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\n Photo: Michael Friberg for New York Magazine\n <\/p>\n
It was 3 p.m. on a November afternoon, and inside the Planet Hollywood Resort and Casino in Las Vegas, seven men wearing the storied Chippendales uniform were onstage, dancing to royalty-free music to win over one woman. That woman, Taylor Frankie Paul, was there to determine which of them would be her husband.<\/p>\n
We were on set for The Bachelorette<\/a>, the long-running ABC reality series in which a group of\u00a0suitors (22 this season) compete to get engaged to one woman.\u00a0Here, group dates often involve good-natured humiliation rituals that vaguely correspond to a romantic theme. (Perform a rap<\/a> to prove you\u2019re \u201chere for the right reasons!\u201d \u201cFight for her heart\u201d by boxing with Laila Ali<\/a>!). The vibe at Chippendales was \u201cWhat if chores were sexy?\u201d One contestant in a Travis Kelce butt cut leaped over an ironing board; another held a tape measure to his crotch and stroked it. A third appeared with a baby doll and, unfortunately for everyone around, proceeded to grind on top of Paul, who was kind enough to at least pretend to be into it. \u201cYou guys did incredible, I\u2019m speechless!\u201d she told them. Between each dance was an excruciating silence during which network-TV producers monitored and reset their equipment while the men fidgeted onstage like excitable children. Every so often during these pauses, a young woman would shout, \u201cWe love you Taylor!\u201d or \u201cYou look beautiful!\u201d The dozens of women packed into the tiny theater (some of whom have flown to Vegas on their own dime) were there to see Paul as the Bachelorette. \u201cShe\u2019s just so authentically herself,\u201d a fan sipping a double tequila-soda told me. \u201cShe just says it straight.\u201d<\/p>\n This quality is perhaps why Paul, 31, was slated to be the first Bachelorette in 22 seasons plucked not from the franchise\u2019s existing roster of contestants but rather The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives<\/a>, which debuted in 2024 to document the fallout of a soft-swinging scandal among a group of TikTokers known as MomTok. Paul was already an unlikely candidate for a franchise as traditional as The Bachelor. Her life as portrayed on Mormon Wives is that of a loose cannon who struggles to liberate herself from toxic romantic entanglements, running directly counter to The Bachelor\u2019s fantasy of happily-ever-after.<\/p>\n But no one who wasn\u2019t in the Chippendales theater will see the footage of the seven men onstage, nor the rest of Paul\u2019s journey to find love, anytime soon. On March 19, days before the premiere, video footage of Paul\u2019s 2023 domestic violence incident with her on-again, off again partner Dakota Mortensen appeared online. Disney, which owns ABC and Hulu, announced that it had \u201cmade the decision to not move forward with the new season of The Bachelorette at this time.\u201d\u00a0A spokesperson for Paul responded that Paul is \u201cgrateful for ABC\u2019s support\u201d and said, \u201cAfter years of silently suffering extensive mental and physical abuse as well as threats of retaliation, Taylor is finally gaining the strength to face her accuser and taking steps to ensure that she and her children are protected from any further harm.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cTaylor has remained silent out of fear of further abuse, retaliation, and public shaming,\u201d the statement continued. \u201cShe is currently exploring all of her options, seeking support, and preparing to own and share her story.\u201d (Mortensen did not respond to repeated requests for comment.)<\/p>\n Paul torpedoed into the collective consciousness on May 25, 2022. Then 28 and a prominent TikToker within the Mormon influencer-sphere but an unknown outside it, she announced via livestream that the real reason she and her husband were divorcing was because they\u2019d been swinging with other couples and things got messy. They\u2019d go to parties, drink, and hook up, the rules being that nobody go \u201call the way\u201d unless their partner was in the room. \u201cWe had an agreement, all of us, and I did step out of that agreement,\u201d she said on the stream, referring to one particularly drunken night when she and one of the men admitted to having feelings for each other and had sex separately from the group. Friendships fell apart; three couples who admitted to participating divorced. \u201cI lost everything because of that,\u201d she said on the stream.