The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives star Taylor Frankie Paul and boyfriend Dakota Mortensen are still “building” their relationship.
The TikTok star, 30, exclusively told Us Weekly that she and Mortensen, 31, are in no rush to walk down the aisle after welcoming their first child together, son Ever, in March. (Taylor shares two additional children, daughter Indy, 7, and son Ocean, 4, with ex-husband Tate Paul.)
“I just want to take my time with this time around, this is my second marriage. It is going to be very important to me, and I don’t want to end up in another situation of being divorced,” Taylor explained to Us about the possibility of getting engaged to Mortensen. “So, I really just want everything to be really solid and have a foundation of trust. And so I feel like that takes time. I would love for that to be the end goal. But right now, I think building it up to that is where I’m at.”
The couple’s ups and downs from the past year are documented in the premiere season of The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives, and Taylor admitted it will be “extremely hard” to watch back.
“I feel like I might’ve vented to my mom and been a little harsh — and he’s very sensitive — so I feel like it could be a lot harder for him,” Taylor said. “Also it could be triggering, too, to bring up these conversations. Especially, I think I’ve heard the [season] cliffhanger, so that in itself stirs up some stuff. We are doing good today, we’re going through work, so I really hope that not too much comes out.”
Season 1 ends on a shocking cliffhanger when Mayci Neeley calls a woman named Jenna about allegations that she cheated with Mortensen. Jenna claims she’ll tell Neeley “everything” before the episode comes to a screeching halt.
Prior to Neeley calling Jenna, she already spoke to Taylor and Mortensen about the cheating allegations. Although Mortensen accused Neeley of trying to sabotage his relationship during the show, Taylor told Us she had “no problem” with Neeley calling Jenna.
“At the end of the day, I was like, ‘Why is this an issue to call?’ I was fine with her calling her because I am like, ‘What is there to hide?’” Taylor recalled. “If there’s nothing to hide, there should be no question. But that is a very major trigger for me, and he knows that. So it wasn’t something he was wanting to bring on the show. So I guess at the end of the day, we’ll see how that ends up going because I don’t know. I have no problem with it though.”
Taylor and Mortensen debuted their relationship in July 2023, nearly one year after she announced her former husband, Tate, was filing for divorce in the wake of their Mormon friend group’s soft swinging scandal. Taylor revealed details about the scandal via TikTok in June 2022, explaining that she and Tate engaged in soft swinging with many couples within their “MomTok” group, but she violated the group’s arrangement by taking things too far with one of the other husbands. Taylor has since called the situation the “tip of the iceberg” of her and Tate’s split, noting they had “a lot of other issues.”
Although things seemed to be smooth sailing between Taylor and Mortensen, she announced their split six months later after she suffered an ectopic pregnancy.
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The couple reunited in the following months, but they made headlines once again in February 2023 when Taylor was arrested for domestic violence after she allegedly threw a chair at Mortensen that ended up striking her daughter, who was 5 at the time. Taylor was charged her with aggravated assault, two counts of domestic violence in the presence of a child, child abuse with injury and criminal mischief, Herriman police in Salt Lake County told The New York Post. She pleaded guilty in August 2023 to aggravated assault, per the outlet, while the other four charges were dismissed with prejudice, reaching a plea deal the following month.
Despite the incident, Taylor, who said she began “healing” and taking “antidepressants” after the arrest, and Mortensen returned to social media in March 2023 with several loved-up posts and have been together ever since.
Taylor told Us she hopes fans can see her true colors and personality on The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives.
“I’m pretty much known from my headlines of ‘Swinger Mom.’ I mean, the arrest, unfortunately, was another big all over the internet. And so I would say those things are pretty negative — obviously the [arrest] but the swinger one was also not a good thing I want to be known for the rest of my life,” she said. “So, for the show, I really wanted them to see me and more of me and my personality and a deeper level. I feel like I come off so different online than I actually am in a conversation. So I felt like this was my chance to tell my story and get a deeper look into who I am.”
The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives premiered via Hulu on Friday, September 6.
Reporting by Christina Garibaldi