Taylor Frankie Paul is speaking out for the first time since her alleged altercation with Dakota Mortensen made headlines.
Taylor, 31, addressed the alleged domestic violence dispute with Dakota, 33, that caused a production shutdown on their reality show, The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives.
“There’s more to the context to everything and it’s unfortunate,” Taylor exclusively told Us Weekly at a New York City press dinner on Tuesday, March 17, days before her debut as season 22’s Bachelorette. “It’s been hard. And it sucks to be in this position. And the mother that I am, that is something I will always stand my ground on. I believe that I am a good mother and I have always treated my kids very well. So the headlines that are out right now are very hard to see because that’s not the truth of it. I have always treated my children with respect and I’ve never touched them. So it’s been really hard.”
Taylor noted that it took “everything” in her to even show up for Tuesday’s event amid the ongoing allegations, calling it “unfortunate” timing.
“It’s another premiere that’s been taken away from me,” she added. “I’ve never enjoyed a premiere for any one of my shows. So it’s just been very sad.”
Multiple outlets previously reported on Monday, March 16, that Taylor and Dakota — who share son Ever, 23 months — were involved in an incident the previous month, which led to a halt in production on season 5 of their Hulu show. At the time, a spokesperson for the Draper City Police Department in Utah confirmed to Us Weekly that there was an open “domestic assault investigation” concerning the on-again, off-again couple, with allegations “made in both directions.”
Amid the ordeal, Taylor’s costars were reluctant to resume filming with her.
“The Mormon Wives cast [is] honestly terrified to film with Taylor right now,” a source exclusively told Us, adding that “the women have made it clear they don’t want to be around her because they see her as a major liability.”
While the cast previously “believed Taylor was in a better place” and the show “was heading in a different direction,” their stance shifted after her latest scandal.
“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,” the insider noted.
Complicating matters further is the fact that Taylor is set to lead the upcoming season of The Bachelorette, which premieres on ABC Sunday, March 22. Prior to her alleged dispute with Dakota, she opened up exclusively to Us about their tenuous dynamic.
“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 said in her Us cover story about her stint on the ABC reality dating series. “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.”
As for her level of preparedness heading into filming for The Bachelorette, Taylor told Us “it was a choice” to pursue a different direction in her love life.
“Ready, at the end of the day, is a decision,” she said. “So I made the decision to leave for two months and try. I reassured [the contestants] that was why I was here.”
The alleged February altercation between Taylor and Dakota is not the first in the pair’s rocky history. Taylor was previously arrested in February 2023 and 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. She pleaded guilty to aggravated assault, and the other charges were dismissed.
During season 1 of The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives in 2024, Taylor — who is also the mother of daughter Indy, 8, and son Ocean, 5, with ex-husband Tate Paul — called her arrest “the worst night of my life” but claimed “it was a blessing in disguise” because “it helped me wake up.”