<\/p>\n Why then did she decide to air it all out for the internet to parse in what could have been a career-ending choice, particularly for a Mormon influencer?<\/p>\n On a snowy afternoon in mid-February, I met Paul in Salt Lake City. We were accompanied by a small army of publicists, producers, and managers inside a wintery yurt on the sixth floor of downtown\u2019s Hyatt Regency hotel, where she told me the livestream was an act of reputation management. \u201cI was being called this \u2018best-friend husband-stealer,\u2019\u201d she said. \u201cHad I not ever told the story, that\u2019s all you would\u2019ve known me as, and that\u2019s not true. Yes, you can say that \u2014 but also tell them that you were sucking my husband\u2019s dick, too. Don\u2019t forget that.\u201d This spikiness is an intrinsic part of Paul\u2019s personality, one that endeared her to millions. \u201cWhen you come at me, that\u2019s a different level of \u2018I will give it back to you,\u2019\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019m not rising above. Actually, I\u2019m raising hell.\u201d<\/p>\n The news that a group of hot young Mormon moms were secretly husband-swapping went predictably viral, and shortly thereafter reality producers started circling. Seven months post-livestream, Paul started filming what would become the pilot of The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives along with seven other women from MomTok. Though the show\u2019s marketing dangled the prospect of seeing Mormons who\u2019d been involved in drunken group sex, none of the women implicated in the scandal besides Paul initially agreed to film (Miranda McWhorter, who originally denied being part of the swinging but later admitted to being involved, would join in season two). Instead, the cast was rounded out by several MomTokers who were upset that Paul\u2019s post implied that they, by virtue of being in MomTok, were also swinging. (Much like the Kardashians, who were once disappointed by Kim\u2019s sex tape, all have benefited from it.)<\/p>\n But the narrative that would drive Paul\u2019s story over four seasons of Mormon Wives even more than the swinging scandal was her tumultuous relationship with boyfriend Mortensen, whom she met on Instagram shortly after her divorce in 2022. On February 17, 2023, police responded to a 911 call made by a neighbor who\u2019d heard screaming at Mortensen\u2019s house. Body-cam footage, included at the end of Mormon Wives\u2019s pilot episode, showed Paul on the front porch, sobbing and barely able to breathe. \u201cShe\u2019s hammered,\u201d Mortensen says, claiming that Paul had hurled metal chairs at him; Paul was then placed in handcuffs and charged with aggravated assault, criminal mischief, two counts of domestic violence in the presence of a child, and child abuse (her then-5-year-old daughter, who was sitting next to Mortensen, was allegedly hit by a barstool; her 2-year-old son was also in the room). Paul pleaded guilty<\/a> to aggravated assault in exchange for the dismissal of all other charges. New phone footage leaked to TMZ<\/a> appears to show Paul putting Mortensen in a chokehold and hurling metal chairs at him; a child cries. In a statement on March 19, a spokesperson for Paul told Variety: \u201cIt\u2019s sad to see the latest installment of his never-ending, desperate, attention-seeking, destructive campaign to harm Taylor without any regard for the consequences for their child. Releasing an old video, which conveniently omits context, on their son\u2019s birthday is a reprehensible attempt to distract from his own behavior.\u201d<\/p>\n Paul has called that incident \u201cthe worst night of my life\u201d and remains on probation, the terms of which prohibit drinking alcohol until August. Though she\u2019s enjoying sobriety \u2014 \u201cI think drinking would add a lot more confusion, chaos, and depression to my life,\u201d she told me \u2014 she added the caveat that she\u2019s someone who \u201cnever says never.