic than any of that, however, is that there are children involved. In addition to Ever, Taylor Frankie Paul also shares a daughter and older son with her ex-husband Tate Paul. and as she suggested in that TikTok comment above, this must be such a hard thing for her daughter to have to relive.
