Taylor Frankie Paul dropped several teases about her journey on The Bachelorette ahead of ABC deciding to cancel the season.
News broke in March that Taylor and on-again, off-again ex Dakota Mortensen were involved in a domestic incident, which led to The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives halting production on season 5. A spokesperson for the Draper City Police Department in Utah confirmed to Us Weekly at the time that there was an open “domestic assault investigation” concerning Taylor and Dakota and noted that allegations were “made in both directions.”
Taylor, for her part, exclusively told Us that there’s “more to the context” of “everything.” A rep for Dakota later denied that he was responsible for the dispute being made public, claiming that his “No. 1 priority” is “protecting” their 2-year-old son, Ever. (Taylor is also mom to daughter Indy, 8, and son Ocean, 5, whom she shares with ex-husband Tate Paul.)
TMZ went on to publish footage of Taylor throwing a chair at Dakota in a 2023 incident that led to her arrest. At the time, Taylor was 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 ultimately pleaded guilty to aggravated assault, while the other four charges were dismissed with prejudice and later reached a plea deal.
Hours later, a source confirmed to Us that Dakota filed a protective order against Taylor in Utah and requested temporary custody of Ever. Disney later revealed that Taylor’s season 22 of The Bachelorette had been canceled.
Scroll down to see what she had teased about her Bachelorette journey:
Taylor Frankie Paul Had Open Conversations With Contestants About Dakota MortensenWhen asked how open she had been with her contestants about how recent her relationship with Dakota Mortensen had been, Taylor Frankie Paul told Us she had conversations.
“I feel like I was very open with them, especially those that asked, because I really told everyone as a whole if there’s anything you want to know, please let me know, because I wasn’t trying to shove everything down their throat of that in my life,” Taylor exclusively told Us at a New York City press dinner on March 17. “I wanted to tell them what they wanted to know.”
Taylor shared that she was “very adamant” with the men on The Bachelorette, recalling, “Like, ‘Please ask anything. I am [a] very open book.’ Especially the ones towards the end, I was open with the situation. So yeah, I was very honest, I feel like.”
In her cover story with Us published on March 11, Taylor shared that she had also faced questions about her soft-swinging scandal and arrest from 2023.
“I think I got asked about all of ’em during individual convos, and I was ready for it. I’ve got nothing else to hide,” she said. “My arrest will always be a sensitive subject given the circumstances in that. Swinging — that’s such a scandal headline — but it’s also a very traumatic time in my life. That was one of my rock-bottom points. I lost my family, my husband. It’s so much deeper than that to me, and deep conversations were had. I think anyone that actually cares about me would definitely be asking those.”
When asked how the men reacted, Taylor told Us, “Overall they were very receptive and nonjudgmental and open-minded.”
Taylor Frankie Paul Had ‘No Rules’ on ‘The Bachelorette’While noting that there’s typically “structure” to The Bachelorette, Taylor Frankie Paul told Us in her cover story published on March 11, “We had no rules. It was fun. Unexpected, on my end and their end. It was very unpredictable.”
In her cover story with Us published on March 11, Taylor Frankie Paul weighed in on how religion affected how she dated on The Bachelorette. “I’m Mormon, but I’m more spiritual than I am religious,” she explained. “I go to church here and there. For me, at the end of the day, I want to see how you’re treating people. I don’t really care what religion you are, I don’t care about anything else. How are you treating people? What are your intentions? That’s all that matters.”
Taylor Frankie Paul Teased How Her ‘Bachelorette’ Season EndedWhen asked to describe how the season ended, Taylor Frankie Paul shared in her Us cover, “[I felt] lots of different emotions for lots of different reasons. It ended in a Taylor way. Some people may know what that means, and some people might not.”
If you or someone you know is experiencing domestic violence, please call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233 for confidential support.