\u201d Her relationship with Mortensen, meanwhile, has been consistently volatile. Even before the birth of their son in March 2024, cheating rumors, followed by admissions of infidelity, followed by arguments that turned into phone sex (or sex sex), have dogged every season of Mormon Wives, most dramatically the most recent one, which filmed in the weeks before Paul left to film The Bachelorette. After lamenting her \u201cunhealthy\u201d co-parenting dynamic with Mortensen, Paul finds out that he has slept with someone else, which both infuriates her and turns her on; shortly thereafter on a cast trip to L.A., she and Mortensen are discovered naked in bed. The next day, the two discuss their \u201ctoxic cycle,\u201d which Paul likens to an addictive drug. \u201cI\u2019m sitting here with you because this is what we think we deserve,\u201d a tearful Paul tells him. \u201cThis is as good as it gets for us.\u201d Reflecting on it with the resignation of knowing she will be tied to him as a co-parent for the rest of her life, Paul told me, \u201cWe both have that same wound of not feeling enough, not deserving. When you have that, you settle for disrespect.\u201d<\/p>\n \n Paul with one of her suitors in the premiere episode of The Bachelorette. On March 19, ABC announced it had \u201cmade the decision to not move forward with the new season of\u00a0The Bachelorette\u00a0at this time.\u201d The cycle continues throughout the season. By the finale<\/a>, Paul has discovered Mortensen has been seeing a woman in their social circle, and the morning she\u2019s set to head off to the Bachelor mansion, Mortensen is filmed leaving her house. More dire, Paul\u2019s period is late, and Mortensen claims they had sex while she was ovulating. The season ends on a cliffhanger, with Paul\u2019s Mormon Wives co-star Jessi Draper<\/a> asking the obvious question, \u201cIs she gonna be a pregnant Bachelorette?\u201d<\/p>\n Months later, it is clear to anyone who has seen her in person or on social media that Paul is not pregnant. If she had been, Paul told me she would have simply continued filming The Bachelorette. \u201cI would have had my baby,\u201d she said. \u201cThat would have been meant for a reason.\u201d<\/p>\n At the time, she was sanguine about her relationship with Mortensen. \u201cDid I love him? Absolutely,\u201d Paul told me. \u201cThat goes without saying, but I think I\u2019m to the point of just, like, resentment with him,\u201d she said. \u201cI think he loved me to his capacity, and it\u2019s just not the type of love I want. I think love is calm, patient, kind, and wants the best for you no matter what, and that\u2019s the love I want.\u201d<\/p>\n Days after our second meeting in February, Draper City police opened an investigation of new domestic assault allegations made by both Paul and Mortensen. Filming for season five of Mormon Wives was, and remains, halted. Through a spokesperson, Paul told me, \u201cI\u2019ve been here before and I got through it and I\u2019ve shared my story and my light, and I\u2019m hoping I can do that again. I\u2019m a person that will always speak my truth. That\u2019s what I\u2019m known for. So when the time is right, I will.\u201d She added, \u201cI believe that I am a good mother and I have always treated my kids very well.\u201d<\/p>\n During a Good Morning America appearance on March 18, a visibly shaken Paul said of her future on Mormon Wives, \u201cHard to say now, with everything going on,\u201d adding, \u201cIt\u2019s like the end of the world. That\u2019s what it feels like.\u201d The appearance was intended to promote The Bachelorette. By the next day, that, too, would be canceled.<\/p>\n For its entire four-season reign, Mormon Wives\u2019s most common (and most parodied) refrain was \u201cCan MomTok survive this?\u201d The question now might be: \u201cWill The Bachelorette?\u201d<\/a> What was once a television show designed to emulate old-fashioned courting rituals and known for casting relatable Everywomen hired a professional influencer and famously divisive reality-TV star, thereby breaking its most sacred rule: that all contestants must be \u201chere for the right reasons.