Taylor Frankie Paul won’t face charges over fights with ex Dakota Mortensen as custody hearing looms

The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives star Taylor Frankie Paul will not face charges following a domestic violence investigation.

The 31-year-old lead of the Hulu reality show has not been charged over a series of arguments in February with her former partner Dakota Mortensen, the father of her two-year-old son Ever.

Mortensen had claimed Paul choked him in a truck during one of the arguments, while Paul alleged that he slammed her head into the dashboard and punched her.

“Due to the high profile of the defendant, the cases were reviewed by multiple attorneys,” the Salt Lake County District Attorney ’s Office said on Tuesday.

“Several incidents that were submitted do not rise to the level of criminal offenses.

The remaining incidents lack sufficient evidence to support filing criminal charges.”
Paul - who was recently dropped from The Bachelorette - has also made allegations against Mortensen, but these were not addressed in the filings.

The TikTok star remains under ongoing probation.

She could have been hit with an up to five-year prison sentence for a third-degree felony if the district attorney had decided to pursue charges.

Mortensen asked for custody of their son and filed a protective order against Paul, which was temporarily granted and could become long-term at an April 30 hearing.

A court ruled that Paul can have visits with her son only if they are supervised.

The custody arrangement will be addressed on April 30.

Paul filed her own temporary restraining order against Mortensen on April 7.

She claimed Mortensen had demonstrated a “pattern of abusive conduct and coercive control” during their relationship.

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Her lawyer Eric Swinyard argued that Mortensen was the aggressor in one of the fights from February that he called “the truck tussle”.

He alleged that he had to remove her hands from his neck, after which she shoved him into a window and struck him.

But Swinyard claimed Mortensen slammed Paul’s head into the dashboard and punched her in the leg.

He provided photos she took of her bruises.

Eleven fights between Paul and Mortensen were under examination in their protective order requests.

The mother-of-three was set to appear in season 22 of The Bachelorette, but ABC scrapped the season after a video leaked showing Paul and Mortensen in a separate heated physical altercation from 2023.

“In light of the newly released video just surfaced today, we have made the decision to not move forward with the new season of ‘The Bachelorette’ at this time, and our focus is on supporting the family,” Disney Entertainment Television said in a statement at the time.

It is not known whether the season will be released at a later date.

In response to the resurfaced footage, Paul’s representative said: “It’s 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’s birthday is a reprehensible attempt to distract from his own behavior.”
In the video from 2023, Paul appeared to punch, kick and throw chairs at Mortensen while her young daughter was in the room.

She was charged with aggravated assault and other offenses, including domestic violence in the presence of a child.

She pleaded guilty in 2024 to a misdemeanor assault charge, and the other counts were dismissed.

Last month, it was revealed filming for season five of Mormon Wives has been put on pause in light of dual investigations of domestic violence against Paul and Mortensen.

Sources told Variety the pause was temporary and that filming was expected to resume soon without a significant impact on when the season would air.

Paul and Mortensen’s turbulent relationship has featured heavily on Mormon Wives - the hit reality show about a group of Mormon women in Utah - since its debut in 2024.

The season one premiere showed police body camera footage of her 2023 arrest.