Taylor Frankie Paul’s Secret Lives of Mormon Wives costars are hesitant to continue filming amid her dispute with ex Dakota Mortensen.
“The Mormon Wives cast [is] honestly terrified to film with Taylor right now,” a source exclusively tells Us Weekly, noting that production is “shut down” at the moment and “the women have made it clear they don’t want to be around her because they see her as a major liability.”
TMZ and People reported on Monday, March 16, that The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives producers paused filming on season 5 earlier this month following an alleged domestic dispute between Taylor, 31, and Dakota, 33. A Draper City Police Department spokesperson subsequently confirmed to Us that a “domestic assault investigation” involving the former couple is ongoing. (Per police, “allegations have been made in both directions” and “contact was made with involved parties on [February] 24th and 25th.”)
The insider told Us that, prior to the incident, the Mormon Wives cast “believed Taylor was in a better place” after she filmed her season of The Bachelorette and that their Hulu reality show “was heading in a different direction.”
“Now, many of them feel they’ve moved past the point of dealing with this kind of behavior and simply don’t want to be put in that position again,” according to the source.
Us has reached out to representatives for Paul, Mortensen and Hulu.
Taylor previously had legal issues when she was arrested in February 2023 on domestic violence charges. She was initially charged with aggravated assault, two counts of domestic violence in the presence of a child, child abuse with injury and criminal mischief after the incident.
Dakota publicly defended Taylor at the time, and she ultimately agreed to plead guilty to aggravated assault, with the four charges being dismissed with prejudice. (Taylor told the “Call Her Daddy” podcast in September 2025 that the four other charges “were all dropped.”)
When The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives season 1 premiered in September 2024, Taylor opened up about the trauma of her arrest. (Body-camera footage taken from the night of her arrest was published shortly before the reality series debuted.)
“Getting arrested, it was the worst night of my life. I ended up being charged with aggravated assault with three years of probation,” she reflected in 2024. “After the arrest, I was under so much stress. I was filmed leaving the jail and then that was immediately on the internet. It was a blessing in disguise. It helped me wake up.”
Taylor got together with Dakota following the end of her marriage to ex-husband Tate Paul in May 2022. Taylor and Dakota subsequently split in 2025 following his sexting scandal. (Taylor and Tate welcomed daughter Indy May, 8, and son Ocean, 5, before separating during the MomTok soft swinging scandal. Shen later welcomed son Ever True with Dakota in March 2024.)
Speaking to Us for a cover story earlier this month, Taylor acknowledged that navigating her split from Dakota has been challenging at times.
“It was hard because I’m, obviously, a part of that — it’s not like I am pointing the finger like, ‘He is [the toxic one.]’ It takes two to tango. We were just not progressing,” Taylor admitted to Us. “We like each other sometimes, and then we fight. It’s really hard to explain to people and unless you’ve been in that situation, it is hard to understand. If I could just snap out of it, trust me, I would. It’s just a lot harder said than done.”
Since her split from Dakota, Taylor has filmed The Bachelorette season 22, which premieres on ABC March 22. The reality had a candid response when asked by Us about where she stood with Dakota amid her Bachelorette casting.
“That’s a good question,” she admitted. “I don’t even know. I have to ask myself that question all the time. Where do we stand? I don’t know. Ask me tomorrow.”
