Background and career
Taylor Frankie Paul (born May 23, 1994) is an American reality television personality and social media influencer. She was a cast member of the Hulu series The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives and starred as the Bachelorette in season 22 of The Bachelorette before ABC canceled it prior to airing.
Taylor Paul was raised in Pueblo, Colorado, and moved to Utah with her mother and step-father at the age of 16. During this time, she attended the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). In 2016, Taylor Paul married Tate Paul and they had two children, but Tate Paul divorced her in early 2022 after Taylor Paul broke the rules of their "soft-swinging" relationship and fell in love with one of their swinging partners. Following the divorce, Taylor experienced an episode of depression, which caused her to lose weight. Around this time, she went viral for openly revealing that she and her ex-husband had been "soft-swinging" with other couples. According to writers from various news agencies, the swingers were Mormon couples, referring to members of the LDS Church. By August 2022, Paul started dating Dakota Mortensen, with whom she later had a third child (a son) in 2024. In August 2023, Paul pleaded guilty to aggravated assault following an incident with Mortensen. She started seeing a therapist in 2024. In 2024, Hulu launched the reality television series The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives co-starring Paul and touching on "soft swinging" and her arrest. Following its debut, she was coined a "breakout star" and "the MVP" of season 1 with Hansika Khokhar of Collider writing: "Taylor’s presence was undeniable. She gave what needed to be given. She was raw, she was unpredictable, and she gave zero filtered responses. She managed to turn what could’ve been a short-lived TikTok infamy into long-form storytelling gold... And fans noticed. Reddit threads, TikTok recaps, Instagram lives dissecting every frame—Taylor was the center of it all. Whether you loved her, hated her, or fluctuated between the two within the same episode, she ended up winning Season 1." In June 2025, Paul was listed on TIME Magazine's Top 100 Creators of 2025. In March 2026, Paul was scheduled to be the Bachelorette for its 22nd season and had completed filming. The season was cancelled by ABC following reporting by TMZ that released footage of Paul throwing chairs at Mortenson —accidentally hitting her daughter with one —during the domestic violence incident in 2023. It was revealed that Paul had been investigated by law enforcement at least three times for domestic violence allegations in 2023 and 2024. Reportedly, the most recent domestic violence incident occurred in February 2026, resulting in a new police investigation being conducted against her. They ultimately declined to press charges; additionally, Dakota sought and was granted temporary sole custody of their son by a judge. However, in early April 2026, the judge modified his order and granted Paul up to eight hours of supervised visits with her son per week with a follow up hearing set to occur on April 30. As a result of the ongoing controversy, filming for The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives was paused for a month before restarting without Taylor or Dakota. Paul announced that she had chosen to leave the LDS Church around the same time. On April 30, 2026, Paul and Mortenson were ordered to stay 100 feet away from each other for the next three years; it was revealed that 11 fights between the pair were under review; In an unrelated revelation, it was disclosed that Paul had experienced several miscarriages which she believed influenced her behavior toward Mortenson. On June 1, 2026, the mandatory supervision order against Paul was officially lifted. On July 9, 2026, she was announced that she was returning to The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives in a limited capacity. On July 15, 2026, she reached out to Utah's Department of Children and Family Services, who was seeking court protection of her kids. On August 7, 2026, it was revealed that Taylor Paul's criminal probation was reduced from a felony to a Class A misdemeanor by a judge. On August 14, 2026, she was granted a continued stalking injunction against Cru Eaton, a friend of Mortenson. In September 2026, it was reported that Frankie Paul had allegedly failed drug tests and had her parenting time reduced to 8 hours as a result. Later that month, Frankie Paul announced that she had permanently left The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives.