\u201d More traditional Bachelor Nation fans annoyed by the influencer-ification of reality TV already considered Paul the death knell for the franchise even before the recent scandal. From the very beginning, ABC was making a big bet on a figure whose defining, and perhaps most relatable, quality is her impulse to burn it all down. \u201cIt\u2019s always a concern of how people are going to react to all those things. But I think when you look at what is going to make the most interesting story to tell, she is one of those more interesting stories,\u201d Scott Teti, the showrunner for The Bachelorette, told me a week before the scheduled premiere. Teti said when he watched the first season of Mormon Wives, \u201cI realized, Oh my God, this girl is one of the most honest reality-TV stars that I\u2019ve ever seen. As we talked more, I realized she has no ability to really lie. Everything is really authentic; all the truth just comes out.\u201d<\/p>\n Reports<\/a> recently circulated that Paul and Mortensen both accused each other of physical violence during the season-three Mormon Wives reunion filmed last fall, but that the segment was edited out of the final cut. A source close to Bachelorette production maintains, however, that it is \u201chighly unlikely\u201d that Bachelorette producers would have known about this exchange in advance of filming her season (though Paul\u2019s previous aggravated-assault charge was already public).<\/p>\n Casting Paul was an attempt at synergy by Disney: Mormon Wives has squeezed several seasons\u2019 worth of drama from two cast trips to the hotel in Vanderpump Villa, another Hulu reality series, while two of the wives competed<\/a> on ABC\u2019s Dancing With the Stars in the fall. At the center of the conglomerate\u2019s new realityverse is Paul, without whom none of it would have happened, and who seems to have the entire future of the Bachelor\/ette franchise weighing on her star power. \u201cEntire Bachelor Franchise \u2018Could Be CANCELED\u2019 If Bachelorette Taylor Frankie Paul Doesn\u2019t \u2018Save Embarrassing Ratings,\u2019 blared one tabloid headline<\/a>; indeed, viewership has been down across Bachelor Nation, in particular the most recent season of The Golden Bachelor, which critics panned as \u201cboring<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n \n Paul in season four of The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives. The hope seemed to be that Paul, with her knack for creating riveting reality television, would help save the show from irrelevance. Paul received unprecedented freedom to operate outside The Bachelor\u2019s traditional format, in which the star gives a rose to the contestants they wish to continue dating. At one moment teased in the trailer, Paul seemed to kick out one of her suitors well before a rose ceremony. Elsewhere in the season, Teti hinted that Paul took back at least one rose she\u2019d already handed out. \u201cWe let her make her own decisions in a way that affected the format, and sometimes that was a little scary because it was \u2018You want to do what?\u2019\u201d he said. \u201cIt gives producers heart attacks, but also it\u2019s very exhilarating because you don\u2019t usually give talent that freedom to do those things \u2026 There are moments that are just like, Oh my God, what has she done?\u201d Paul was also the first Bachelorette<\/a> to have her phone and post behind-the-scenes content. Among the suitors vying for her affection were\u00a0Brad Ledford, who was the driver in the car accident that paralyzed former congressman Madison Cawthorn; Another, Clayton Johnson, was formerly engaged to Lana Del Rey. Then there\u2019s Doug Mason, a lifeguard from San Diego who looks like the platonic ideal of a lifeguard from San Diego and who also resembled Mortensen so much fans had already decided Paul chose him. (Tabloids, meanwhile, recently published photos of Paul and one of her Bachelorette contestants in Los Angeles \u2014 to some, the season was already spoiled before its cancellation.)<\/p>\n The schedule for shooting both series seemed to be getting to Paul. \u201cI feel like I was more healthy in The Bachelorette because it was like I wasn\u2019t in survival mode. And I\u2019m in survival mode at home,\u201d she told me. She recalled a time after returning back to Utah when she was so overstimulated by the responsibilities of filming while raising three children that she had to lie on the floor and dissociate. Her only break between production on Mormon Wives season four in the early fall, The Bachelorette from October to December, and Mormon Wives season five in January and February was the Christmas holiday. \u201cI\u2019m overwhelmed to the point that I feel suffocated. The emotional toll, it catches up to you, and I think I\u2019ve been go-go-go that I have not processed shit that actually hurts,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n She\u2019d posted<\/a> several<\/a> times<\/a> about the dark place she\u2019d been in since returning to Utah, which she blamed at least in part on seasonal affective disorder, and told me she felt like she\u2019d blocked out the past several months. In February, she cut around 60 percent of her press obligations. \u201cI had a mental breakdown the other day on-camera, and it was just like, \u2018Well, we have to be here. We\u2019re contracted\u2019 \u2014 no. This is not acting. I\u2019m having a mental breakdown. I\u2019m going home. That\u2019s it, period,\u201d she said of a recent scene filmed for season five. When I asked if there were ever a time she\u2019d consider taking a step back from television or quitting it altogether, she replied, \u201cRight now has been the closest I\u2019ve ever gotten.\u201d<\/p>\n But, she added with some resolve, \u201cI\u2019m not really a quitter.\u201d As a child growing up in Colorado, Paul was sometimes too curious for her own good. \u201cWe have a lot of rules in our religion, and there\u2019s nothing more motivating than someone telling me I can\u2019t do something. Because I am going to,\u201d she said. \u201cNot out of spite, more out of curiosity. But curiosity can also hurt you.\u201d Paul met her now-deceased biological father just once at the age of 4; she was raised Mormon by her mother, Liann, and stepfather, Jeremy May, whom Paul refers to as her dad. Though she told me she had a happy childhood, her parents\u2019 philosophy was \u201crub some dirt in it, you\u2019re gonna be fine,\u201d she joked. \u201cMaybe that\u2019s why I didn\u2019t really learn to navigate my emotions until now, and I\u2019m doing it in front of a lot of people.\u201d Her parents, along with Paul\u2019s half-siblings, Hunter and Aspen, appear regularly on Mormon Wives, sometimes doubling as Paul\u2019s adversaries: At one barbecue from season two, both parents criticize Paul for sleeping with Mortensen too early in their relationship. \u201cYou guys started your relationship on a foundation of shit,\u201d Jeremy says in the scene, which ends with Paul in tears referring to her former self as \u201ctrash.\u201d<\/p>\n Two habits kept her grounded. The first is her devotion to oversharing. \u201cMy therapist said, \u2018I think the most you have ever let out is on a camera, and that\u2019s your outlet,\u2019\u201d she said. \u201cWhen I\u2019m on my phone, I\u2019m thinking, Let it out. It just feels so much better after the fact.\u201d The second is her devotion to God. She has prayed almost every night since she was a little girl and told me her faith is one thing in her life that\u2019s never wavered. The day she left to film The Bachelorette, she prayed in her car and asked God if she was really supposed to do this. Then, in the drive-through of a restaurant, someone had written on her cup, \u201cJesus is with you. Good luck at The Bachelorette.\u201d \u201cI was like, \u2018Oh my gosh,\u2019\u201d she said. \u201cThat\u2019s my sign to go.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n The snow in Salt Lake City had subsided, and it was clear and cold as we headed to the photo shoot at a studio around the corner. As the camera flashed, the version of Paul I met in Vegas was back. After directing the photo team to play Beyonc\u00e9\u2019s \u201cDiva,\u201d she\u2019d fluffed the billowing cascade of brown hair behind her and announced with her signature mischievous bravado, \u201cI\u2019m trying to make it look crazy.\u201d<\/p>\n Production Credits<\/p>\n Thank you for subscribing and supporting our journalism. Want more stories like this one? Subscribe now<\/a>![](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/4c3b9c01907b7735f65035c696a90be9b0-taylor-frankie-paul-secondary.rhorizontal.w700.jpg\")
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\n Photo: Bahareh Ritter\/Disney\n <\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/73800978c835a45848fa2864796cf6e6b8-slomw-s4-ep6.rhorizontal.w700.jpg\")
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\n Michael Friberg<\/strong>\n <\/li>\n
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